An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and wounded a man during a traffic stop in Austin, Texas, prompting protests and calls for greater oversight of the investigation.
The man, whose identity and nationality have not been disclosed, was shot once in the torso on the city’s north side. He was in a serious but stable condition in hospital, Austin police chief Lisa Davis said.
Austin police officers were not involved in either the operation or the shooting, Ms Davis told a news conference attended by Mayor Kirk Watson and other city officials.
Anti-ICE protesters gathered at the scene on Sunday as details of the incident emerged. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, did not attend the briefing and did not immediately respond to requests for information.
Mr Watson, a Democrat, said he wanted Austin’s police department involved in the investigation to provide “clear, third-party eyes” over the process.
He said it would not be appropriate for ICE to investigate the shooting alone, adding that Austin residents had “a right to feel safe in their city”. A proper investigation would enhance its credibility, he said.
The shooting comes as ICE increases enforcement across the United States. The agency recorded more than 50,000 arrests a month for the first time in its history in July and August.
In July, an ICE officer fatally shot 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo of Houston after federal agents in unmarked vehicles pursued him while he was taking his construction crew to a job site. Another ICE officer shot Johan Sebastián, a 25-year-old Colombian man, in Maine that month.
The administration’s enforcement efforts were also widely condemned last winter after the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minnesota.
