▶ Watch Video: Texas grand jury indicts ICE officer for allegedly hitting man with vehicle
A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer was charged with a felony for allegedly hitting a man with a vehicle in Houston earlier this month, a Texas district attorney announced Friday.
Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said ICE Officer Mario Alberto Morales was indicted by a grand jury on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Teare said if convicted, the punishment would be a prison sentence lasting between two and 20 years.
Teare accused Morales of hitting Miguel Parra-Hernandez, a 48-year-old Mexican national who the district attorney said has been living in Texas for more than 30 years without documentation. Parra-Hernandez doesn’t have a criminal record and didn’t have a deportation order against him at the time of the incident, Teare said.
The district attorney said Parra-Hernandez, who is in ICE custody, is missing court dates for deportation proceedings because he isn’t able to leave a rehab facility where he is recovering from his injuries.
Teare expected that Morales would be taken into custody relatively soon, but possibly not on Friday. Prosecutors have been in contact with Morales’ attorney, Teare said.
Morales engaged in a pursuit of a vehicle being driven by Parra-Hernandez on Oct. 10. During the pursuit, Parra-Hernandez and another person fled the vehicle on foot. At a news conference Friday, a video was played showing the moments when Teare said Morales hit Parra-Hernandez with his vehicle.
Footage from what Teare said was Morales’ body camera showed Parra-Hernandez groaning in pain on the ground after he was hit by the vehicle, which the district attorney said was a 2025 Jeep Grand Cherokee. Parra-Hernandez suffered a broken leg in the incident.
“Like, I was coming in, and I hit him with the car,” the officer wearing the body camera said in the footage to someone else.
In the immediate aftermath of the incident, an ICE spokesperson had said in a statement to CBS News that Parra-Hernandez ran in front of the ICE vehicle.
“Morales aggressively steered his vehicle into Parra-Hernandez,” Teare said Friday. He also said that Morales ran over both of Parra-Hernandez’s legs.
Parra-Hernandez is heard screaming in the background of Morales’ 911 call for an ambulance in a recording played during the news conference. He told a dispatcher that Parra-Hernandez hit his vehicle.
“We’re following this guy, trying to pull him over, he jumped out of the vehicle, I tried to get around him, and he hit my car,” Morales said in the recording.
ICE told The Associated Press that the indictment against Morales was “a political stunt” and that local officials lack the authority to investigate federal officers for performing their duties.
“Allegations that ICE struck Miguel Parra-Hernandez intentionally are RECKLESS and FALSE,” the agency said in a statement to the AP.
During the news conference, Teare said that the district attorney’s office has the “utmost respect and admiration for law enforcement,” and that his office will prosecute any officer who violates the law.
“An ICE badge does not give you free rein to injure, kill or violate the constitutional rights of anyone,” Teare said. “My hope is that this prosecution will do more than just seek justice for the Parra-Hernandez family and Mr. Parra-Hernandez. I hope that it also sends a loud and clear message to every ICE officer who feels that they have a free pass to terrorize our streets. The time to stop is now, and if you don’t, you will be held accountable.”
Teare noted that ICE had said agents were pursuing a man named Jose Mendoza-Cervantes, who the agency said was a Mexican national and undocumented immigrant. Teare said Friday that Mendoza-Cervantes has apparently been dead for nine years.
