Texas DA says ICE agent intentionally ran over a man during an immigration stop. Now investigators fear critical evidence may be gone

A Texas district attorney is investigating whether an ICE agent deliberately ran over a man during an immigration operation in Houston. Prosecutors have also raised concerns that potentially crucial evidence may have been lost after the officer allegedly drove the vehicle away from the scene. The investigation is examining both the circumstances of the collision and the handling of evidence afterward.

Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare announced the investigation after 48-year-old Miguel Parra-Hernandez was struck by an ICE vehicle on Oct. 10. The incident has drawn scrutiny over the agency’s handling of the investigation and the circumstances surrounding the collision.

According to NBC News, ICE officers were attempting to apprehend a man they were looking for when Parra-Hernandez fled on foot. His family says he was on his way to work and had no criminal record, while his attorney has disputed the agency’s account of why he became involved in the encounter.

The DA believes this was an intentional strike

Surveillance footage reviewed by investigators reportedly shows two men leaving a white pickup truck and running in different directions. A black SUV then appears to follow one of the men across a parking lot before he is struck. Parra-Hernandez reportedly suffered serious leg injuries and required surgery, although the circumstances leading up to the collision remain disputed.

Teare, who previously spent seven years as chief of the county’s vehicular crimes division, said the footage led him to believe the collision was intentional. “This was an intentional striking and running over of the person by the vehicle,” Teare told NBC News. He added that the incident could constitute aggravated assault with a deadly weapon under Texas law, depending on the findings of the investigation.

ICE has disputed the allegation. A spokesperson said Parra-Hernandez ran in front of the moving vehicle while trying to evade officers and rejected the claim that the agent intentionally struck him. The competing accounts have left investigators working to establish what happened during the encounter. The investigation has also raised questions about what happened to the vehicle after the collision.

Teare said local investigators were preparing a search warrant to examine the Jeep Cherokee involved in the collision, including its crash data recorder. The device can preserve information about a vehicle’s speed, braking and steering before an impact, potentially helping investigators reconstruct the incident. However, according to Teare, investigators were preparing to secure the vehicle when the ICE agent believed to have been driving it allegedly got inside and drove away.

The district attorney said the vehicle’s data could have been overwritten, potentially leaving investigators without information they had hoped to retrieve. It remains unclear whether any data was actually lost or whether investigators were ultimately able to recover the information they needed. The allegation has added another layer to the investigation, with local authorities seeking to determine whether the vehicle’s removal affected their ability to establish what happened.

Teare also said two other detainees were being transported in the vehicle during the operation. He questioned the decision to conduct the pursuit with people in the back seat, arguing that it may have put both the detainees and the public at risk. The Department of Homeland Security has not fully addressed the local prosecutor’s allegations about the vehicle’s removal. Federal officials, meanwhile, have said officers at the scene were wearing body cameras and that an internal review of the footage is underway.

The allegation that the vehicle was driven away remains a point of concern

Harris County investigators are also asking members of the public to share videos, photographs or other information that could help clarify the sequence of events. The district attorney’s office is considering whether the available evidence supports state criminal charges against the agent. No criminal charges against the ICE agent have been announced as the investigation continues.

Parra-Hernandez is reportedly recovering from serious injuries while investigators work to resolve the competing accounts of the collision. His family’s account of why he was in the area differs from the agency’s explanation of the encounter, and the allegation that the vehicle was driven away before investigators could secure it remains a point of concern. Authorities have yet to establish publicly whether the agent deliberately struck Parra-Hernandez or whether any potentially relevant vehicle data was lost.