The Harris County District Attorney’s Office has launched a criminal investigation of the crash involving an ICE officer and Miguel Parra-Hernandez on Saturday, according to Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare, who said prosecutors are looking at the possibility of an aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charge.
“From my perspective and from the perspective of a lot of different investigators who have looked at this, that individual was intentionally struck and run over,” Teare said Tuesday.
Teare was chief prosecutor of the vehicular crimes division for seven years. Harris County investigators have opened a portal asking the public for additional evidence in the investigation.
In a statement over the weekend, an ICE spokesperson said Parra-Hernandez “ran in front of an ICE vehicle and was struck,” during an enforcement operation targeting a different man.
“Anyone that looks at that video knows that that’s not what happened,” Teare said, pointing to surveillance video that appears to show Parra-Hernandez running in a straight line while the ICE vehicle swerved into his path.
Teare said all of the ICE officers on scene that day have been identified.
When investigators attempted to tow the ICE vehicle involved in the crash, Teare said the officers did not provide consent, so investigators began the process of getting a search warrant. But Teare said an officer allegedly left the scene in the vehicle anyway.
“There are crash data recorders. There are forensic pieces of evidence that if the car is driven again, get erased. That’s why you put them on a tow truck and take them to the secure lot and download. We informed the ICE agents that that was what we were going to do. They did not consent to the download. And so we were drafting a search warrant on the scene, and during that time, the ICE agent jumped into the vehicle and drove it off of the scene,” Teare said.
In all likelihood, Teare said, the data is now gone even if investigators did obtain a search warrant for the vehicle.
“The agent and the agency are not out to look for the truth regardless of where it leads them. They are out there to cover their behavior and the way that they act on our streets,” Teare said.
KPRC 2 News has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security about Teare’s claims on handling of the investigation.
He also said two other detainees were already in the back seat of the ICE vehicle “from a completely different operation” at the time Parra-Hernandez was struck.
Their identities, and any information about the operation they were connected to, have not been made public.
“No one goes and conducts another pursuit or investigation when you already have detainees in custody of your car because you’re putting them at danger,” Teare said.
KPRC 2 News has also asked DHS about other detainees being in the vehicle.
Those two detainees, along with Parra-Hernandez, are all currently in ICE custody, but Teare said his office will sponsor their U-visa petitions.
READ MORE: Crime victims can wait years for U visas. What happens when key witnesses face deportation?
Parra-Hernandez has had several surgeries after suffering breaks in three places in his right leg, a fractured ankle, and an injury near his hip, according to FIEL Houston director Cesar Espinosa.
Parra-Hernandez’s attorney said Monday he doesn’t know that man ICE targeted, Jose Mendoza-Cervantes, and has no connection to him. Both are Mexican nationals.
As of Saturday, Mendoza-Cervantes remained at large and ICE has not provided an additional update.
