Houston-Area Prosecutor Weighs Charges Against ICE Officer Who Ran Over Man
The district attorney of Harris County, Texas, is considering felony assault charges against a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer who struck a fleeing man with a vehicle in Houston. The man's leg was broken in several places.
Sean Teare, district attorney for Harris County in Texas, says he is considering aggravated assault charges with a deadly weapon against an officer of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). On Saturday morning in west Houston, the officer's unmarked SUV struck a man who was running across an empty parking lot after an attempted traffic stop. The man's leg was broken in multiple places. A conviction could bring up to 20 years in prison.
The prosecutor's view
Teare told NBC News the video shows an intentional strike, and said many other investigators who viewed it agree. He said he believes two people from a different operation were in custody in the back of the ICE vehicle when the driver began the chase, putting everyone nearby at risk. His office is working to keep those two in the country so they can serve as material witnesses.
Teare is investigating with the Harris County sheriff's office. The sheriff's office says an ICE agent moved the pickup truck in which the injured man and another person had been riding, then left in the ICE vehicle before deputies arrived. Teare said ICE is refusing to cooperate and has denied a request for data from the vehicle's recorder. By his account, the driver drove away just as his office was drafting a search warrant.
The victim and ICE's response
The injured man is Miguel Parra-Hernandez, 48. On Wednesday he remained in a Houston hospital under ICE supervision with serious hip and leg injuries that his representatives say will need several surgeries. ICE acknowledges he was not the target of the stop but says he is in the country illegally. An agency spokesperson said the intended target was another man, Jose Mendoza-Cervantes, who has multiple prior arrests and a judge-signed final removal order.
At a Monday press conference, Parra-Hernandez's lawyer Kim Bruno and Cesar Espinosa, executive director of the immigrant advocacy group Fiel Houston, said he had never met Mendoza-Cervantes. Bruno said her client ran because he did not know who was in the dark vehicle, which had no lights or siren on. She said he has no criminal record and was on his way to work.
An ICE spokesperson called the allegation of an intentional strike "reckless and false."
