Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said his office is investigating whether an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent should face criminal charges after the agent's vehicle struck and seriously injured a Houston construction worker during a pursuit last weekend.

The collision happened around 7:20 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 10, on Clay Road in northwest Houston, according to the Harris County Sheriff's Office. ICE agents were chasing a pickup truck connected to a man with a deportation order when the agency's vehicle struck 48-year-old Miguel Parra-Hernandez, a stucco worker who was on his way to a job. Sheriff's Major Anthony McConnell said at the time that the agent "was trying to box him in to the backside of the building" when the vehicle hit him.

Parra-Hernandez suffered a broken leg, a shattered ankle and hip injuries that have already required one surgery, with more procedures still needed, according to his attorney and immigrant-advocacy group FIEL, which visited him in the hospital. ICE has said Parra-Hernandez "ran in front of an ICE vehicle and was struck" and was not the agents' target; it identified the man it was actually pursuing as Jose Mendoza-Cervantes. But surveillance footage obtained by local station KPRC and reported by The New York Times appears to show the ICE vehicle veering around a corner and striking Parra-Hernandez from behind as he ran.

"Not best practice"

Teare told the Times his office is looking at the case as a possible aggravated assault with a deadly weapon — the vehicle itself. Investigators believe the SUV was carrying people already detained in an earlier stop and that the driver had no reason to be pursuing Parra-Hernandez at all.

"THAT IS JUST NOT THE WAY THAT LAW ENFORCEMENT BEHAVES," Teare said. "Every step of the way, the behavior of these agents, and of ICE as a whole, on our streets is certainly not best practice."

Teare's office also said federal agents removed the ICE vehicle from the scene before local investigators could process it as evidence, a move he said ran against standard protocol and came over the objections of Harris County personnel on site. His civil rights division has since been canvassing the area for witnesses and additional video, according to NBC News, which also reported that ICE officers cut short a hospital visit between Parra-Hernandez and his advocates after about 15 minutes.

No charges have been filed and the agent who was driving has not been publicly identified. DHS and ICE have not responded to multiple requests for comment from reporters covering the case. The incident came less than two weeks after the administration issued new guidance meant to tighten the rules around ICE vehicle stops, including requirements that agents use lights and sirens and activate body cameras — and just three months after a different ICE agent fatally shot a man in Houston's East End during a separate stop.

Civil rights attorneys say any charging decision by Teare's office would test how far a local prosecutor can go in holding a federal immigration agent accountable under state law, in a legal gray zone that has drawn scrutiny in several cities as ICE activity has expanded this year.