A Harris County grand jury has handed down a felony indictment against an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent following a violent encounter in Houston last October. District Attorney Sean Teare announced that agent Mario Alberto Morales is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after surveillance and body camera footage appeared to show him using his unmarked patrol vehicle to strike 48 year old Miguel Parra Hernandez during a foot pursuit.

The evidence presented by the district attorney’s office paints a harrowing picture of the incident. Footage from a local business shows two men fleeing a pickup truck, with Morales pursuing one of them in a black SUV. Body camera recordings capture the moment of impact, followed by audio of Parra Hernandez crying out in pain while writhing on the ground. While Morales admitted to another agent that he hit the man with his car, he later told emergency dispatchers that the pedestrian had actually run into the vehicle and was merely complaining of pain.

Local officials expressed deep alarm over the circumstances surrounding the chase. Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez revealed that two other handcuffed individuals were unsecured in the backseat of Morales’s SUV at the time of the crash, a practice both he and Teare described as dangerously unacceptable for any law enforcement agency. Further complicating the case is the revelation that ICE was allegedly searching for a man whose daughter claims has been dead for nearly ten years.

The indictment comes amid broader scrutiny regarding recent hiring surges within ICE under current administration priorities. District Attorney Teare questioned the vetting process and training levels for new recruits, suggesting that Morales might not have met standard hiring criteria for other agencies. This case is part of a troubling trend in Texas and Minnesota where several federal agents have faced charges related to excessive force during immigration operations. Meanwhile, Parra Hernandez remains in a rehabilitation center, still facing deportation despite being labeled a victim of a second degree felony.