HOUSTON — A Harris County grand jury has indicted an ICE officer on an aggravated assault charge, accusing him of intentionally striking a man with his vehicle during a pursuit in Houston.
Mario Alberto Morales was indicted on Oct. 30 on one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a second-degree felony punishable by two to 20 years in prison, District Attorney Sean Teare said at a press briefing. The deadly weapon named in the indictment is a motor vehicle.
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Teare said the incident happened on Oct. 10 around 7:30 a.m. at 16200 Clay Road. Morales was driving a 2025 Jeep Grand Cherokee when he began pursuing a 2011 Chevrolet Silverado. The driver, identified as Miguel Parra Hernandez, and another occupant ran from the truck.
Teare said Parra Hernandez is a Mexican national who has lived in Harris County for more than 30 years and is in the country without authorization. He said Parra Hernandez has no criminal record, did not have a deportation order and was not the subject of a pending immigration proceeding.
According to ICE, officers were pursuing a man named Jose Mendoza Cervantes, Teare said. The district attorney said that man appears to have died nine years ago.
Teare played Morales’ body-camera video synced with surveillance video from a nearby bakery. On the video, Morales can be heard saying he has a runner, “on foot, both of them.” Seconds later, the video appears to show him turning the wheel to the left, and the vehicle strikes Parra Hernandez.
“As you can clearly see, Morales aggressively steered his vehicle into Parra Hernandez,” Teare said.
Parra Hernandez remains in federal custody at a rehabilitation facility, ABC News reports.
Teare said Morales then called 911 to report that Parra Hernandez had hit his car. On the 911 recording played at the press briefing, Morales tells the dispatcher, “I tried to get around him, and he hit my car.”
The Harris County Sheriff’s Office Vehicular Crimes Division investigated the incident as it would any serious crash involving a pedestrian, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said. He said investigators reviewed video, interviewed witnesses and developed “serious concerns” about the agent’s actions, including the circumstances of the pursuit and the way Parra Hernandez was struck.
Teare, who previously led the vehicular crimes division in his office, said he has reviewed hundreds of cases, some similar to this one.
“An ICE badge does not give you free rein to injure, kill or violate the constitutional rights of anyone,” Teare said.
Gonzalez said the case is about the actions of one person and shouldn’t be viewed as a reflection of every federal agent. He also noted that an indictment is not a determination of guilt and that Morales is presumed innocent.
Morales’s attorney David Lindenmuth told ABC News that his client did not intend to hit Parra Hernandez. He said Morales had two detainees in the back seat and was trying to avoid striking a vehicle.
“Clearly there is contact, but the contact wasn’t intentional,” Lindenmuth said. “It was in reaction to him trying not to strike a vehicle.”
Lindenmuth also said the charges are politically motivated.
“It was an accident. It was nothing more than accident, but the DA, to score political points right before elections decided to bring charges,” he said.
Asked why this case moved faster than another pending investigation by his office, Teare said officers in this incident were wearing body cameras. He also credited the sheriff’s office and said investigators received a level of cooperation from the federal government.
Gonzalez said Morales was one of ICE’s surge hires in August 2025 and that his office has not received any training records for him.
According to Lindenmuth, Morales is a former corrections officer who enlisted in the Army and served as a paratrooper. He later worked as a detention and processing officer at the Port Isabel Detention Center and as a DHS contractor for ICE before joining the agency as an immigration officer. Lindenmuth also said Morales is a Christian pastor who does missionary work overseas.
