Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is facing renewed criticism after authorities revealed the Houston father-of-three who was shot dead earlier this month did not have drugs in his vehicle.
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52, was killed by an ICE officer while on his way to work around 7am on July 7 after he allegedly tried to evade arrest during a traffic stop.
A search warrant filed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said that small, clear plastic bags with white, ‘crystal-like substances’ had been seen inside the van he was driving.
According to the warrant, the packaging was ‘consistent with methamphetamine.’
But on Friday, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office told the Daily Mail that the substance found in Salgado Araujo’s van had tested negative for narcotics and illicit drugs.
‘We have notified Salgado Araujo’s family because we felt they had the right to know,’ the Harris County District Attorney’s Office added.
Democratic congresswoman Sylvia Garcia, who represents Houston, added that what Salgado Araujo had in his car was ‘an electrolyte powder to stay hydrated working outside in the hot Texas summer.’
‘The attempt to cast a shadow over Lorenzo Salgado’s name has failed,’ Garcia wrote Friday afternoon on X.
Mexican national Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52, was shot and killed by an ICE officer after allegedly attempting to evade arrest during a traffic stop that turned fatal
An FBI search warrant said small, clear plastic bags with white, ‘crystal-like substances’ and packaging ‘consistent with methamphetamine’ had been found inside Salgado Araujo’s van
A lawyer representing Salgado Araujo’s brother, Victor, had said Thursday that the substance was granulated salt, according to KCRA.
Ruby Powers, the attorney, said the product was ‘paired with lemon and water as a homemade electrolyte mix used by outdoor workers in extreme Texas heat, not methamphetamine or any other illicit substance.’
Victor was one of the passengers in the van when Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national who worked as a homebuilder, was shot by a federal officer.
Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said that Salgado Araujo’s wife prepared the electrolyte mixes for his work crew every morning.
‘This is something they’ve been doing for years, which is consistent with where the baggies were found,’ Teare told CNN.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, wrote July 7 on X that Salgado had ‘attempted to evade arrest’ during the vehicle stop.
The agency said that, based on ‘information we are receiving,’ Salgado Araujo had rammed an ICE vehicle and refused to follow verbal commands.
Salgado Araujo also ‘weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer,’ the DHS added.
That led to the officer, who has not been named, firing his weapon in self-defense, according to the agency.
The Harris County District Attorney’s Office said Friday that the substance in Salgado Araujo’s vehicle had tested negative for narcotics and illicit drugs
Democratic Rep. Sylvia Garcia said on X that what Salgado Araujo had was ‘an electrolyte powder to stay hydrated working outside in the hot Texas summer’
The officers involved in the shooting that led to Salgado Araujo’s death were not wearing body cameras at the time, according to the Associated Press.
Footage of the moment Salgado Araujo was shot has not emerged. However, witnesses have pushed back on the government’s account.
A rear passenger in the van, Daniel Tirado Pantoja, filed a written statement in a Houston federal court claiming that Salgado Araujo ‘had come to a full stop while the agents fired,’ per the Texas Tribune.
Pantoja claimed that ‘at no moment were the agents in front’ of the van.
Jose Trinidad Rojas Pliego, who was also in the back seat, said in his statement that a patrol vehicle had chased the group, but that Salgado Araujo believed he had lost them.
‘Out of nowhere, they suddenly cornered us and we told Lorenzo to stop the van,’ Rojas Pliego wrote, according to the outlet.
He added: ‘When Lorenzo stopped the van, the officer shot him anyway.’
Rojas Pliego claimed that it was ‘impossible’ for the immigration officers ‘to say that they were going to get run over.’
‘That’s a lie,’ he wrote, per the outlet. ‘No officer was behind nor in front — they were on the sides.’
People were seen marching during a vigil for Salgado Araujo in Houston after he was shot and killed by an ICE officer
Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said Salgado Araujo’s wife prepared the electrolyte mixes for his crew every morning and that it was ‘something they’ve been doing for years’
Last Thursday, Aaron Reitz, the US Attorney for the Southern District of Texas, said that the FBI, DHS and other state and local law enforcement agencies were looking into Salgado Araujo’s death.
Reitz said that federal officers had been ‘investigating two Guatemalan men known to be driving a white van,’ adding that the two suspects had previously evaded arrest and were potentially subject to deportation.
As that was happening, authorities received a report of a ‘similar van in the area,’ which they later pursued and surrounded.
According to Reitz, preliminary information indicated that the driver shifted the van into reverse and then forward while an officer ‘was partially inside the van or immediately next to it.’
The ensuing confrontation resulted in Salgado Araujo being shot. He was taken to Ben Taub Hospital, where he died.
Salgado Araujo had been living without legal status in the US for 35 years. His family said he did not have a criminal record.
The Daily Mail has reached out to the DHS, which oversees ICE, for comment.
