Shot While Delivering Food: The Case of Wilbur Rafael Garcés Pérez Is Reshaping Austin’s Relationship With ICE
Three days after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot a 28-year-old DoorDash driver in North Austin, the case has become a flashpoint for immigrant communities across Central Texas — fueling protests, a court order blocking deportation, and growing fear among Latino residents who say they no longer feel safe running errands, going to work, or even answering their door.
What happened
Wilbur Rafael Garcés Pérez, a 28-year-old Venezuelan asylum seeker, was delivering food for DoorDash in North Austin on the Sunday when ICE officers conducting a “targeted vehicle stop” based on a license plate check pulled him over and questioned him before he fled the scene in his car.
According to his attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, Garcés Pérez initially thought he was being run off the road by an aggressive driver, and only realized ICE agents were involved partway through the encounter. He says he asked to pull over and be detained, but the request was denied. When he attempted a U-turn to park, the agents’ SUV struck his car, and he was shot moments later.
ICE has offered a different account, saying agents did not inform Austin police about the stop or the pursuit that followed, and that there was a foot chase — a claim Garcés Pérez’s attorney disputes. Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said the department has video of a vehicle pursuit that went through nearby neighborhoods but no evidence of a foot chase.
He was shot in the torso just before 1 p.m. and taken to a local hospital in “serious but stable condition,” according to Austin-Travis County EMS.
This marked at least the third shooting involving immigration agents in Texas since President Trump’s second term began, and it fits a larger national pattern — at least 20 people have been shot by on-duty ICE and CBP agents during this administration, eight fatally, before Sunday’s incident, according to a CNN analysis.
New video: a pursuit, but not the shooting itself
On Tuesday, Austin police released new footage tied to the incident, including dash-cam and cellphone video from an off-duty APD detective who happened to be nearby, along with body-camera footage from the first responding officer.
The dash-cam video shows two black SUVs pulled over next to the blue car that would later be involved in the shooting, with what appear to be ICE agents speaking to the man inside. The detective then went into a nearby shopping center for what Chief Davis estimated was 10 to 15 minutes — during which a pursuit “that went through neighborhoods” took place.
When the detective came back outside, he began recording on his phone as three gunshots were heard.
Notably, none of the released video actually captures the moment shots were fired. Separate footage taken by a bystander and shared on social media captured what sound like multiple gunshots, and appears to show an ICE agent exiting an unmarked SUV and running toward the Corolla with a firearm while the car was still slowly rolling forward.
Adding to the controversy: the officer who fired the shots had been issued a body camera but was not wearing it, and officials could not explain why. A second officer’s body camera captured only partial footage of the shooting. Garcés Pérez’s attorney says she is pressing ICE to turn over any dash-cam footage from its own vehicles, which has not been released. “I’m calling for the dash cam footage from ICE, and I don’t understand why they’re not turning it over to us,” Lincoln-Goldfinch said.
His condition, and a rocky path through detention
Garcés Pérez was discharged from the hospital around midnight Sunday — roughly four hours after being shot — and driven 135 miles south to the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, Texas, a facility where some detainees have previously complained about inadequate medical care. His attorney says he remains in isolation, on a flat bed, and without the tablet he had used to communicate with family and counsel.
He still has a bullet lodged in his back, near his spine, and Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) said Garcés Pérez had lost feeling on the left side of his body before finally being taken back to a hospital.
As of Tuesday, Castro said Garcés Pérez was “forced” out of the hospital and back to the Pearsall facility despite his condition, and that he and Rep. Greg Casar planned to visit him this week to check on his condition and demand his release.
On the legal front, there has been at least one significant development: a federal judge granted an emergency order on Tuesday temporarily blocking deportation proceedings against Garcés Pérez.
Advocates, including Juan Proaño, CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens, argue that Garcés Pérez is both a victim and “the most important witness” to the shooting, and that “you do not deport the key witness to your own officer’s use of force.” A senior administration official told NBC News that Garcés Pérez had no criminal history beyond being in the country without legal status, while DHS has said he had a final order of removal and entered the country illegally.
The agency reviewing the shooting is Homeland Security Investigations — ICE’s own internal enforcement arm rather than an independent body — a point Austin’s mayor, the Travis County district attorney, and members of Congress have cited in calling for a genuinely independent investigation.
Protests continue
The shooting triggered immediate street protests and has kept them going for days. ICE agents were seen preventing demonstrators from approaching the scene shortly after the shooting, and protesters gathered near the intersection where it happened within hours, lining the streets, chanting, and some carrying Mexican flags. A vigil for Garcés Pérez was later set up by protesters at the same North Austin site.
Demonstrations continued into a second day Monday, with an evening event held at the Texas Capitol. U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett urged Austin residents to keep speaking out and “carry the protest to the polls,” and encouraged demonstrators to carry both Mexican and American flags, saying, “I want to see this protest and our demand for action wrapped in the American flag, because what could be more un-American than a secret police force that is out preying on residents of our communities?”
Notably, polling and reaction from Latino communities nationally has shown a measurable drop in support for ICE’s enforcement policies among a demographic that was pivotal to Trump’s 2024 win.
Fear spreading through Austin’s Latino community
Beyond the protests, the shooting has intensified an atmosphere of anxiety that residents say had already been building for weeks. From a Mexican restaurant in North Austin, one worker described watching ICE detain a growing number of people in the area — construction workers, people stopping for ice at a gas station or Dollar Tree before their shift, and lone drivers whose cars are left abandoned after they’re taken away.
Data reviewed by the Texas Tribune shows that street arrests in the San Antonio ICE jurisdiction, which includes Austin, have risen sharply this year — a 32.2 percentage-point increase in field-based arrests since 2022, one of the largest jumps in the country.
Local reporting captured how that fear is playing out in daily life.
KUT News has chosen to identify community members only by first name because of their fear of professional or legal consequences for speaking publicly.
One woman, a Honduran asylum seeker named Anderly, said she rarely leaves home anymore, but had to go out to deliver passport paperwork for her four-month-old daughter, who is a U.S. citizen. “I have a 4-month-old baby,” she said. “I’ll go out, but I think about whether I’ll return or not, if [ICE] will leave her here, if they’ll take her away. You don’t know if you’ll return home.” She said the anxiety extends to her partner, who has no choice but to keep working construction and remodeling jobs.
That fear has pushed some families toward a drastic decision: reports indicate some Austin families are now weighing whether to leave the country altogether in the wake of the shooting, even as street arrests continue climbing in the region.
What’s next
With a federal judge’s order temporarily halting deportation, Garcés Pérez is expected to remain in the U.S. for now, though his attorney continues to press for his release from detention and for full ICE dash-cam footage of the shooting to be made public.
Members of Congress have said they intend to visit him in Pearsall this week, and calls for an independent — rather than ICE-run — investigation are likely to keep growing louder.
Protest organizers in Austin have signaled they intend to keep demonstrations going in the days ahead.
Sources:
- CNN — Austin ICE shooting: Man in detention center ‘with a bullet in his back,’ lawyer says
- CNN — What we know about the ICE shooting in Austin
- NBC News — ICE officer who shot man in Austin was issued a body cam but wasn’t wearing it
- NBC News — ICE officer shoots Venezuelan man delivering food in Austin, lawyer says
- NBC News — Venezuelan man shot by ICE in Texas says he’s in pain and still has bullet in his back
- Newsweek — Who Is Wilber Rafael Garces Perez? DoorDash Worker Shot by ICE in Austin
- Common Dreams — Austin Man Shot by ICE Facing Paralysis After Being Refused Medical Care
- KUT (Austin NPR) — Man shot by ICE in Austin says he has a bullet lodged in his back and was denied medical care
- KUT — Austin’s Hispanic community reacts with fear after ICE shooting
- The Texas Tribune (via Houston Public Media) — Austin’s Hispanic community reacts with fear, uncertainty after ICE shooting
- The Texas Tribune — Quick hospital release of Venezuelan shot by ICE raises questions
- The Texas Tribune (via San Antonio Current) — Surge of ICE arrests and shooting of Venezuelan man strike fear into Austin neighborhoods
- Latin Times — Why Some Austin Families Are Now Considering Leaving the Country After an ICE Shooting
- FOX 7 Austin / KTVU — Austin ICE shooting: APD releases body cam footage, cellphone video
- CBS Austin (KEYE) — New video reveals pursuit before Austin ICE shooting, but crucial moments remain unseen
- KXAN Austin — Austin leaders release new video tied to ICE shooting investigation
This is a fast-moving story. Details — especially his medical status and any investigation findings — may continue to change.
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(Episode from September 22, 2026)
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