AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas city council candidate was arrested Saturday morning on a misdemeanor charge for “riot participation," a week after he was part of a protest against the shooting of a Venezuelan man by a federal immigration officer.
Public jail records do not specify the date of Misael Ramos' alleged rioting, but Ramos' attorney said that his client was accused of “engaging in a riot on the 20th of September," the day of the protests over the shooting of Wilber Rafael Garces Perez in Austin.
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Ramos denies any wrongdoing and will contest the charge, his campaign said in a news release.
“I didn't see any riots,” said Ramos' attorney, Edmund Skip Davis. “I saw people out there chanting and protesting.”
The arresting agency didn't immediately respond to questions from The Associated Press, and the details of the allegations against Ramos aren't yet clear. Ramos, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, is running for city council in Austin.
Ramos was released during a news conference outside the county jail Saturday, with the crowd erupting in cheers. Ramos thanked those for being there, saying it was “one of the craziest mornings I have had in a long time.” He spoke of his surprise arrest and against federal immigration raids in the community.
“When we fight,” he said, to which those gathered replied, “we win!”
Garces Perez was shot and then taken to a detention center after an encounter with an immigration officer. An attorney for Garces Perez has said he was an asylum seeker and had a valid work permit.
Some Democrats have criticized the shooting, and the encounter has sparked protests in Austin, including a gathering outside the Texas Capitol on Monday night.
“Like the hundreds of Austinites who were shocked to hear news that an ICE officer shot someone in the back, Misael quickly joined people at the scene of the incident to offer his condemnation of the incident and show solidarity by holding the line in the protest, chanting, and amplifying the incident through campaign channels,” Ramos' campaign manager, Jeffrey Clemmons, said in a statement provided to AP.
Kristen Dark, a spokeswoman for the Travis County Sheriff's Office, confirmed in an email that Ramos was booked into the agency's custody around 9:30 Saturday morning on a charge of participating in a riot.
Dark said additional details would have to come from the Texas Department of Public Safety, which conducted the arrest. The agency didn't immediately respond to calls or emails from the AP.
Garces Perez was making a DoorDash delivery Sunday afternoon when ICE officers in an unmarked truck sideswiped his car twice, his attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch has said. He was shot and taken to a hospital, then released into ICE custody with a bullet still in his back, she said.
ICE and DHS haven’t said what led to the shooting beyond that Garces Perez was “the subject of a targeted vehicle stop.”
