Bodycam video captures DoorDashing ‘illegal alien’ clipping officer who shot afterward, DOJ says

A federal criminal complaint alleges that a DoorDash driver who is said to be in the U.S. illegally struck an immigration officer with his vehicle’s side mirror as he fled a traffic stop — an encounter that ended with him being shot.

The shooting of 28-year-old Wilber Rafael Garces Perez has led to outrage and protests from critics of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The other officer who was wearing a body camera caught up to the scene only after the shooting had occurred.

The complaint claims bodycam video from the Sept. 20 incident in Austin, Texas, shows Perez clipping an officer with the side mirror of his vehicle when he tries to flee from the traffic stop.

The complaint says the law enforcement operation began when immigration officers saw Perez parked with his hazard lights on and discovered through a database check that he had an active deportation order.

The initial interaction was described as “pleasant and not aggressive” in the complaint.

Perez asked officers to allow him to wait for his wife to arrive to retrieve his vehicle, but they refused, which led him to “abruptly” close the window and hit the gas, the complaint claimed.

One of the officers was struck on his torso by the side mirror as the man fled, the complaint also claimed.

Perez allegedly led them on a car chase for about eight minutes before he was shot by an officer who was not wearing a body camera, the complaint continued. The other officer who was wearing a body camera caught up to the scene only after the shooting occurred.

Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, an attorney for Perez, previously said that he was seeking asylum and had a valid work permit. She added that he was ordered to be deported because a notice to appear in immigration court had been sent to his previous address and he missed the hearing.

The DHS responded that his work permit had expired in 2025 and added that a work permit did not confer any legal status on immigrants. The Department of Homeland Security had previously described Perez as an “illegal alien from Venezuela, who illegally entered our country under the Biden administration and had a final order of removal.”

In court on Tuesday, Lincoln-Goldfinch claimed that Perez remains in “extremely bad medical condition” after the gunshot wound and has been asking for surgery to remove the bullet, the AP reported.

Lincoln-Goldfinch did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News about the allegations in the complaint.

RELATED: DHS Sec. Mullin CRUSHES ‘open borders’ Democrat pushing ‘radical’ anti-ICE bill

Perez was charged with one count of assaulting, resisting, and impeding a federal officer. If he’s convicted of the charge, Perez faces up to 20 years in prison.

He alleges that officers crashed into his car and caused it to spin before he was shot in the back. Perez was taken into custody after receiving treatment at a hospital.

The complaint included still-frames from police footage of the incident, but the bodycam footage was not released.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!