STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
We're also following this story. The Department of Homeland Security is investigating a federal immigration agent's shooting of a man in Austin, Texas. He's a Venezuelan immigrant, and he was wounded, sparking protests. And we have a report from KUT's Mose Buchele.
MOSE BUCHELE, BYLINE: The shooting took place Sunday afternoon during a traffic stop. The man, 28-year-old Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, was initially transported to the hospital, where he was reported to be in serious but stable condition. Homeland Security later identified Garces Perez as a Venezuelan national with a, quote, "final order of removal." Davia Bolanos (ph) operates a paleteria, or popsicle shop, near the intersection of 183 and Anderson Square, where it happened. She says, just before 1 p.m. on Sunday, she heard gunshots. When she went outside, she saw how masked agents removed a man from his car while bleeding from his back.
DAVIA BOLANOS: (Non-English language spoken).
BUCHELE: "And I said to ICE, why'd you do this? This is an injustice, what you're doing. And he didn't say anything. He stayed quiet," she told me. Word of what happened spread as videos of the shooting and its aftermath were shared on social media.
(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: Assassino. Assassino. Assassino.
BUCHELE: Police, ICE and public safety agents had put up crime scene tape and gathered under the highway overpass, where the shooting happened. Across the frontage road, protesters chanted assassino, murderer, and lock him up.
A lot of people seem to believe that the ICE agent that shot this man earlier today here is still in a vehicle.
Maria Ariza (ph) was one of the hundreds who heard about the shooting and came to voice her outrage.
MARIA ARIZA: We're tired of this racial profiling. We're tired of ICE, you know, coming after our workers. I have a child who's dark-skinned, and I'm scared that he's going to be racial profiled and he's going to get shot.
BUCHELE: As police started to leave the scene, the crowd pressed forward, some throwing water bottles or rocks. The police responded with pepper spray and retreated until all officers reached their vehicles and drove away, leaving a helicopter circling above.
(SOUNDBITE OF HELICOPTER CIRCLING)
BUCHELE: Later Sunday evening, Garces Perez's lawyer said her client had been released from the hospital and moved into ICE custody. She said neither she nor his family knew where he was being held. In a statement posted on social media, the Department of Homeland Security said he was in stable condition and is in federal custody pending removal. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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