Prosecutors Release the Body-Camera Footage and 911 Audio in the ICE Case; the Officer Is Not Yet in Custody
The video shows the SUV crossing a median after a running man; on the 911 call, Morales says, 'I tried to get around him and he hit my car.' The DA added accusations about the Jeep's crash data and deported witnesses; DHS did not respond, and ICE says the man ran in front of the vehicle.
HOUSTON - Prosecutors on Friday released footage from ICE officer Mario Alberto Morales' body camera and a surveillance video, along with audio from his call to 911, hours after a Harris County grand jury indicted him on second-degree aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in the October 10 striking of Miguel Parra-Hernandez, USA TODAY reported in its updated account. The video shows Morales' SUV driving over a median in pursuit of a man running on foot - 'I've got a runner,' Morales says on the body camera - before the view of the impact is blocked by a parked truck; afterward, Parra-Hernandez can be heard moaning on the ground. In the 911 audio, Morales tells a dispatcher, 'I tried to get around him and he hit my car.' Two men detained earlier were sitting handcuffed in the back of the Jeep, officials said.
District Attorney Sean Teare added accusations that go beyond the indictment itself. He said the officer drove the Jeep away before it could be impounded, erasing crash data stored in the vehicle, and that ICE has begun deporting witnesses in the case; the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to questions about those accusations, USA TODAY reported. Teare said Parra-Hernandez's leg was broken in three places and that he is recovering in a rehabilitation facility; that Parra-Hernandez, 48, had no criminal history, deportation order or immigration proceedings at the time; and that the man ICE said its officers were looking for 'has apparently been dead for nine years.' Teare also said Morales was hired by ICE in August 2025 and questioned his qualifications and training. These are the district attorney's claims, carried here as his; the indictment itself remains an accusation, not a finding of guilt.
ICE's account stands in the agency's own words: it said Parra-Hernandez 'ran in front of the vehicle,' and called claims that he was hit on purpose reckless and false, alongside its statement calling the indictment a 'political stunt.' Morales is not yet in custody, Teare said, and USA TODAY has reached out to an attorney representing him. What happens next - surrender or arrest, and the first court settings on the charge, which carries two to 20 years if he is convicted - files on this station as it is verified.
