A Harris County Grand Jury Has Indicted an ICE Officer on an Aggravated Assault Charge Over an Oct. 10 Crash in Houston
Officer Mario Alberto Morales is charged with hitting Miguel Parra Hernandez with his vehicle, Reuters reported. The district attorney released 911 calls and video; ICE told the AP the allegations are 'reckless and false.'
A Texas grand jury has indicted a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who struck a man with his vehicle in Houston earlier this month, Reuters reported Friday. ICE officer Mario Alberto Morales was charged with aggravated assault for hitting Miguel Parra Hernandez with his vehicle, according to an indictment cited by multiple U.S. news outlets and reported by the Harris County District Attorney's office.
The district attorney's office said in a post on its website that a grand jury had issued an indictment in the ICE-related crash and released copies of 911 calls as well as dashcam and other video from the October 10 incident. One of the videos released shows two men running before a large SUV appears to speed up behind one of them in a parking lot; one man can then be seen on the ground screaming in pain, and a person in a second video can be heard saying, 'He got hit with a car, bro.'
The 911 recordings include someone identifying himself as Officer Mario Morales 'with Immigration' requesting an ambulance. 'So we're following this guy, trying to pull him over. He jumps out of the vehicle. I try to get around him and he hit my car,' Morales said on the call, according to Reuters. ICE could not immediately be reached by Reuters, but in a statement to the Associated Press it called the allegations reckless and false. Representatives for the district attorney's office did not immediately return a request for comment.
Parra Hernandez remains in custody and is recovering from injuries that include a broken leg, the New York Times, the AP and others reported. The indictment is a charge, not a conviction, and no court date was reported in the coverage read this cycle. Reuters also noted that local officials in Houston are investigating the killing of another man, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, by a U.S. agent in Houston earlier this year - a separate case that has prompted protests in the city's East End.
