A Harris County grand jury has returned an indictment against the ICE officer who ran over a man in northwest Harris County earlier this month, causing injuries that required hospitalization.
It’s unclear yet what charge the federal agent, who has been identified Mario Morales, is now facing.
The crash happened in a parking lot near Clay Road and Highway 6 on Oct. 10. Miguel Parra Hernandez was struck after running from a truck that ICE officers had been pursuing during what federal officials described as an enforcement operation targeting a different man they believed to be in the vehicle.
Just before 8 a.m. Friday, Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare and the head of his civil rights division, Je’Rell Rogers, entered the grand jury room to present the case. By 8:40 a.m., Teare and top staffers left the room.
Teare previously told KPRC 2 the case was being investigated as an aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, pointing to surveillance video that he described as showing an “intentional” strike.
DHS has previously said that Parra Hernandez was struck after running in front of the vehicle, and any claims that it happened intentionally are “reckless and false.”
According to a search warrant affidavit, the ICE officers left the scene of the crash with the vehicle involved before the investigation was over. Teare previously said they didn’t consent to having the vehicle towed to obtain forensic evidence, and they left while investigators were working to obtain a search warrant.
A judge signed off on a search warrant from DA investigators for the vehicle on Oct. 15. The return notes it got sent to the Department of Homeland Security’s legal division, and as of Oct. 23, DHS and ICE had been “unresponsive” to the search warrant, not providing access to the vehicle.
Teare said driving the vehicle away from the scene likely cleared any of the crash data recordings and jeopardized obtaining relevant information to the investigation.
Days after the crash, The New York Times reported the man ICE claimed to be targeting had died nearly a decade ago, according to his sister who spoke with the newspaper and provided documentation.
KPRC 2 has reached out to defense attorneys representing the ICE officer as well as DHS.
Teare is expected to hold a news conference with Sheriff Ed Gonzalez at 10:30 a.m.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
