Shot Venezuelan Driver Held With Bullet in Back, Lawyer Says

A day after the Austin ICE shooting, Wilber Rafael Garcés Perez is detained in Pearsall with a bullet still lodged near his spine, his lawyer says.

Wilber Rafael Garcés Perez, the 28-year-old Venezuelan DoorDash driver shot by an ICE officer in North Austin on Sunday, was located Monday at the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, roughly 140 miles from Austin, according to his attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch. She told NBC News there is still a bullet lodged in his back, and The Guardian reports doctors consider it too close to his spine to remove at this time. Calling into a press conference from detention, Garcés Perez said: 'I haven't received any medical attention. I'm in a lot of pain.' He described spending the night on the floor of a cold cell. The Texas Tribune reports he was transferred at 4 a.m. and later taken, shackled, to a hospital after a congressional staffer found him and he reported losing feeling on the left side of his body.

Garcés Perez told his lawyer that an unmarked SUV sideswiped his car twice before he realized agents were trying to pull him over, and that he asked to move to a nearby parking lot but was refused before being shot once in the back — an account The Texas Tribune and The Guardian both attribute to him. Verified video reviewed by NBC News captures three gunshots as an officer approaches his slowly lurching blue sedan. DHS says Garcés Perez entered the country illegally under the Biden administration and had a final order of removal, and that Homeland Security Investigations with the FBI is leading the investigation. NBC News reports a senior administration official said he has no criminal history beyond being in the country illegally. DHS has not said whether the agent wore a body camera or comment on his account or medical complaints.

According to The Texas Tribune, Garcés Perez entered the US two years ago through the CBP One parole program, applied for asylum, and received a work permit. His lawyer says he updated his address with the immigration court, but a hearing notice went to a prior address, so a judge ordered him deported in absentia without his knowledge. Lincoln-Goldfinch told The Texas Tribune she sees courts mis-send notices 'maybe daily' in her practice, and federal data shows nearly 90,300 in-absentia removal orders for asylum applicants as of the third quarter of fiscal 2026. On Monday, his lawyers filed a writ of habeas corpus and an injunction in San Antonio federal court, The Guardian reports, arguing he qualifies for a U-visa as a victim of a crime and fears removal before an investigation concludes.

Mayor Kirk Watson said at a news conference that a person being shot on Austin's streets 'by someone purporting to be law enforcement, particularly when it's ICE, is something that causes me to be unhappy and angry,' and asked for city involvement in any investigation, per NBC News. The Texas Tribune notes this is the third ICE shooting in Texas under Trump, after fatal shootings of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston in July and Ruben Ray Martinez in March 2025. In prior cases, including Salgado Araujo's and the Minneapolis shootings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti, DHS's initial accounts were later contradicted by witnesses or video, according to The Texas Tribune. Protesters who gathered at the scene Sunday were met with tear gas from state troopers, and more than 100 people demonstrated at the Texas Capitol on Monday night, dispersing peacefully.

Congressman Greg Casar has demanded an independent investigation, release of any footage, and a congressional briefing by September 28, while LULAC called for independent oversight of immigration enforcement. The Guardian reports ICE has increasingly acted alone rather than relying on state troopers, a shift city leaders had already flagged. The BBC adds that the Justice Department this month charged an ICE agent with lying about a shooting in Minnesota, a rare case of a federal agent facing charges.

The immediate questions are medical and legal: whether Garcés Perez receives treatment for a bullet still lodged near his spine, and whether courts block his removal before the shooting investigation ends — his lawyers filed the habeas petition and injunction Monday, per The Guardian. The investigation itself is led by Homeland Security Investigations with the FBI, while Austin's mayor, police chief and the Travis County District Attorney's Office have all pushed for local and state participation. Congress is also pressing in: Casar has set a September 28 deadline for a DHS briefing, according to NBC News. For his wife, who has legal status and has been unable to see him since the shooting, the priority remains simple, Lincoln-Goldfinch said — finding him and verifying his condition.