Agents saw Garces Perez's car parked outside a restaurant, ran the plates and learned he had a deportation order, then boxed him in with two vehicles when he left, the complaint says. He gave his ID and asked to move the car before being arrested, but was told no and ordered out. He rolled up his window and drove off, striking an officer with his side-view mirror. The agent whose bodycam captured the encounter lost track during the roughly eight minute pursuit and pulled off, and the shots came from his partner, a recruit who was not using the body camera he had been issued, though ICE leadership had said all agents would have bodycams by the end of August. Garces Perez agreed to an interview without an attorney after the shooting and admitted disregarding the command to exit the car. He made his first appearance in federal court Tuesday.
Garces Perez gave investigators his own account, saying a black SUV cut him off and collided with his car before activating its emergency lights, and that the officer fired into the back right window after his car was struck and spun around. Surveillance footage provided by an Austin security company appeared to show lights and sirens activated as he fled. The shooting set off days of protests in Austin. His lawyer said Garces Perez was handed to ICE four hours after the shooting, with a bullet still lodged near his spine, and was hospitalized again after experiencing paralysis on his left side. A federal judge has temporarily halted his deportation, his lawyer said. DHS says he is in the country illegally with a final order of removal, while his attorney says he entered through the CBP One program in 2024 and held a work permit.