Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez was working as a DoorDash driver in Austin, Texas, on Sunday when an ICE officer shot him. The bullet remained alodged in his back. He was taken to a hospital and, about four hours later, placed in immigration custody. A federal judge has since temporarily blocked his deportation proceedings, while the Travis County District Attorney’s Office has asked that he be allowed to remain in the country as a material witness.
Now, NBC News has reported a new detail about the shooting. Two DHS officials told the outlet that the ICE officer who fired his weapon had been issued a body camera but was not wearing it when the shooting happened. The officials said it was unclear why.
A second officer in the same vehicle did have his camera running, the officials said. His footage covers part of the encounter. It stops short of the actual shooting. That footage does not show the moment the shots were fired.
The shooting was not captured on the ICE body camera
Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis shared some of the first video footage obtained by the department on Tuesday. It came from an off-duty officer who captured part of the encounter on his dash cam and phone. The recording picked up the sound of three gunshots. Davis said her department is still asking for video of the chase that led up to the shooting.
A federal judge issued an emergency order this week blocking his deportation. The Travis County District Attorney’s Office sent its own letter to DHS and ICE. Prosecutors say Garcés Pérez is a material witness in their investigation. They argue he should be allowed to stay in the country for now.
His condition raised new concerns after the shooting. Attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch said he began “experiencing an inability to move his arm” the next day. He went back to the hospital Monday afternoon and stayed for hours.
Doctors have since given his attorney a clearer picture. “We now understand that the gunshot fractured his clavicle and that he has significant swelling and is wearing a sling,” Lincoln-Goldfinch wrote. The bullet still has not been removed, according to her earlier account of his injuries.
Lincoln-Goldfinch also said staff pulled him out of the infirmary after he spoke to reporters by phone. She wrote that guards “forcibly took the tablet from his hands, revoked his communication privileges, and moved him out of the infirmary into an isolated room with a flat bed that cannot be adjusted like a medical bed.”
She described the transfer to the hospital as rough. “Wilber reports that he was handcuffed, shackled at the ankles, placed in a waist chain, and handled roughly during that transfer,” she said.
Adding that doctors gave him morphine for the pain, Lincoln-Goldfinch said. “We still do not have clarity about the cause or extent of the loss of movement he experienced,” she said.
Published: Sep 23, 2026 04:23 pm