ICE agent to turn himself in after run-over in Houston

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Mario Alberto Morales is scheduled to surrender to authorities in Houston on Monday, his lawyer said on Saturday. The 33-year-old federal agent faces a felony charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for striking Miguel Parra Hernández with his SUV on October 10.

District Attorney Sean Teare of Harris County presented evidence from a grand jury on Friday. He played a recording from Morales’s body camera showing the agent making sharp steering movements, stopping the vehicle, and looking at Parra lying on the ground. Morales stated in the audio that he was entering the area and hit the man with the car.

Teare confirmed that Parra, a 48-year-old construction worker, suffered a broken leg and is currently recovering at a rehabilitation center. The victim remains in federal custody. The district attorney noted that investigators possess a substantial amount of information regarding Morales and suggested that local agencies would likely not hire someone with his background.

Morales’s attorney, David Lindenmuth, previously described the incident as an accident and argued that local authorities created a crime from nothing. However, surveillance video released earlier shows the unmarked SUV crossing a median and hitting Parra as he ran away from the vehicle. ICE officials maintained that Parra ran in front of the car during a traffic stop.

A police report reviewed by the Associated Press states that Parra told officers he fled the stop when Morales put on a mask and drove the car at him. Morales admitted to not braking before the impact but claimed the collision was not intentional. The agency said the operation targeted a man named José Mendoza Cervantes, whom officers saw get into a car with Parra. Mendoza Cervantes’s daughter told the immigrant rights group FIEL that her father has been dead for nearly ten years.

Morales has served as an ICE agent for just over one year. He previously served in the 82nd Airborne Division of the U.S. Army and worked as a prison officer and law enforcement agent. In 2013, he was charged with a misdemeanor for stealing four DVDs, a charge dismissed after he paid a $270 fine. He ran unsuccessfully for Texas’s 34th congressional district this year under the name Bam Morales.

In a Ballotpedia questionnaire, Morales listed veterans' rights, economic issues, and Christian principles as his top priorities. He identified illegal immigration as a major challenge for the country. He also noted he received support from the organization Make America Godlier Again. Morales appeared at a 2024 Christian conference led by televangelist Johnson Suleman, where he translated Suleman’s prayers for immigrants into Spanish.