Overview
- A Harris County grand jury on Oct. 30 returned an indictment charging 33-year-old ICE agent Mario Alberto Morales with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for the Oct. 10 incident in northwest Houston.
- The victim, 48-year-old Mexican construction worker Miguel Parra Hernández, suffered multiple fractures and has required several surgeries and ongoing rehabilitative care.
- Harris County prosecutors say security video shows the Jeep accelerating and turning into Parra, while ICE maintains the collision was accidental and says Parra ran in front of the vehicle.
- Local investigators reported that federal agents removed the SUV from the scene and that authorities did not gain access to the vehicle until Oct. 23, a delay prosecutors say complicated the probe.
- The case follows other violent encounters involving ICE in Texas this year and includes reporting that the person ICE said it sought in the operation may have died years earlier, a detail that deepens local-federal tensions and could affect future investigations and oversight.