Harris County Grand Jury Indicts ICE Officer Mario Alberto Morales in Clay Road Vehicle Strike

HOUSTON - A Harris County grand jury has indicted Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Mario Alberto Morales on one count of second-degree aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, District Attorney Sean Teare announced at a news conference Friday, October 30. The charge grows out of the morning of October 10, when Morales, driving a 2025 Jeep Grand Cherokee, initiated a stop on a vehicle driven by Miguel Parra-Hernandez on a commercial stretch of Clay Road in northwest Harris County. Parra-Hernandez and another occupant fled on foot, and prosecutors say video footage showed Morales striking Parra-Hernandez with the vehicle. Morales, 33, is not yet in custody, Teare said; the charge carries two to 20 years in prison if he is convicted. An indictment is an allegation, not a finding of guilt.

"As you can clearly see, Morales aggressively steered his vehicle into Parra-Hernandez. Not only did he hit Mr. Hernandez, he ran over both of his legs, leaving him seriously injured and hospitalized to this day," Teare said. Prosecutors on Friday released Morales' body-camera footage, a surveillance video and audio of his 911 call. The surveillance video shows the SUV driving over a median in pursuit of a man running on foot; on the body camera Morales says, "I've got a runner," and in the 911 audio he tells a dispatcher, "I tried to get around him and he hit my car." Parra-Hernandez's leg was broken in three places, and he is recovering in a rehabilitation facility in ICE custody. Two men Morales had detained earlier were sitting handcuffed in the back of the Jeep, officials said. Teare also said Morales 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. Parra-Hernandez, 48, a construction worker on his way to work that morning, had no criminal history, no deportation order and no immigration proceedings at the time, Teare said - and the man ICE said its officers were looking for "has apparently been dead for nine years."

Morales' attorney, David Lindenmuth, called the collision a tragic accident, not a crime. "They indicted an accident," Lindenmuth said. "It was an unfortunate incident, but it was strictly an accident. It was not a criminal event, and they've turned it into a crime just to have a political whipping boy." He said another vehicle appeared directly ahead of Morales, forcing a split-second choice, and that Morales never meant to hurt anyone. In a statement to USA TODAY, an ICE spokesperson called the indictment a "political stunt," said local government does not have the authority to investigate the case, and said: "Allegations that ICE struck Miguel Parra-Hernandez intentionally are RECKLESS and FALSE." The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to questions about the district attorney's accusations around the investigation. The case now goes to a Harris County court, where the competing accounts - the district attorney's video-based account, the defense's accident account and the agency's denial - will be tested.