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Page T2From§Eachthe breakfast edition — 1 October 2026

SHOT, THEN CHARGED

ICE leads the investigation into the agent who shot him; he's the one held on an assault charge.

“ICE got ‘quieter’ – then killed a father in Maine. Now watch groups are shifting their tactics too”, 1 October 2026 (Photo via The Guardian — the original report)

As it ran on the front

September 21st. A Sunday. An ICE agent shoots a Venezuelan DoorDash driver in his own car, in Austin, Texas. Protesters gather outside the ICE building within hours. Civil rights attorneys hold a press conference that same afternoon and call for an independent investigation into the shooting. By evening, the Department of Homeland Security announces that its own Homeland Security Investigations unit — not an outside body, its own — will lead the probe into the shooting carried out by one of its own agents.

September 22nd. A federal judge blocks the government from deporting the driver, Wilber Rafael Garces Perez. By then he's been transferred between hospitals and a detention cell more than once. His attorney tells the court the bullet is still lodged in his back.…

…(cont) October 1st. A federal judge keeps him in custody. Not for being shot. For a charge filed against him — assaulting an officer while trying to evade arrest. The report doesn't give me a date for that one. Just that it happened, and the old way of watching stopped working.

I wrote the dates down in a little notebook — not because I'm clever, because I kept losing track of what came before what. Turns out the order was the whole thing.

Here's where I get stuck. Maybe you can walk me through it, because I've been stuck on it most of the week, standing in my own driveway asking my dog, who has no opinion either way.

There's a toll plaza I go through most mornings — no gate, no ticket, just a camera and a bill that shows up later. Every so often the bill's wrong. Charges you for a trip you didn't take, a lane you didn't use. There's an office you can call to dispute it. Here's the part that gets me: the office that reviews your dispute works for the same authority that sent you the bill. Not a separate building. Not a separate boss. You make your case to the people who already decided what you owe.

So when I read that the agency investigating the shooting in Austin is the same agency whose agent pulled the trigger — the Department of Homeland Security investigating the Department of Homeland Security — is that the toll plaza, or is that something else? I genuinely don't know what to call it. I just know who's reviewing the bill.

And the man who got shot — he's the one with a charge against him now. Assaulting an officer while trying to evade arrest, the judge's order says today. It doesn't say which officer. I've got it written down somewhere — here. "An officer." Not the officer. An officer. Could be the one who fired the shot that's still in him. Could be somebody else standing nearby. The filing doesn't say, which means I can't tell you, which means that one's yours to sit with.

Alright — that's everything I had. Go on, get back to your day. Oh — hang on, one more thing, I almost let you walk out without it. The people with the lawn chairs in Scarborough used to watch ICE buildings the way you'd watch a nature show, out in the open, binoculars and birdsong. They're not doing that anymore. Which came first, do you figure — the agency getting quieter about where it operates, or the watchers deciding the open way doesn't work for them anymore?

“They shoot a delivery driver in his own car, then hand the investigation of that shooting to the same department that pulled the trigger — that's not oversight, that's the fox doing inventory in the henhouse. The guy who got shot is the one facing an assault charge; up in Maine they just killed somebody else and got quieter about where they operate. You don't get safer when the only people watching have to change how they watch — you get fewer witnesses.”
Sal
“Agencies review their own officer-involved shootings all the time, that's standard procedure, not some cover-up — Homeland Security Investigations is a real unit with a real job. I mean, when you put it that way, it does sound like the agency's grading its own test, which — did I just say that? That's not what I meant.”
Chip

The receipts

The UN torture rapporteur found direct-contact electric shock gloves "incompatible with the absolute prohibition of torture" - ICE plans to spend up to $20 million on them ABC10 San Diego / UN Special Rapporteur finding, August 2026

ICE got ‘quieter’ – then killed a father in Maine. Now watch groups are shifting their tactics too
The Guardianmainstream§

ICE-watchers get creative after the killing of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, as Trump’s immigration crackdown takes a more secretive approach Most of the time, the scene outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in the small, coastal town of Scarborough, Maine , could be confused for a nature watch in…

· Federal Judge Blocks DHS From Deporting Austin Man Shot by ICE from the morgue, 22 Sep 2026

· Advocates call for independent probe after Venezuelan DoorDash driver shot by ICE agent in Texas from the morgue, 21 Sep 2026

· ICE agent shoots DoorDash driver in Austin, authorities say from the morgue, 21 Sep 2026

· DHS now leading investigation into shooting involving ICE officer in Austin from the morgue, 21 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.