HOUSTON, Texas — The Harris County District Attorney’s Office announced that the substance found in the van following an ICE officer-involved shooting was not drugs. The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas previously stated that bags containing a “white crystal-like substance” were found in the van and were being tested in a possible narcotics trafficking and drug offenses investigation.
According to the Texas Tribune, Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare’s office said it would not be commenting on test results that reportedly came back negative. The office then stated it has “been notified that the lab testing of the substance found in Lorenzo Salgado Araujo’s van was negative for narcotics/illicit drugs,” the article states.
The comments from the DA’s office in Houston followed a statement from U.S. Representative Sylvia Garcia (D-TX), who said, “We can now confirm that the substance found in Lorenzo Salgado’s van was not a narcotic or any other illicit substance,” the report states. “As his family has said all along, this was an electrolyte powder to stay hydrated [while] working outside in the hot Texas summer.”
The article states the U.S. Attorney’s Office did not have “any additional information to provide at this time.”
The narcotics search warrant came after Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers shot and killed Salgado after he allegedly attempted to flee during a vehicle stop.
Reitz’s office released the following information about nine days ago:
On the morning of Tuesday, July 7th, federal officers were investigating two Guatemalan men known to be driving a white van. These men had previously evaded arrest and were potentially subject to deportation. While looking for the suspects’ white van, officers received a report of a similar van in the area. The officers’ two vehicles—each with two officers inside—turned on their police lights and attempted to pull over the van and the men that fit the suspects’ description. The aliens then fled, conducting a rapid U-turn and hopping a median to get away. The agents chose not to pursue. Later that morning, the agents came across the van again. And again, the illegal aliens attempted to flee, but this time the agents successfully surrounded the vehicle. At some point, two of the four officers got out of their vehicles and instructed the non-compliant aliens to put the van in park. Preliminary information indicates the driver shifted the van into reverse, then forward again, while an officer was partially inside the van or immediately next to it.
The passengers of the van were taken into custody and transported to the ICE detention facility in Conroe, Texas. ICE officials told Breitbart Texas that these men will be held and not deported, pending the outcome of the investigation.
Houston and Harris County officials continue to call for an independent local investigation into Salgado’s death.
Bob Price is the Breitbart Texas-Border team’s associate editor and senior news contributor. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday morning talk show. He also serves as president of Blue Wonder Gun Care Products.