The injured man, Miguel Parra-Hernandez, 48, remained under ICE supervision at a Houston hospital on Wednesday with serious hip and leg injuries that his representatives said will require a series of future surgeries. ICE has conceded he was not the target of the traffic stop, but said he was in the country illegally.
The video shows the officer's unmarked SUV veering into Parra-Hernandez as he runs across an empty parking lot, an apparent contravention of new guidelines for traffic stops implemented this month after a series of violent and fatal confrontations involving federal immigration officers over the summer.
"It's pretty obvious that this was an intentional striking and running over of the person by the vehicle," Teare said, adding that his view was shared by many other investigators who had seen the footage.
Teare is investigating with the Harris County sheriff's office, which said an ICE agent moved the pickup truck Parra-Hernandez and another unidentified person were riding in, then left the scene in the ICE vehicle before sheriff's deputies arrived. The district attorney said ICE was refusing to cooperate and had denied investigators access to the vehicle's data recorder.
"Our office began drafting a search warrant that we were in the process of drafting when the ICE agent in question, the one that had been driving, we believed, at the time of the collision, jumped back into the car and drove it away from the scene," Teare said. "In my 20-year career, I've never heard of anything like that."
Teare said he believed two other people from an entirely different operation were in custody in the back of the ICE vehicle when the driver began the pursuit, and that his office was working to ensure they remained in the country as material witnesses. He has set up a portal for witnesses to submit videos or photographs without providing citizenship or immigration information. ICE did not respond to a request from the Guardian.