Garca Prez was shot on Sept. 20 while making DoorDash deliveries in his car, according to a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. The charge, one count of assaulting, resisting and impeding a federal officer, came down Tuesday, the day before he was scheduled to appear in court to fight the legality of his immigration detention.
His attorneys say the bullet remains lodged in his body.
The timing raises questions about how federal authorities are handling encounters between ICE agents and immigrants working gig jobs. His legal team must now fight the criminal charge and the detention case at once, with the bullet still in his body as evidence of how the encounter ended.
No other details on the shooting itself, including what led up to it, were included in the charges announced Tuesday.