HOUSTON — Laboratory testing has confirmed that the white powder seized from Lorenzo Salgado Araujo’s van — which was the subject of an unusual, unsealed DOJ search warrant — is not drugs.
Salgado Araujo was shot and killed by ICE in Houston’s East End on July 7 while driving to work. He was pulled over during a traffic stop.
The Harris County District Attorney’s Office said Friday the seized substance “tested negative for narcotics/ illicit drugs” but would not comment further on the results because of the pending investigation.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas has been retained by the Salgado family to represent them.
David Donatti, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Texas, says the government has demonstrated that it is more interested in creating a false narrative than in seeking the truth by taking the unusual steps of securing and then unsealing their search warrant.
“Lorenzo Salgado Araujo should still be alive today, and nothing about the government's so-called 'search' could have changed that fact,” Donatti said. “That search has now proven what the Salgado family has said all along: Lorenzo was a hardworking man who made homes for Houston families, and his wife packed him homemade electrolyte mixes to keep him and his crew hydrated under the Texas sun.
“The Salgados deserve real answers about what happened to their father, and we reiterate our call for an independent and complete investigation.”
According to NBC News, lawyers involved in the case said Salgado Araujo was driving himself and three others to a construction site for work when the confrontation took place. His family said Salgado Araujo was in the midst of applying for legal status and had been in the country for more than three decades when he was fatally shot.
The government has not said the ICE agents suspected any controlled substances were in the vehicle, the article states.
