HOUSTON – Profound concern expressed at Houston City Hall over Tuesday’s deadly Eastside ICE shooting, with multiple Council Members calling for both calm and full accountability.
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Houston ICE Shooting: Houston City councilmembers react
There was measured reaction from both Mayor John Whitmire and District I Council Member Joaquin Martinez, who represents the neighborhood where the fatal encounter took place.
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Houston ICE shooting: Family of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, activists call for transparency
Family and activists are speaking out following the deadly shooting of a man in Houston by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.
What they’re saying:
“I want to reassure the community that HPD was not there, had no involvement, and it’s important to ensure that we are not conflating the two. As I’ve been sharing with folks for over a year is that we need to be sure that there continues to be trust in the community with local law enforcement because when we continue to break down that trust, folks continue to be in more fear,” said Martinez.
Whitmire called on federal agencies to investigate in good faith.
“We are monitoring very carefully. We are in constant touch with our Federal elected officials insisting that there is a transparent investigation. I think it’s unfortunate that some would politicize it. I think the media needs to be as accurate as possible and not inflame things, as some would attempt to do. So our prayers are with the family, the community, and frankly, all Houstonians understand the pain,” said Whitmire.
Council Member Edward Pollard was among multiple elected officials calling for a separate HPD investigation.
“We can’t just leave everything up to the federal government and sit back and hope that they will be transparent regarding their own agency and their own actions,” said Pollard.
The other side:
Council Member Julian Ramirez, a former prosecutor, says current law mandates that federal agencies control the process of determining whether laws were broken.
“Basically, because of the Supremacy clause in the U.S. Constitution, federal Law and federal agent policies, they conduct the investigation, the primary investigation, the lead investigation when a federal agent shoots someone within the City of Houston or anywhere in U.S. for that matter and based on the way they typically handle their investigations, local authorities including the local police department are essentially cut out of the primary investigation. Federal agencies will control the scene. They’ll control the evidence. They will take witness statements. They will collect the evidence and will share what they want to share with local authorities and so it becomes quite difficult for local authorities to conduct a decent investigation,” said Ramirez.
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