ICE Agent Shoots DoorDash Driver in Austin, Leaving Him with Fractured Clavicle and Pending Federal Case
A DoorDash driver was shot and seriously wounded by an ICE agent in Austin, Texas, on Sunday just before 1:00 p.m. local time, according to his lawyer. The driver, identified as Garcés Perez, suffered a fractured clavicle and continues to experience “significant swelling and pain,” his lawyer said. He now wears a sling as he recovers from the gunshot wound. The circumstances leading up to the shooting remain unclear, but bystander videos reviewed by The New York Times show an ICE agent “circling around to the back passenger side” of a Corolla, where he remains as the car “rolls forward slightly” and “three gunshots ring out.” Garcés Perez’s federal case remains pending, and a hearing is scheduled for next week, his lawyer confirmed.
The incident in Austin is the latest in a series of controversial shootings involving ICE officers during traffic stops. In July, ICE officers allegedly killed Mexican national Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston and Colombian national Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine, during separate traffic stops, even though neither was the target of an investigation. These cases have raised serious questions about the use of force by federal immigration agents and the circumstances under which they engage with the public.
Further scrutiny has emerged regarding the ICE officer who allegedly shot Durán Guerrero. Reports revealed that the officer, David Brouilette, had a history of mental illness that led military recruiters to reject him before he went off his medications and was able to enlist in the Maine National Guard and later join the Army in January 2010. This background has intensified calls for a thorough review of ICE’s hiring and vetting practices, as well as its protocols for traffic stops and interactions with individuals who are not the subjects of investigations.
As Garcés Perez awaits his federal hearing, the shooting has drawn attention to the broader pattern of ICE-involved shootings across the country. Advocates are demanding transparency and accountability, while legal experts question whether such incidents reflect systemic issues within the agency. The pending case and the upcoming hearing will likely provide more details about the events that led to the shooting, but for now, Garcés Perez continues to recover from his injuries as the investigation proceeds.
Shimanta Das 
