A Harris County grand jury has returned an indictment against an ICE officer over an Oct. 10 crash in northwest Harris County. The officer has been identified as Mario Morales. It is not yet clear what charge he faces.
The crash happened in a parking lot near Clay Road and Highway 6. Miguel Parra Hernandez was struck after running from a truck that ICE officers had been pursuing during a federal enforcement operation targeting a different man they believed was in the vehicle. He was hospitalized with injuries.
Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare and Je'Rell Rogers, head of his civil rights division, presented the case to the grand jury on Friday. Teare earlier said the case was being investigated as aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, citing surveillance video he described as showing an "intentional" strike. The Department of Homeland Security has said Parra Hernandez ran in front of the vehicle and called claims of an intentional strike "reckless and false."
According to a search warrant affidavit, the officers left the scene with the vehicle before the investigation was finished. Teare said they did not consent to the vehicle being towed for forensic evidence. A judge signed a search warrant for the vehicle on Oct. 15. As of Oct. 23, DHS and ICE had been "unresponsive" to the warrant and had not given investigators access to the vehicle, according to the return.