Harris County Grand Jury Indicts an ICE Officer on an Aggravated Assault Charge After Body-Camera Video of a Clay Road Pursuit
District Attorney Sean Teare says the video shows the officer steering into a man running on foot during an Oct. 10 pursuit; the officer's attorney says the contact was unintentional and the charges are political. The officer is presumed innocent.
HOUSTON - A Harris County grand jury has indicted an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, accusing him of intentionally striking a man with his vehicle during a pursuit in northwest Harris County, District Attorney Sean Teare announced at a press briefing.
The officer, Mario Alberto Morales, was indicted on Oct. 30 on the second-degree felony, which carries a possible sentence of two to 20 years in prison. The deadly weapon named in the indictment is the motor vehicle. Teare said the incident happened on Oct. 10 at about 7:30 a.m. at 16200 Clay Road, where Morales, driving a 2025 Jeep Grand Cherokee, pursued a 2011 Chevrolet Silverado whose driver, Miguel Parra Hernandez, and another occupant ran from the truck on foot.
Teare played Morales's 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 before the vehicle turns and strikes Parra Hernandez. 'As you can clearly see, Morales aggressively steered his vehicle into Parra Hernandez,' Teare said. He added that Parra Hernandez, a Mexican national who has lived in Harris County for more than 30 years, has no criminal record, no deportation order and no pending immigration proceeding, and that the man ICE said its officers were pursuing appears to have died nine years ago. Parra Hernandez remains in federal custody at a rehabilitation facility, ABC News reported.
Morales's attorney, David Lindenmuth, told ABC News his client did not intend to hit Parra Hernandez: 'Clearly there is contact, but the contact wasn't intentional. It was in reaction to him trying not to strike a vehicle.' Lindenmuth said Morales had two detainees in the back seat, and he called the charges politically motivated. Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, whose Vehicular Crimes Division investigated the case as it would any serious crash involving a pedestrian, said investigators developed 'serious concerns' about the pursuit - and stressed that an indictment is not a determination of guilt and that Morales is presumed innocent.
Teare said his office moved quickly in part because the officers were wearing body cameras, and he credited the sheriff's office and 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. 'An ICE badge does not give you free rein to injure, kill or violate the constitutional rights of anyone,' Teare said.
