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See the full story · 1 sourcesICE Shooting Passenger who witnessed Houston ICE shooting says it's left him traumatized and unable to sleep By Ed Lavandera, Ashley Killough, Ray Sanchez Friday, July 31, 2026 9:03PM Watch Eyewitness News and ABC13 originals around the clock HOUSTON, Texas -- A witness to the fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo by a federal immigration agent in Houston said Thursday he is traumatized and unable to sleep, especially since he says Salgado Araujo never posed a threat to officers and was going to surrender when his van was stopped.
ICE, in its initial statement early this month, said Salgado Araujo rammed into a law enforcement vehicle and refused to follow commands before an agent fired his weapon in self-defense.
"That's a lie," Jose Trinidad Rojas Pliego, 51, a passenger in the van who was released from ICE custody Wednesday, said in an exclusive interview with CNN airing on Erin Burnett OutFront.
Rojas Pliego told CNN's Ed Lavandera he was devastated by the agents' tactics, noting the van's three passengers were forcefully removed from the vehicle and Salgado Araujo was mortally wounded, pulled out of the vehicle, thrown to the ground and lifted up to be handcuffed.
The fatal shooting was the latest case to garner extreme scrutiny and skepticism over Immigration and Customs Enforcement's tactics and apparent rush to defend those involved.
"We were only going to work," Rojas Pliego said. "I only ask for justice for him, his family and the workers."
Salgado Araujo was behind the wheel of the van the morning of July 7 when ICE said he was shot while attempting to evade arrest during a traffic stop.
Rojas Pliego said "at no moment" were there agents in front of or behind the van during the stop. "He was going to surrender," the witness said of Salgado Araujo, adding he never attacked or threatened officers.
Rojas Pliego entered the US in 1998, according to court documents. The Mexican immigrant has no criminal record in the US and is common-law married to an American citizen, according to a habeas corpus petition filed by his attorney.
Rojas Pliego's attorney, Hugo Balderas-Ibarra, told CNN his client has to wear an ankle monitor and report to ICE regularly after his release from detention. Rojas Pliego, who may qualify for a visa and work permit issued to crime victims, is in removal proceedings, according to the attorney.
SEE ALSO: Clearer picture emerges of moments leading to deadly ICE shooting in Houston's Magnolia Park On the same day as his release, federal prosecutors filed a motion seeking to keep Rojas Pliego in detention pending appeal, court documents show.
Rojas Pliego's legal team, however, will be filing a response opposing the government's motion, they said. "Should the matter proceed to the appellate level, we are fully prepared to litigate the case," said attorney Raed Gonzalez in a statement.
"Things will never be the same with my family," said Rojas Pliego, who referred to Salgado Araujo as "El Patron," or The Boss. "I'm sad about ... what I saw, since I was the one who witnessed it all."
Though the agency described the incident as a "targeted enforcement operation," it did not specify whether Salgado Araujo was the target. A source with preliminary details of the shooting said Salgado Araujo was not the target of the enforcement action.
Salgado Araujo's family has disputed the government's self-defense claim, saying they believe he would have stopped and complied with federal agents if he had known the cars following him belonged to ICE or other law enforcement. He had been seeking a work permit and had no criminal record, his family said.
The 52-year-old father of three encountered ICE agents as he picked up the last members of his construction crew in Houston's East End area before heading north to finish construction on several houses, Salgado Araujo's oldest son said. Because Salgado Araujo's van and tools had been stolen in the past, he had been cautious about being followed, his son told CNN.
No video or photos of the traffic stop or the shooting have been released by federal officials. The officers involved had not been issued body-worn cameras, a DHS spokesperson told CNN.
The DHS' Office of the Inspector General is now leading an investigation into the shooting, according to ICE. And the FBI's Houston field office is investigating the alleged assault on a federal law enforcement officer.
Texas Democratic lawmakers , activists and Salgado Araujo's family have called for an independent investigation into his death.
The case was the latest in which someone was severely injured or killed this year after being shot by a federal immigration enforcement agent - and raises questions again about who is targeted in a nationwide immigration crackdown the Trump administration says aims to remove dangerous criminals.
Shortly before the shooting, agents were investigating two Guatemalan men known to be driving a white van who had previously evaded arrest and were potentially subject to deportation, the US attorney for Texas' southern district said.
While the agents searched for that van on the morning of July 7, officers received a report of a similar van in the area, which then fled as officers tried to pull it over, according to US Attorney Aaron Reitz.
The three other men in the van, including Salgado Araujo's brother, were detained.
A week after the shooting, the FBI filed a warrant application saying the agency had cause to believe that an investigator - after the shooting - saw illegal drugs in the vehicle that longtime Texas resident Salgado Araujo had been driving.
The FBI's suspicion about drugs became public after a court unsealed the warrant application. That drew pushback from Salgado Araujo's family, whose lawyer said she believed the substance was salt, used to make a homemade electrolyte mix.
Testing later confirmed the substance not drugs, according to a spokesperson for the Harris County District Attorney's Office.
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