Wilber Garces Perez, who was shot in the back by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer on Sept. 20 in North Austin, has been charged with assaulting, resisting, interfering and impeding law enforcement.
The United States Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas brought the charges against Garces Perez, a citizen of Venezuela, after he fled from immigration officials during a traffic stop, according to prosecutors.
The ICE officers, who were in separate, unmarked SUVs, said they spotted Garces Perez after running a license plate check in a shopping center parking lot and turned on their emergency lights. Garces Perez's attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, said he was picking up a food delivery order for DoorDash.
He did not immediately stop, causing one of the officers to cut off Garces Perez's car, court documents show. Once stopped, he showed his driver's license to the officers, but after being asked to step out the car, Garces Perez asked if he could move his car and park it.
The officer then ordered him to get out of the car again, according to the documents. Garces Perez then closed the window and drove off, hitting an officer on the hip with the side mirror, prosecutors said.
ICE pursued and caught up to Garces Perez, crashing an SUV into his car, which caused Garces Perez's car to spin around, the court documents said. Garces Perez is accused of trying to strike an officer with his car afterward, leading the ICE officer to shoot Garces Perez, who was unarmed.
The officer who shot him did not have a body-worn camera, according to court documents. The other officer who was present at the time of the stop said he lost sight of Garces Perez and the officer who shot him, according to the same document.
Body camera footage from the second officer has not been released publicly. The second officer also turned off his body camera before reaching the scene of the shooting, according to court documents.
The sequence of events in the court documents contradicts what Garces Perez and Lincoln-Goldfinch, his lawyer, previously told KUT and the public. Originally, Garces Perez said he was sideswiped by an unmarked black SUV and was shot while trying to pull over.
Garces Perez appeared in federal court in Austin on Tuesday. Lincoln-Goldfinch said she was not notified and found out the morning of the hearing. Garces Perez still has the bullet in his back, nine days after the initial incident.
"He was lightheaded," Lincoln-Goldfinch said in an interview with KUT News. "He was in agony. He felt scared and alone until we showed up, and he didn't know what was happening to him either. And this to me is just one more cruel step in the administration's actions against Wilber."
Lincoln-Goldfinch said she currently does not know where Garces Perez was taken after the hearing on Tuesday morning.
Garces Perez, if convicted, faces up to 20 years in federal prison. His detention hearing for these charges is set for Friday. He will also appear in court on Wednesday in San Antonio as his attorneys seek his release from detention.
This story has been updated.
KUT's Mose Buchele contributed to this story.
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