Grand Jury Indicts ICE Officer in Houston Assault Case

A grand jury indicted a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Friday on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. The charge stems from an incident on Oct. 10 in which the officer, Mario Alberto Morales, struck Miguel Parra Hernandez with an unmarked Jeep Cherokee SUV in a parking lot in Houston. Parra Hernandez, 48, is a Mexican construction worker who is currently in federal custody at a rehabilitation facility with a broken leg.

Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare announced the indictment at a news conference where he played body camera video and a 911 recording. Teare stated that the evidence in the case is as clear as any he has investigated or prosecuted. He noted that Parra Hernandez had lived in Harris County for more than 30 years and did not have a deportation order or criminal background at the time of the incident.

Surveillance video released previously shows the Jeep speeding over a median and driving toward Parra Hernandez as the man runs away. The body camera footage from Friday shows Morales making sharp steering moves before the vehicle shakes and stops. Morales is heard saying, “He got hit with a car, bro,” before adding, “I was coming in and I hit him with the car,” after another officer arrives. In a 911 call, Morales tells the operator that Parra Hernandez is “just complaining of pain.”

Parra Hernandez told deputies that Morales “threw the car at me” after the man began putting on a mask while stopping the vehicle. Morales acknowledged to deputies that he did not brake before the collision and said he was trying to avoid another truck in the lot. His attorney, David Lindenmuth, said his client did not intentionally strike the worker and accused the district attorney’s office of inventing a crime. Lindenmuth described Morales as a former military member who had served as an ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations officer for a little more than a year.

ICE has asserted that Parra Hernandez ran in front of the vehicle, an account Teare said is contradicted by video. The agency also identified Jose Mendoza-Cervantes as the target of the operation, claiming he was seen entering the vehicle with Parra Hernandez. Parra Hernandez’s family said they had never heard of Mendoza-Cervantes, and the immigrant rights group FIEL reported that the man’s daughter said her father has been dead since 2017. Teare’s office said its investigation did not find that the two men were in the vehicle together.

Morales, 33, is not in custody and a warrant will be issued for his arrest. He faces a second-degree felony charge. The indictment is one of few criminal charges against federal officers during the current immigration enforcement push, following a fatal shooting by an ICE officer in Houston this summer.