DA says he doesn’t believe that drugs were found in van involved in Houston ICE shooting, countering FBI suspicion

Harris County District Attorney Questions FBI’s Drug Claims in Houston ICE Shooting Case

Conflicting Views on Evidence in Lorenzo Salgado Araujo’s Fatal Shooting

DA’s Position Contrasts with Federal Investigation

DA says he doesn t believe – According to Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare, prosecutors in Texas are not convinced that substances discovered inside the van where Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was fatally shot by an ICE agent last week were actually drugs. This perspective directly challenges the suspicions the Federal Bureau of Investigation raised in recent court documents. Teare emphasized that whatever the substances turned out to be, they should not influence investigations into whether the killing of the 52-year-old Salgado Araujo during an attempted traffic stop on July 7 was justified. Furthermore, the nature of these materials should not affect whether the stop of the Mexican immigrant and longtime Texas resident was warranted in the first place.

Teare’s statements followed the FBI’s filing of a warrant application indicating the agency has reason to believe an investigator discovered illegal drugs in the vehicle Salgado Araujo was driving with three passengers after the shooting occurred. When speaking with Kate Bolduan on CNN News Central on Thursday morning, Teare explained his reasoning. “Based on the information we have regarding who Mr. Salgado was and just eyeballing the evidence as it was collected yesterday, we don’t believe that they are drugs,” he stated. When pressed about why he held this view, Teare mentioned possessing “information that we’re not going to release yet,” and expressed confidence that the substance would undergo testing by the FBI “either today or in the next few days.”

Implications for the Investigation

The district attorney made clear that the substances’ identity should have “no bearing on why Mr. Salgado and the other three individuals (in the van) were targeted,” and should have “no bearing whatsoever on whether or not the use of force that killed Mr. Salgado was justified,” according to Teare’s comments. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s initial statement regarding Lorenzo Salgado Araujo’s fatal shooting—that the agent shot Salgado Araujo in self-defense—has encountered considerable scrutiny. Complicating matters further, the officers involved were not wearing body-worn cameras at the time of the incident.

CNN has sought comment from the FBI regarding Teare’s remarks. A week after the shooting, the FBI filed a warrant application asserting it has cause to believe illegal drugs were present in the vehicle Salgado Araujo was driving. The application cites probable cause for “distribution, manufacturing, or possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance and simple possession of a controlled substance.” In the warrant affidavit authored by FBI Special Agent David McNielly on Tuesday and submitted to a federal magistrate judge, the agent described arriving on scene after the shooting and allegedly observing small plastic bags “with a white crystal-like substance” in the white cargo van.

Details of the Warrant and Public Reaction

McNielly said he made the observations from outside of the van. “The packaging and appearance of the controlled substance in the target vehicle is consistent with methamphetamine,” the warrant states. However, it does not explicitly say who the bags are believed to belong to. Included within the warrant are two images of the bags that appear to be on the vehicle’s dashboard. CNN has reached out to the FBI about whether the contents of the bags have been confirmed or sent for screening.

While not unheard of, it is unusual for an FBI search warrant to be publicly available during an active and high-profile investigation of this nature. The federal court docket appears to show the warrant was initially sealed when it was filed Tuesday, shielding its contents from public view, but it was later unsealed. The filing came two days before a public viewing for Salgado Araujo, and three days before his funeral. Law enforcement had not searched the vehicle prior to filing the warrant, McNielly wrote. Houston Mayor John Whitmire told CNN that FBI agents were performing a search of the vehicle Wednesday morning.

To date, the Department Homeland Security has not indicated that the ICE agents who stopped Salgado Araujo had any knowledge of drugs possibly being inside the vehicle at the time of the fatal shooting. The medical examiner ruled that Salgado Araujo’s death was caused by a gunshot to the torso, and officials have not released toxicology information describing any substances in his system at the time of death.

The president of the LULAC Adelante PAC, a political group that supports Latino voter participation and candidates, accused federal investigators of trying to “change the public discourse and prejudice a jury in Harris County.”

“It just smells of a smear campaign and a cover up,” Domingo Garcia said. The ACLU of Texas, which is working closely with Salgado Araujo’s family, said, “The Trump administration lacks credibility to investigate itself, and we should be skeptical of any claims made by federal agencies in this case.”