DOORDASH RUN ENDS WITH A BULLET IN THE BACK — THEN THEY CHARGE HIM
AUSTIN, Texas — September 20: Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, 28, was mid-DoorDash when ICE boxed him in on a North Austin street. Nine days later the Justice Department charged the man they shot in the back with assaulting a federal officer — the weapon, they say, was a side-view mirror.
That is the case in one sentence. The rest is two stories fighting over the same 60 seconds.
What prosecutors filed
ICE says they had a target: a Venezuelan national with a final order of removal. They lit him up, identified themselves, and he slid a Texas license through a cracked window. The affidavit calls the first minute “pleasant and not aggressive.” Then he shut the window and rolled.
As the car left, prosecutors say the driver’s-side mirror hit officer “L.G.” in the torso. A short chase through commercial and residential streets. Government version of the finish: Garcés Pérez tried to hit the officer with the car; L.G. fired through the back-right window. One round. Upper back.
Charge: assaulting, resisting, and impeding a federal officer. First appearance in Austin federal court Tuesday.
What the driver told investigators
Garcés Pérez said an unmarked SUV cut him off. He did not want to get out until his wife could take the car. He admits he refused to exit. He says the chase ended when a federal SUV rammed him and spun the car. After the forced stop, he says L.G. put a round through the rear window into his back.
The bullet, his lawyers say, is still in him — near the spine — and they moved him from hospital to ICE detention with it still there. DHS’s line last week: he has received “some of the best medical care he’s ever received in his life.” A judge has already put a temporary hold on dumping him out of the country while this plays.
The camera problem
L.G., the shooter, was not wearing a body camera. Partner “D.F.” had one and, per the affidavit, turned it off after losing sight of the chase. The shooting officer’s account in the complaint is largely what he told D.F. by phone after it was over. That is the paper they used to charge the man with the hole in his back.
Defense and critics call that the whole case: no cam on the trigger, cam off on the partner, “he tried to hit me with the car” after the fact. Government calls it a lawful stop, a flight, a strike with the vehicle, and a justified shot.
The immigration overlay they will use in court
DHS: illegal, final removal order, targeted stop.
His lawyers: entered through CBP One in 2024, asylum application, work permit, in-absentia order after a hearing notice went to an old address. Travis County’s DA has asked feds not to remove him while the shooting is still an open question.
None of that decides whether a side mirror is an assault or a panicked pull-away. A jury — or a plea — will.
Crime Vault note: when the government shoots a man in the back and the charging instrument is a mirror plus a phone recap from an officer with no camera, the file is not closed. It just got a
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