Prosecutors say Wilber Garces Perez struck an agent with his car’s mirror before another agent shot him. The charge reveals the existence of body camera footage of the shooting, though that video has not been released.
Page T2From§Eachthe midnight edition — 30 September 2026
NO BODY CAMERA
ICE shoots Venezuelan DoorDash driver, discovers its own camera was off, then charges him with assault.
As it ran on the front
On September 20, an ICE officer shot Wilber Rafael Garces Perez during a traffic stop in Austin. He was behind the wheel making a DoorDash delivery at the time; officials called his condition "serious but stable." Two days later, he told the New York Times his car had been struck twice before the shot came, and Austin officials called for a transparent investigation into what an armed federal agent had just done to a man delivering food.
On September 23, The Hill reported that the officer who fired the shot had not been wearing a body camera. The same day, a federal judge paused Garces Perez's deportation and ordered him to stay in Texas while the shooting was investigated — the government needed him in the state, even with no footage of the moment that put a bullet in him.…
…(cont) Nine days after the shooting, the Justice Department produced its answer. It was not an account of the shot. It was a charge: assaulting a federal officer, for allegedly striking an agent with his car's mirror before a different agent opened fire. Buried in that charging document is a fact the government hadn't volunteered on its own — body camera footage of the incident exists. Not from the officer who fired the weapon.
His attorneys tell NBC News the bullet is still lodged in his spine and now presents "grave danger." He is not the one who fired a weapon in this story.
Line up the dates and the story tells itself. Shot on the 20th. Publicly disputing the official account by the 22nd. Confirmed camera-less by the 23rd, the same day a judge had to order the government to keep him in the country it had just shot him in. Charged on the 29th, on the strength of a camera that happened to be pointed anywhere but at the agent who pulled the trigger. Somewhere in Austin there is footage of this shooting. It just isn't the footage anyone asked for.
“They shot the guy, the camera on the shooter was conveniently off, and nine days later he's the one in cuffs — not the man holding the gun. That's not an investigation, that's an alibi with a badge. Next time it's your kid on a delivery run, remember the government gets to pick which camera counts.”
“He struck a federal officer with his vehicle — that's assault, camera or no camera, and the agent responded to defend himself and everyone around him. The missing body camera is a compliance gap, not a cover-up — wait, that's the same line I used for the contractor invoices, and that one didn't land either.”
The receipts
An ICE officer wounded Wilber Garcés Pérez while he was in his car making DoorDash deliveries; his attorneys say a bullet lodged in his spine is causing “grave danger.”
The Justice Department charged Wilber Rafael Garces-Perez with assaulting a federal officer after an Austin vehicle pursuit ended in an ICE shooting.
· Man in ‘serious but stable condition’ after shooting in Austin involving ICE officer: Officials from the morgue, 20 Sep 2026
· ICE officer shoots Venezuelan man in Austin, Texas, law enforcement source says from the morgue, 20 Sep 2026
· ICE officer who shot Austin man wasn't wearing body camera: Reports from the morgue, 23 Sep 2026
· Judge pauses deportation of man shot by ICE agent in Texas from the morgue, 23 Sep 2026
· Man Shot by ICE Agent Says His Car Was Struck Twice Before He Was Shot from the morgue, 22 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.