Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have justified the killing of 52-year-old Houston man Lorenzo Salgado Araujo by claiming he rammed their vehicle with his own and attempted to run down an agent. But new footage casts serious doubt on their version of events.
Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national, lived peacefully with no criminal issues in Texas for 35 years before the incident.
The footage in question appears to show ICE had no damage whatsoever to the vehicle they claim was rammed in the attack — throwing the entire sequence into question, as commenters on social media noted.
"Video shows the moments before ICE shot a worker who lived for 35 years in the United States," wrote David J. Bier of the libertarian Cato Institute in a post to X. "It appears to show it was ICE attempting to initiate contact with his vehicle, not the worker attempting to 'ram' ICE agents."
"Cold-blooded murder," wrote Norm Ornstein of The Atlantic.
"These people need to start getting charged with homicide," wrote Iowa-based independent writer Gavin Aronsen.
This comes after the well-publicized Minneapolis incidents at the start of the year, when the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti during protests against President Donald Trump's federal takeover of the city similarly had footage contradict the claims of ICE agents.