An ICE agent ran over an injured man and dismissed his screams on bodycam, saying ‘Yeah, you got hit with a car, bro’

Newly released bodycam footage shows ICE officer Mario Alberto Morales responding to Miguel Parra Hernández’s screams after allegedly striking him with his vehicle in Houston. The footage, first highlighted by TMZ, is from an October 10 incident that has now led to a grand jury indictment.

Morales has been indicted on a felony charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, as reported by The Associated Press. His attorney, David Lindenmuth, said Morales plans to turn himself in on Monday, and previously told reporters the situation was “clearly just an accident” and that local officials had “invented a crime out of thin air.”

The footage appears to show Morales’s vehicle striking and running over Parra Hernández. As Parra Hernández writhed in pain, he cried out in Spanish, “You ran over me!” Morales responded, “Yeah, you got hit with a car, bro.”

Prosecutors are not treating this as a simple accident

Morales allegedly struck Parra Hernández, a 48-year-old construction worker, with his unmarked SUV while chasing him through a parking lot. Surveillance video released earlier appears to show the vehicle driving over a median and hitting him as he ran away.

Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said he hopes holding an ICE agent accountable will show the community “that we do not believe in what they’re doing and the tactics that they’re using.” He added that an ICE badge does not give anyone free rein to injure, kill, or violate constitutional rights.

Parra Hernández suffered a broken leg and a hip injury and remains in federal custody while recovering at a Houston rehab facility. He told authorities he ran because he got scared after Morales put on his mask, while Morales told deputies he didn’t brake before the impact but did not intentionally strike him.

According to Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, Morales’s SUV had two handcuffed detainees in the back seat from an unrelated operation when the crash happened. Gonzalez said he knows of no law enforcement agency that would consider that acceptable.

ICE initially stated that Parra Hernández ran in front of Morales’s car. A spokesperson called the allegations “reckless and false” and the indictment “nothing more than a political stunt by Houston sanctuary politicians,” while Aaron Reitz, the top federal prosecutor for the Southern District of Texas, called it a “political prosecution.”

The target of the operation has also come under scrutiny. ICE said it was looking for Jose Mendoza-Cervantes, who allegedly had a deportation order, but his daughter later told a publication that her father had died almost a decade ago.

The Houston-based advocacy group FIEL produced a Mexican death certificate provided by his family for a Jose Hector Jimenez, who died in 2017. Jimenez died while being pursued by federal immigration authorities.

Teare has also voiced concerns about Morales’s background and ICE’s hiring practices. Morales, 33, was one of the “surge hires” made by ICE in August 2025, and Teare said he is not familiar with a single agency that would have hired him based on his past.

Harris County Court records show Morales was charged with a misdemeanor in 2013 for allegedly stealing four DVDs. Those charges were dismissed after he paid a $270 fine and took a plea deal.

Morales also unsuccessfully ran to represent Texas’ 34th congressional district this election cycle under the name “Bam Morales.” In a Ballotpedia candidate survey, he wrote that he served in the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division and named illegal immigration as one of the country’s greatest challenges.

Teare also said ICE deported at least two “material witnesses” within a week of the crash, over the prosecutor’s objection and without an opportunity to interview them. One of his office’s investigators flew to Port Isabel Detention Center to try to talk to a witness “hours before they deported him.”

Morales is among a small handful of federal agents criminally charged for wounding people during the administration’s immigration crackdown. Christian Castro, another ICE officer, pleaded not guilty last month to charges that he lied to the FBI after he shot and wounded a Venezuelan man in Minneapolis.

Teare’s office is also investigating the fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo by ICE agent Gregory Feathers in Houston. The same grand jury that indicted Morales will decide whether to indict Feathers.