Federal immigration agents tried to justify the fatal shooting of a Texas construction worker last week by claiming they had discovered a suspicious “white crystal-like substance” in his vehicle. According to local prosecutors, it turned out to be nothing more than salt.
The revelation has intensified scrutiny over the July 7 shooting in Houston, where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents opened fire on a work van, killing 30-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and wounding his younger brother, Victor Salgado Araujo.
“You cannot shoot first and ask questions later,” attorney Ruby Powers, who represents Victor Salgado Araujo, said Thursday.
Powers is demanding that authorities expedite laboratory testing of the substance so the brothers’ names can be cleared once and for all.
“An unidentified substance is not a confirmed narcotic,” she said. “We are requesting that the substance testing be expedited so that their names be cleared.”
After the shooting, federal agents reported finding a bagged “unidentified white crystal-like substance” on the dashboard and floorboard of the van, a detail that quickly fueled speculation that drugs may have been involved.
According to Powers, the substance was simply granulated salt that the construction workers mixed with lemon and water to make a homemade electrolyte drink while working long hours in the Texas heat—not methamphetamine or any other illegal drug.
Even Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare told CNN he does not believe the substance was narcotics. More importantly, he said, whether the substance was legal or illegal has “no bearing whatsoever” on whether the deadly use of force was justified.
Federal officials have said ICE agents were searching for two Guatemalan men driving a white van when they spotted a similar vehicle being driven by Salgado Araujo in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, the shooting happened after the van ignored commands to stop and attempted to drive away while an officer was either partially inside the vehicle or standing immediately next to it.
Aaron Reitz, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas, urged the public to remain patient while investigators determine exactly what happened.
“We are doing everything we can to seek the truth and do the right thing,” Reitz said.
But attorneys representing the surviving occupants say the government’s version of events doesn’t match what witnesses described.
Houston attorney Hugo Balderas-Ibarra, who said he interviewed three people who were inside the van, flatly rejected DHS’s account.
“At no point did they ever use the van to ram into the ICE agents, and at no point were these ICE agents’ lives ever in any danger,” Balderas-Ibarra said in a video posted to Instagram.
He added that federal agents’ version of events is “very inconsistent” with what the survivors told him.
The conflicting accounts are now at the center of multiple investigations. As questions continue to mount over why ICE agents, none of whom were wearing body cameras, opened fire, the agency’s early emphasis on a mysterious “white crystal-like substance” have collapsed under closer scrutiny.
