Family lawyer says substance in van after deadly ICE shooting was salt

A lawyer for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo’s family says the white substance an FBI agent flagged in his van after a deadly ICE shooting in Houston was not drugs, but salt used by outdoor laborers to fight the Texas heat.

Salgado Araujo, a father of three, was shot in the abdomen and killed by immigration agents during a traffic stop last Tuesday while riding with three other people to a construction jobsite, according to NBC News. The Department of Homeland Security told NBC News that he was not the person agents had set out to find.

The FBI filed a search warrant application for the van this week. In the application, an agent said he looked into the vehicle from outside and saw several plastic bags containing a white, crystal-like material. The agent wrote that the bags and substance appeared consistent with possible methamphetamine or other controlled-substance packaging, according to the warrant application.

Ruby L. Powers, an attorney representing Salgado Araujo’s brother, who was taken into custody after the shooting, rejected that implication Thursday. Powers said in a statement that the family understands the material to be granulated salt, mixed with lemon and water as a homemade electrolyte drink for workers in extreme heat.

Powers said a warrant does not prove wrongdoing and that an unknown substance is not the same as a confirmed narcotic. She said she is asking for immediate testing so the men’s names can be cleared, and she is calling for Salgado Araujo’s brother to be released from ICE custody.

The FBI declined to tell NBC News whether the warrant had been carried out or whether any seized items tested positive for illegal drugs.

The warrant application, filed Tuesday and signed by a judge, included photos showing clear bags with an unidentified substance among construction materials, including carpenter pencils, according to NBC News. The government has not said ICE agents suspected drugs were inside the van when they pursued Salgado Araujo.

DHS has said Salgado Araujo was in the country illegally and that, based on information it received, he rammed an ICE vehicle, ignored verbal commands and used his vehicle as a weapon. DHS said an officer shot him in self-defense. NBC News reported that DHS has not provided evidence for those claims.

Two men who were in the vehicle with Salgado Araujo disputed the danger claim through their attorney, Hugo Balderas-Ibarra, who said last week that they told him no agent was standing in front of the vehicle or put in its path.

Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare told NBC News that what his office has learned about the passengers makes the idea that drugs were in the van inconsistent. He also told CNN that the fast public unsealing of the federal search warrant application was unusual in his two decades of experience.

Teare said he understood the FBI was testing the substance either Thursday or in the coming days, and that the results should be released quickly. He added that the tests would have no bearing on whether the fatal use of force was justified.

David Cruz, national communications director for the League of United Latin American Citizens, told NBC News that the warrant appears to be part of a broader attempt by authorities to blame Salgado Araujo for his death. Cruz said whatever the FBI finds would not address what happened in the moments before the shooting.

DHS declined to comment to NBC News on the FBI warrant and did not immediately respond to questions about Teare’s and LULAC’s remarks.

Salgado Araujo’s son, Ronaldo Salgado, wrote on Facebook that his father had lived in the United States for nearly 35 years, worked in construction and was in the process of seeking a work permit. DHS’ Office of Inspector General, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office and the Texas Rangers are investigating the shooting.

This story draws on original reporting from NBC News.