Texas city council candidate who protested ICE shooting faces ‘riot participation’ charge

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas city council candidate was arrested Saturday morning on a misdemeanor charge for “riot participation” in connection with behavior authorities said they observed at a protest against the shooting of a Venezuelan man by a federal immigration officer.

Texas Department of Public Safety troopers and special agents took Misael Ramos, 40, into custody around 8:45 a.m. Saturday on an outstanding warrant “stemming from his actions” during a Sunday protest, the agency’s media department wrote in an unsigned email. Protesters on Sunday had been demonstrating against the shooting of Wilber Rafael Garces Perez in Austin.

Ramos, who is running for city council in Austin, “was captured on camera taking construction barricades, sandbags, and other items and attempting to obstruct traffic,” the department said. The department also provided photos and video it said captured “some of Ramos’ actions” at the scene.

Ramos, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, denies any wrongdoing and will contest the charge, his campaign said in a news release.

“I didn’t see any riots,” said Ramos’ attorney, Edmund “Skip” Davis. “I saw people out there chanting and protesting.”

Ramos was released from custody during a news conference outside the county jail Saturday, with the crowd erupting in cheers. Ramos thanked those for being there, saying it was “one of the craziest mornings I have had in a long time.” He spoke of his surprise arrest and criticized federal immigration raids in the community.

“When we fight,” he said, to which those gathered replied, “we win!”

Garces Perez was shot Sunday and then taken to a detention center after an encounter with an immigration officer. An attorney for Garces Perez has said he was an asylum seeker and had a valid work permit.

“Like the hundreds of Austinites who were shocked to hear news that an ICE officer shot someone in the back, Misael quickly joined people at the scene of the incident to offer his condemnation of the incident and show solidarity by holding the line in the protest, chanting, and amplifying the incident through campaign channels,” Ramos’ campaign manager, Jeffrey Clemmons, said in a statement.

Kristen Dark, a spokeswoman for the Travis County Sheriff’s Office, confirmed in an email that Ramos was booked into the agency’s custody around 9:30 Saturday morning on a charge of riot participation.

Garces Perez was making a DoorDash delivery Sunday afternoon when ICE officers in an unmarked truck sideswiped his car twice, his attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch has said. He was shot and taken to a hospital, then released into ICE custody with a bullet still in his back, she said.

ICE and DHS haven’t said what led to the shooting beyond that Garces Perez was “the subject of a targeted vehicle stop.”

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Rankin reported from Richmond, Virginia.