With federal officials withholding evidence, will the ICE agents involved in these fatal vehicle stops face the murder charges local prosecutors are exploring?

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Not yet. The ICE agents in the Houston and Maine shootings have not been charged, and any murder case remains uncertain because prosecutors still lack key federal evidence. In Houston, Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare has opened an independent criminal investigation into the killing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and has said possible charges under review include murder, criminally negligent homicide and evidence tampering. His office has issued nearly 20 subpoenas, and later said “dozens” of subpoenas, but officials say DHS and ICE still control critical evidence, including agent identities, reports and any internal materials. That makes a charging decision difficult until prosecutors can test the federal self-defense account against witness testimony and physical evidence. The federal version says Salgado Araujo rammed an ICE vehicle and posed a threat. But family members, lawyers for passengers in the van, and other witnesses dispute that account, saying shots came from the side and that no agent was directly in front of the vehicle. There were no body-camera recordings from the agents involved, which further weakens the public record and raises the stakes for forensic evidence and surveillance footage. In Maine, multiple investigations are underway into the killing of John Sebastian Guerrero, but no local prosecutor has publicly indicated imminent murder charges. That case also faces conflicting accounts and no body-camera footage. State prosecutors can pursue charg…

More Than 300 Vigils Honor 2 Men Killed by ICE Agents

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More Than 300 Vigils Honor 2 Men Killed by ICE Agents

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