Texas grand jury indicts ICE officer accused of running over man in Houston
The officer faces charges after allegedly striking a fleeing construction worker with an SUV during an immigration raid.
Key points
- A Texas grand jury indicted ICE officer Mario Alberto Morales for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon over an October 10 incident in Houston.
- Prosecutors say Morales deliberately ran over Miguel Parra-Hernandez, 48, who was fleeing agents and suffered leg and ankle injuries.
- ICE says Parra-Hernandez ran in front of the vehicle, but the district attorney says surveillance video contradicts that account.
A grand jury in Texas has indicted a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer accused of deliberately running over a Mexican construction worker during an operation in Houston this month. Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare announced on Friday that ICE officer Mario Alberto Morales faces a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon over the October 10 incident.
Morales is accused of striking 48-year-old Miguel Parra-Hernandez, an immigrant who has lived in Harris County for more than 30 years. Teare said Parra-Hernandez had no criminal record. Criminal charges against federal immigration officers have been rare during President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.
Dispute over the video evidence
Investigators say Parra-Hernandez was running away from federal agents when an unmarked black Jeep Cherokee struck him in a car park near Clay Road and Highway 6. He suffered multiple fractures to his right leg and an ankle injury that required surgery.
ICE has maintained that Parra-Hernandez ran in front of the vehicle and called the allegation of an intentional strike "reckless and false." Teare said surveillance video contradicts the agency's account, showing the SUV crossing a median and pursuing the man as he runs away. Body-camera footage released on Friday records Morales acknowledging that he struck Parra-Hernandez with his vehicle.
reckless and false
— ICE
Cooperation and the operation's target
Teare accused federal authorities of failing to cooperate with the investigation, including by removing the Jeep before local investigators could examine it. A search warrant obtained by local media shows investigators had not been granted access to the vehicle as of October 23.
ICE said agents were searching for a man identified as Jose Mendoza-Cervantes, believed to be travelling with Parra-Hernandez. Mendoza-Cervantes's daughter told The New York Times that her father died in 2017, and Parra-Hernandez's family has disputed that the two men knew each other. The indictment comes as the Harris County District Attorney's Office continues investigating the fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo on July 7; ICE officer Gregory Feathers has been accused of firing at the vehicle Salgado Araujo was driving, and federal authorities said the officer acted in self-defence, a claim surviving passengers dispute.
