{"id":1034079,"date":"2026-08-31T02:04:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T02:04:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1034079\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T02:04:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T02:04:19","slug":"third-witness-to-fatal-houston-ice-shooting-released-from-federal-custody-houston-public-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1034079\/","title":{"rendered":"Third witness to fatal Houston ICE shooting released from federal custody \u2013 Houston Public Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\"Ronaldo<\/p>\n

Bianca Seward\/Houston Public Media<\/p>\n

Two of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo\u2019s sons, Ronaldo and Lorezno Jr., speak at a prayer vigil on August 27, 2026 at the scene of the fatal ICE shooting.<\/p>\n

The third witness of the fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo at the hands of federal agents was released from Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention Sunday morning, according to his attorney.<\/p>\n

Victor Hugo Salgado Araujo, the deceased’s brother, was in the passenger seat during the shooting and was detained the same day, July 7, alongside two other witnesses, Daniel Tirado Pantoja and Jose Trinidad Rojas Pliego. Tirado and Pliego have already been released under orders from two federal judges. <\/p>\n

“It\u2019s just been so wonderful \u2013 a lot of different emotions when I first heard it might be happening,” his attorney, Ruby Powers, said. “So I first didn\u2019t believe it, and then when I received an email from ICE that I knew it was real, so then it was about making sure he got out physically as soon as possible.”<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Hello, Houston!<\/a> daily newsletter to get local reports like this delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n

Ronaldo Salgado, Lorenzo\u2019s son, shared on social media the family reunited with Victor just before noon. <\/p>\n

\u201cToday is a key step in justice for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo,\u201d Ronaldo wrote.<\/p>\n

Powers told Houston Public Media the exact reason behind Victor’s release was unclear. <\/p>\n

“I don\u2019t know what was the final thing that made it happen, but I don\u2019t have a judge\u2019s order or any definitive answer on what it was,” Powers said. “I don\u2019t have a definitive answer as to what was the final straw.”<\/p>\n

RELATED: <\/b>Harris County DA’s Office evaluating which charges to present to grand jury in ICE shooting case<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

The first two witnesses were released under orders in which federal judges said the men could not be re-detained unless the government demonstrated they are a flight risk or a danger to the community.<\/p>\n

ICE did not immediately respond to requests for comment regarding Victor’s release.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Southern District had already filed a notice to appeal Pleigo’s release and was expected to appeal Pantoja and Victor’s release as well.<\/p>\n

Powers said Victor is grateful to be home with this family.<\/p>\n

“He\u2019s out of detention after 50-something-odd days, and he\u2019s able to start healing and sleeping and eating and trying to mourn and try to find some type of normalcy,” Powers said. <\/p>\n

On Thursday, Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said his office had collected most of the evidence in the Lorenzo Salgao Araujo case and was determining what, if any, charges would be presented to a grand jury.<\/p>\n

In an appearance on Hello Houston on August 27, Teare said his office was at a \u201ctipping point\u201d with the evidence they\u2019ve collected.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re at a point where we\u2019ve gotten just about everything we are going to get,” Teare said. “There are back pieces of evidence that we still need from the federal government that we\u2019ve requested and are effectively waiting on, but we\u2019re now much more moving into the evaluation phase.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bianca Seward\/Houston Public Media Two of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo\u2019s sons, Ronaldo and Lorezno Jr., speak at a prayer…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1034080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5130],"tags":[43180,4345,5410,85009,409,425,371526,50,54442,358,3187,2065],"class_list":["post-1034079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-harris-county-district-attorney","tag-houston","tag-ice","tag-ice-detention","tag-immigration","tag-local","tag-lorenzo-salgado-araujo","tag-news","tag-sean-teare","tag-texas","tag-tx","tag-u-s-immigration-and-customs-enforcement"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117187673204161809","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1034079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1034080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1034079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1034079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1034079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}