Protest held regarding Houston ICE shooting | Texas Live and Local

Welcome to Texas Live and Local here at four o'clock. I'm Anthony Antoine. We continue to follow that developing and breaking news that has now gone national in regards to the death of 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo. He was the Mexican man that was undocumented. ICE says that they in self-defense shot and killed him after they say they looked to interact with that white van he was driving along with three other men inside. We're going now to Isaiah Carey who's following a rally of sorts that is taking place here. Isaiah, fill us in. Well, Anthony, it's a small rally at this point. It started at 3 30. About eight people. Walk with me, Joshua, as we go and talk to some of these protesters who are on Dunleavy Bridge right over 59. And they are here to participate in this protest in the death of Mr. Araujo. And it happened July 7, Tuesday morning at about 6 in the morning. And of course, we have High Brew here. And you're demanding transparency, accountability from the city of Houston. Tell us, why is it so important for you guys to be out here today? Well, we've been here, Isaiah, to be honest with you, since the beginning of the year when Alex Pretty and Renee Good was murdered in Minneapolis. So we've been out here in the cold, the rain as it's drizzling right now, and the heat, asking ICE out of Houston from the very beginning. And I went to city council, helping with passing the ordinance, remember? And then the mayor flip-flopped because of Governor Abbott's threatening with the money. And then today, you heard the news, I've been asking from the very beginning to send the Texas Rangers. I sent out a press release, my group, asking him and all my means and went viral on social media. And today, the mayor at 230 press conference, he said, guess what? I'm sending the Texas Rangers. And you think that will make a difference in this federal investigation? It sure will. At least, you know, I understand we can have two things going at the same time, dual track. We just need to hold them accountable. Back to this again, just to make sure that we have someone from Houston or Texas keep an eye on them. When you think about Mr. Araujo's death and how he died and the circumstances involving ICE, what are you thinking? What are you feeling about that? Well, I'll be honest with you. Every week when we're out here, we pray that this does not happen in Houston. That's why we're out here. And it broke my heart that it happened because our team knows that, you know, we knew that it was a numbers game, that because our city is the largest immigrant, Mexican population and immigrants here. And we were praying that wouldn't happen. But I'm so proud of our city coming together, fighting. I approved the mayor's message today, saying, yes, we all Houstonians. I'm a Vietnamese American. I came here in 1975, 51 years ago. Was that ever a fear that you have now, even though you've been here since the 70s? Sure. I sure do. Because I had to make sure that my car is in tip-top shape. I don't want to be pulled over. You know, all these things. I have Vietnamese friends who are sent back home to Vietnam, you know, because they didn't do their paperwork properly. So they're gone. So same thing. You know, we're all human. We want to take care of each other, love one another, you know, and support. We're all one big family. Now, obviously, you're small in numbers, but your message is strong. Did you anticipate more people out here? I think you have about eight now. No, no. I'll be honest with you. I say my group is small. And I always believe that small is beautiful. Okay. So, I mean, this is my team. We get things done. Day in and day out. Exactly. We, you know, we're very persistent. We don't give up. Like I said, we're here all the time. So this is nothing new to us. By the way, can I add this? We were here for all seven FIFA games. All seven World Cup. So we made national news. World Cup, you know, they were here. They interviewed us too and all that. So, you know, we were going to get a message out that I was so happy that the president of Mexico was getting involved. Yeah. Yeah. You heard about that? Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, we'll leave you to it. Get back out there. And of course, you have your signs. And we thank you for your time. And once again, here are some of the protesters on Don Laverie Bridge. They are sending their message to many of the drivers who are getting off of work for Friday. And of course, small in number, but their message is very strong. Anthony, back to you. All right, Isaiah. Thank you so much. Bring things back here in studio with you guys. Now we want to hear from the mayor, along with several others. I mean, we've had two press conferences here today surrounding this case, and both of them have released remarkable statements when you really take a look at it and how this, at least from what I can tell, the perspective of some of these leaders here in the Houston area from a state and federal level in terms of Congressman Sylvia Garcia and others, they are very concerned about what's taking place. And some of the statements you're about to hear, you can tell for yourself. So here we go. I was chairman of criminal justice in Austin for 30 years, involved in many investigations and oversight reviews of police action. In those 30 years, which included the tragedy of Sandra Bland, Joe Campos-Torres, and I could list many more. None are more egregious than the one that ICE brought to Houston Tuesday morning, some 80 hours ago. We learned about it through the media. Keeping my commitment and our policy, we do not interact with ICE. There was no whatsoever involvement by HPD. I got a call shortly after the 911 call went in. We've done everything possible to gather information. And I applaud the district attorney. We have been in constant communication and furnishing him what information we had. We've been involved and contacted our federal officials because when we learned about it, the FBI had arrived and secure the site. The FBI has all the evidence that would normally go in to an HPD or other law enforcement agency's investigation. They have the evidence, in this instance, the van, the passengers, the deceased, and they're tightly controlling it. We've reached out to them and asked them, share that information with HPD. And shortly, I will ask the chief to speak to that effort. But before I go any further, I would ask Houstonians to put yourself in the place from every indication, every indication, an outstanding, law-abiding, hardworking family. Put yourself how shocked you would be, and the family is in shock, that you're living your dream, three sons, college graduates, mother fixes breakfast, father goes to work, taken away from you without any notice or any forethought that you are actually in danger. I speak for Houstonians. It should not happen anywhere. And Lord, we've done everything we can to keep ICE from endangering Houston residents. And so, Houstonians, this is when Houston is at its best, that we can bring unity, inclusion, regardless of your party label, regardless of your philosophy about immigration. It doesn't matter. This is when we come together. And that's my responsibility. Wednesday, in council, I called for an independent and thorough investigation, spoke to the district attorney. We both acknowledged how difficult it would be because the federal government controlled the investigation. But today, meeting with my colleagues from the legislature, from Congress, my mayor pro tem, we are publicly stating we are doing and will not rest until we have an independent, thorough investigation. I've asked the chief to be proactive. He's asked and been granted a meeting with the FBI bureau chief of Houston next Tuesday. He's asked the chief of the FBI, Houston Bureau, to start sharing information, which we will certainly forward to the district attorney's office. We've reached out to the Texas Rangers, the DPS, and I welcome any other suggestion. All right. That was Mayor John Whitmire there and other city officials. As you can see there, lots of new information from their perspective, and they are calling for more transparency. They said the FBI has all of the evidence from, and ICE, they have all the evidence from the incident that took place that was deadly, killing Lorenzo. And now they are taking all avenues possible to try to find ways to conduct their own independent investigation, but also getting access to the evidence that as of right now, they do not have. We'll be right back.