HOUSTON — A substance investigators present in a van pushed by a person fatally shot by ICE earlier this month was not an unlawful narcotic, the Harris County District Lawyer’s workplace mentioned Friday.
Subscribe to learn this story ad-free
Get limitless entry to ad-free articles and unique content material.
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 51-year-old father of three, was fatally shot by an ICE regulation enforcement officer throughout a July 7 site visitors cease the company mentioned turned life-threatening. The federal government has alleged he weaponized the car, however that argument has been disputed by others within the van.
After the deadly taking pictures, an FBI agent mentioned small luggage in line with drug packaging that contained a substance resembling methamphetamine could possibly be seen in plain view contained in the car. The bureau obtained a search warrant, permitting brokers to look the van.
The Harris County District Lawyer’s Workplace mentioned Friday on X that the seized substance “examined adverse for narcotics/ illicit medication.” It mentioned it will not remark additional on the outcomes, citing the pending investigation.
“Now we have notified Salgado Araujo’s household as a result of we felt they’d the suitable to know,” the DA’s workplace mentioned.
David Donatti, senior employees legal professional on the ACLU of Texas, mentioned in an announcement Friday that Salgado Araujo was a “hardworking man” who constructed homes for Texas households.
“The federal government has demonstrated that it’s extra serious about making a false narrative than in looking for the reality,” he mentioned of the search warrant. “The Salgados deserve actual solutions about what occurred.”
Ruby L. Powers, a lawyer who represents Victor Salgado Araujo, Salgado Araujo’s brother who was taken into custody following the taking pictures, mentioned beforehand that the substance was believed to be “granulated salt, which is paired with lemon and water as a do-it-yourself electrolyte combine utilized by out of doors employees in excessive Texas warmth.”
Powers mentioned Friday that full lab outcomes anticipated subsequent week will verify what the substance was.
“An unproven declare was allowed to flow into earlier than it was examined, and the best way it was made public did actual injury, diverting consideration from what truly issues on this case,” she mentioned. “Lorenzo was shot, and no lab report solutions for that.”
ICE referred a request for touch upon the district legal professional’s discovering to the Division of Homeland Safety, which didn’t instantly reply. The FBI mentioned it has no remark.
Caucus listening to on taking pictures
The discovering was introduced a couple of hours after the Congressional Hispanic Caucus held a listening to on the taking pictures Friday in Houston and addressed the search warrant software for the van that Salgado Araujo was driving.
Together with members of the caucus, Rep. Bennie Thompson, rating member on the U.S. Home Committee on Homeland Safety, additionally attended.
Harris County District Lawyer Sean Teare mentioned in the course of the listening to that drug involvement would have been out of character for any of the individuals within the van that morning. The unsealing of the FBI’s search warrant request earlier than a grand jury might see the investigation’s proof was unprecedented in his profession.
“To unseal it the day it’s signed, by no means seen it in my 20 years,” he mentioned in the course of the listening to.
Lawyer Hugo Balderas-Ibarra, who represents two others who have been within the van, mentioned in an announcement on Friday that the chance Salgado Araujo was concerned in any manner with medication is “absurd.”
Lorenzo Salgado Jr., one in all Salgado Araujo’s sons, testified on the listening to, criticizing ICE and its mum or dad company, the Division of Homeland Safety.
“Over the previous two weeks we’ve needed to grieve our father too quickly,” he mentioned. “DHS first mentioned ICE focused our father, then admitted he was by no means their supposed goal in any respect. DHS additionally mentioned he weaponized his car, a declare the three males who have been within the van with him have straight disputed and one which surveillance footage, to date, doesn’t seem to point out.”
ICE personnel on the scene didn’t have physique cameras, DHS mentioned, and any doable safety or cellphone video of the confrontation, if it exists, has not been launched.
