Shocking Indictment: ICE Officer Accused of Running Over Man Amid Controversial Death Claim Mystery

Teare presented footage at a Friday news conference that appears to show Morales pursuing two men who had fled a pickup truck. Surveillance video shows an SUV moving toward Parra Hernandez as he ran through a parking lot before striking him.

Body camera footage released by prosecutors captures Morales getting out of the SUV after the collision.

He is heard saying, “He got hit with a car, bro,” and later, “I was coming in, and I hit him with the car.” Teare called the evidence clear and said his office believed the collision was intentional.

Morales’ attorney, David Lindenmuth, has denied that his client committed a crime and described the collision as an accident. He also accused Teare of pursuing the indictment for political reasons.

Morales was not in custody Friday and was expected to surrender after the case was assigned to a court.

Parra Hernandez suffered a broken leg, fractured ankle and other injuries that required multiple surgeries, according to reporting from the Houston Chronicle. He remains in federal custody while recovering at a rehabilitation facility.

Teare has said Parra Hernandez had lived in the Houston area for more than 30 years and had no criminal record or active deportation order. His family and advocates have said he was not the intended target of the operation.

ICE has maintained that agents were pursuing another man and that Parra Hernandez was not intentionally struck. The Department of Homeland Security has characterized allegations that Morales deliberately hit him as “reckless and false.”

ICE said the operation was aimed at Jose Mendoza-Cervantes, whom the agency described as having a criminal record and an active deportation order. Officials said they believed he was in the same vehicle as Parra Hernandez.

That account has come under scrutiny. FIEL Houston said the daughter of a man whose photograph ICE released recognized him as her father, Jose Hector Jimenez Mendoza, and said he died in 2017.

A death certificate was reportedly provided to the New York Times, while other reporting has noted that the connection between Jimenez Mendoza and the Mendoza-Cervantes name has not been independently established in every record.

Teare’s office has also said its investigation found no evidence that Parra Hernandez and the man ICE identified as Mendoza-Cervantes were together in the vehicle. ICE has not publicly resolved the questions surrounding the identity of its stated target.