Video analysis finds that a federal immigration officer was standing to the side of Wilber Rafael Garces Perez’s car when the officer apparently fired through the rear passenger window. But the events surrounding the shooting remain murky. Credit...

Courtesy of Austin Councilman Mike Siegel Sept. 22, 2026 Updated 5:25 a.m. ET Shortly before 1 p.m. on Sunday, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer opened fire on a blue Toyota Corolla after an apparent car chase and collision in northwestern Austin, Texas. The driver suffered a gunshot wound, according to Robert Luckritz, the chief of Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services. While it remains unclear exactly what happened in the moments leading up to the shooting of Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, 28, visual and audio evidence synchronized and analyzed by The New York Times shows that an ICE officer was standing to the side of the car, which was rolling forward, when the officer apparently fired through the rear passenger window.

Footage shows Mr. Garces Perez with a wound on his back. No other officers were visible near the car at the time of the shooting. Mr. Garces Perez was taken to a nearby hospital and is being held at an ICE detention facility. Mr. Garces Perez, who is a Venezuelan immigrant, was not the target of an immigration operation, according to two people familiar with the shooting, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the investigation. ICE officers in the area were checking license plates when they discovered that he had a deportation order on file, the people said.

The officers pulled Mr. Garces Perez’s car over at about 12:45 p.m. on Sunday while he was making Door Dash deliveries. They told him that they were ICE officers and that he was going to be arrested. Mr. Garces Perez fled in his car after that, the two people familiar with the shooting said. A short chase ensued before ICE officers encountered Mr. Garces Perez again, the two people said.

The shooting occurred after that. The Department of Homeland Security said in a post on social media that Homeland Security Investigations, with the assistance of the F. B.

I., was investigating the shooting. The department did not respond to questions about the shooting. A video livestreamed on Facebook with a cellphone’s front-facing camera at approximately 12:48 p.m. briefly catches Mr. Garces Perez’s blue Toyota Corolla on a busy boulevard.

An S. U. V. appears to be driving toward the Toyota’s passenger side.

The audio from the livestream, which was out of sync in the original post, was synchronized by The Times. Sirens blare and tires screech as the person filming switches to the cellphone’s main camera, causing the image to freeze briefly. It is unclear if the two vehicles made contact at this moment.

When the video resumes, Mr. Garces Perez’s Toyota has not moved far, but it is now facing an entirely different direction. Pulled alongside it is an unmarked Ford S. U.

V. driven by a federal immigration officer. Image Left: A screen grab from a livestream recorded on a cellphone’s front-facing camera, flipped to depict the correct perspective, shows Mr. Garces Perez’s Toyota Corolla and a nearby S. U.

V. Right: A split second later, a screen grab from the phone’s main camera shows the Corolla, which is now facing a different direction, next to a federal immigration Ford S. U.

V. Credit... Heidi Ann Clark, via Storyful Photographs and videos recorded moments later show serious damage to the passenger side of the Toyota. Mr. Garces Perez said over the phone at a news conference that a federal vehicle hit his car twice before an ICE officer fired at him.

Video Credit Credit... Heidi Ann Clark, via Storyful The livestreamed video shows an officer exiting the driver’s side of the unmarked S. U.

V. and circling around to the rear passenger side of the Toyota with his arms raised and pointed toward the vehicle. The immigration officer remains to the s...