{"id":902,"date":"2026-07-10T17:08:53","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T17:08:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=902"},"modified":"2026-07-10T17:08:53","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T17:08:53","slug":"dhss-account-of-salgado-araujo-killing-is-a-lie-witness-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=902","title":{"rendered":"DHS\u2019s Account of Salgado Araujo Killing Is \u201cA Lie,\u201d Witness Says"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Truthout is an indispensable resource for activists, movement leaders and workers everywhere. Please make this work possible with a <\/span><\/i>quick donation<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Read more Mexico Filing Criminal Complaints Over Deaths of Its Nationals in ICE Custody<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

All of the witnesses to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) killing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo have reportedly said that the slain 52-year-old father never tried to ram immigration agents\u2019 car as officials have claimed.<\/p>\n

Hugo Balderas-Ibarra, an attorney for the three men who were in the car with Salgado Araujo, has said that they have all separately disputed the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s (DHS) account of the killing, per reporting by The Washington Post<\/em>, which reviewed the witnesses\u2019 written and oral accounts.<\/p>\n

Shortly after the killing on Tuesday, DHS claimed that the ICE agent who killed Salgado Araujo acted in \u201cself-defense.\u201d Salgado Araujo, the department claimed, \u201cattempted to evade arrest\u201d and \u201cweaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Witnesses in the car with the Mexican immigrant say that this account is patently false, and that at no point during the encounter was there ever an ICE agent standing in front of the vehicle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is a lie,\u201d wrote Jose Trinidad Rojas, one of the witnesses, in a testimony, per the Post<\/em>. \u201cIt is impossible for them to say that they were going to get run over \u2026 there were no officers in front of or behind the vehicle. They were on the sides.\u201d<\/p>\n

All three of the men in the vehicle with Salgado Araujo, who were on their way to work around 6:30 am, are now in immigration detention and are facing deportation proceedings. They are not being housed together, but still gave the same account of the incident in separate testimonies, Balderas-Ibarra said.<\/p>\n

The men said it was just a regular commute to work when an unmarked vehicle began following the car being driven by Salgado Araujo. The vehicle abruptly cut them off in the middle of an intersection, and Salgado Araujo made a U-turn and proceeded slowly down the street. Rather than ramming ICE vehicles, the ICE vehicles rammed their car, the witnesses said, and Salgado Araujo eventually came to a stop when an ICE agent shot him in the abdomen.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of them reiterated that there were never any ICE agents in front of the van,\u201d said Balderas-Ibarra. \u201cThey came in and started shooting from the sides.\u201d The attorney said that he believes the agents \u201care lying\u201d about the shooting.<\/p>\n

Read more In the Wake of Supreme Court Rulings, Trump Purges Federal Election Agency<\/a><\/p>\n

Indeed, Victor Salgado, the shooting victim\u2019s younger brother, said that the ICE officer who shot Salgado Araujo shot him from the passenger side window. The agents were shooting from the sides of the vehicle even after Salgado Araujo put the vehicle in park, the witnesses said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he shot my brother, the gun was in front of my face,\u201d Salgado said. <\/p>\n

The agents violently pulled Salgado Araujo out of the car and threw him on the ground, where he lay bleeding and yelling for help, his brother said. <\/p>\n

The agent reportedly said to Salgado, mockingly: \u201cSe quer\u00edan escapar, verdad?\u201d meaning, \u201cyou wanted to escape, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, immigration officials are reportedly trying to pressure the witnesses to self-deport, a representative for the families told The New Republic<\/em>. DHS has a known history of lying and distorting information with regard to its agents\u2019 violence, with the department spreading a similar, bunk claim about Renee Nicole Good after she was shot and killed by an immigration agent in January.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re being pressured to sign self-deportation orders,\u201d said the representative, Juan Proa\u00f1o. \u201cThey\u2019re currently in detention. These men hold the key to what actually happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

DHS\u2019s account also suggests that ICE agents sought to stop Salgado Araujo in order to arrest him \u2014 but reports say that he wasn\u2019t the target of their operations, and that ICE agents were seeking to apprehend another pair of immigrants that morning.<\/p>\n

The immigration agents were out searching for two people from Guatemala who they believed to also be driving the white van that Salgado Araujo was driving, according to The New York Times<\/em>, who spoke to two people with knowledge of the matter. But the two people weren\u2019t in the car, the sources said, and agents opened fire nonetheless.<\/p>\n

Read more US Targets Iran Railways as It Unleashes Deluge of Strikes for Third Day<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All three witnesses in the car with the 52-year-old father said ICE agents were on the side of the car, not in front.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":901,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nDHS\u2019s Account of Salgado Araujo Killing Is \u201cA Lie,\u201d Witness Says - Smart Moving Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=902\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"DHS\u2019s Account of Salgado Araujo Killing Is \u201cA Lie,\u201d Witness Says - Smart Moving Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"All three witnesses in the car with the 52-year-old father said ICE agents were on the side of the car, not in front.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=902\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Smart Moving Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-10T17:08:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=902#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=902\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ec0d70042821fd684a174c8d0e8becfa\"},\"headline\":\"DHS\u2019s Account of Salgado Araujo Killing Is \u201cA Lie,\u201d Witness Says\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-10T17:08:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=902\"},\"wordCount\":755,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=902#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/5262b653e531502cc735d5aefd1880b6.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=902#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=902\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=902\",\"name\":\"DHS\u2019s Account of Salgado Araujo Killing Is \u201cA Lie,\u201d Witness Says - 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