Follow-Up: Harris County Grand Jury Indicts ICE Officer Mario Alberto Morales on Aggravated Assault Charge in Houston Crash That Injured Immigrant Worker, Faces Up to 20 Years
Houston — In Houston, Harris County, Texas, the Harris County District Attorney's Office announced on Friday, October 30, that a county grand jury had indicted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer Mario Alberto Morales, 33, on one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a second-degree felony carrying 2 to 20 years in prison if he is convicted. The indictment stems from an October 10 immigration enforcement operation in which Morales struck and ran over Miguel Parra Hernandez, a 48-year-old Mexican construction worker, with his vehicle — an incident GSM first reported on October 12 as an investigation unfolded, and followed on October 17 over a dispute about whom ICE had been pursuing. The case has now moved into criminal prosecution.
District Attorney Sean Teare played body-camera and surveillance video at a Friday news conference. He said that at about 7:30 a.m. on October 10, Morales, driving an unmarked 2025 Jeep Grand Cherokee, stopped the vehicle driven by Parra Hernandez near Clay Road and Highway 6 in West Houston; Parra Hernandez and another occupant got out and ran, and Morales drove after them. Prosecutors say the video shows Morales aggressively steering his vehicle into Parra Hernandez and running over both of his legs. Parra Hernandez suffered multiple fractures to his right leg and serious injuries; he remains hospitalized in a rehabilitation facility and in custody. In the body-camera audio, Morales can be heard calling out about a runner as he drives after the men; Parra Hernandez, on the ground, tells him, "You ran over me," and Morales tells a colleague who arrived, "I was coming in, and I hit him with the car."
The District Attorney's Office posted public media assets for the case on its news-release page: the indictment can be obtained through the Harris County District Clerk's site, and the office released the news-conference video, the 911 call audio and scene video from the incident. Teare said Parra Hernandez had no criminal history, no deportation order and no pending immigration proceedings at the time of the crash. Morales is not yet in custody; Teare said an arrest warrant would be issued and that his office had been in contact with the officer's attorney. An indictment is not a conviction, and whether Morales is guilty will be decided by a court.
Morales's attorney, David Lindenmuth, said the collision was a tragic accident, not a crime. ICE told the Associated Press the indictment was "nothing more than a political stunt by Houston Sanctuary politicians," and called allegations of an intentional strike "reckless and false." ICE has previously said Parra Hernandez ran in front of the agency's vehicle and was struck.
As background, ICE has said the October 10 operation was meant to arrest Jose Mendoza-Cervantes, a man with a deportation order whom officers believed was in Parra Hernandez's vehicle. In mid-October, however, the District Attorney's Office said Mendoza-Cervantes was not in the vehicle, and the immigrant-rights group FIEL told a Houston news conference that the photograph ICE released of its target actually showed a different man who had died years earlier, whose family provided a Mexican government death certificate to prosecutors. That dispute is expected to be one focus of the court proceedings ahead.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于 Houston 市中心的 Harris County 法院大楼（1910年法院），Harris County 地方检察官办公室与大陪审团在此地办公审案。Wikimedia Commons，CC BY-SA 3.0。 / The Harris County Courthouse (1910 Courthouse) in downtown Houston, where the Harris County District Attorney's Office and grand juries sit. Via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
- 2026-10-12ICE Vehicle Strikes Pedestrian During Houston Pursuit; Harris County Investigates as Commissioner Demands Video Release
- 2026-10-17Follow-Up: Harris County DA Says ICE Pursuit Target Was Not in Houston Worker's Car; Family Says ICE Photo Shows Man Who Died Years Ago
- 2026-10-30Follow-Up: Harris County Grand Jury Indicts ICE Officer Mario Alberto Morales on Aggravated Assault Charge in Houston Crash That Injured Immigrant Worker, Faces Up to 20 YearsThis story
