Mexican man fatally shot by ICE was not the target of Houston immigration operation, source says

Mexican man fatally shot by ICE was not the target of Houston immigration operation, source says. A man who was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Houston while on his way to work Tuesday was not the target of their immigration operation, according to a source with preliminary details about the incident. The shooting took place around 7 a.m. as Lorenzo Salgado Araujo attempted to evade arrest when agents tried to conduct a traffic stop, ICE said in a previous statement, describing it as a "targeted enforcement operation." The agency did not specify whether he was the target. Texas authorities had previously notified ICE about two individuals — neither of whom was Salgado Araujo — traveling in a white van believed to be in the United States without legal status, according to the source, prompting them to surveil the vehicle. The agents then conducted surveillance on a target's address, and weeks prior to the incident, they noted two white vans at the property, a Homeland Security official told CNN. "On July 7, officers were almost at the target's address when they observed a white van with an individual who resembled the target. Officers then initiated the vehicle stop," the official added. The van was registered to Salgado Araujo, who agents determined to be in the country illegally, the source said. The ICE vehicles attempted to block in the van, which struck at least one of the vehicles, the source added. ICE said in a Tuesday statement Salgado Araujo rammed into a law enforcement vehicle and refused to follow several verbal commands before an ICE agent fired his weapon in self-defense. Salgado Araujo's family has disputed the government's account, saying they believe the man, who'd been seeking a work permit and had no criminal record, would have stopped and complied with federal agents if he had known the car following him belonged to ICE or other law enforcement. As of Thursday afternoon, no video or photos of the traffic stop or the shooting have been released by federal officials. The officers involved in the incident had not yet been issued body-worn cameras, a DHS spokesperson told CNN. The DHS' Office of the Inspector General is now leading an investigation into the shooting, according to ICE. And the FBI's Houston field office is investigating the alleged assault on a federal law enforcement officer. The Harris County District Attorney's Office is pursuing its own investigation and independently collecting information on the shooting, though "access to key evidence remains under federal control," according to spokesperson Rafael Lemaitre. His cause of death was determined to be a "penetrating gunshot wound of the torso" and the manner was ruled a homicide, the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences told CNN on Thursday. "He did not deserve to be reduced to a headline of 'Mexican man shot and killed by ICE,'" he said Wednesday.