Extended interview: Sons of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo

He always made time for us. And knowing that, at the end of the day, my mom would have her companion back. And me, I left Houston for college and then never really moved back, and it was always a really strong feeling for me because we were raised to be very family centric and just loving our parents and wanting the best for them, too, as much as they wanted the best for us. It felt nice that I knew my mom was being supported, and I knew my dad was being supported by my mom. And just losing that presence is-- I'm not sure how to describe it. I mean, for me, I'm going to miss-- I'm going to miss his laugh. He had an infectious laugh. He had an infectious laugh. It was loud. It was resounding. It was something-- I always miss seeing his hats. He wore a lot of hats to work. He wore one every day. I miss seeing them just lying around. And there would be times where I would be driving just around, and I would see him driving past me, and we'd always wave at each other. We'd always flash our lights to say hello. And I always recognized him because his van was-- it's a van that we've grown up seeing since we were born. I mean, he's had different vans, and there was always a way to figure out if it was him. He was always wearing a hat. So I'm really going to miss that. Yeah, not seeing vans when we're driving around. For a split second, I have to remind myself that it's not him. When you see a van? When I see a white van down the street, yeah. And that was the vehicle he was driving when he was fatally shot? That was the vehicle he went to work in every morning. And that morning, he was in that van. Let's go back to last week. How did you learn that your father had been shot and killed? So I was here in Houston. I was out the door within five minutes when my mom told me something was wrong. We first went up to the job site to see if we had spotted the van. At this point, no one knew where he was. We searched the job site an hour away, and I was looking on Facebook page, the Southeast HTX Neighborhood News page. And someone was saying, hey, what's going on on the intersection of Wayside and Canal? And that's very close to home, very, very close to where we grew up. Someone said, it's going to be-- it's some ICE activity. And I thought, you know what? It can't be, but let's go check it out. I was there. I saw the street blocked off. I saw a van with a door swung wide open. I immediately knew it was my dad's van, just based on seeing it basically every day. After a morning of just driving frantically for an hour, two hours back. Yeah, and just knowing that he was like 10 minutes away from where we grew up. I'm like, I should have been there sooner. Whenever I got to the scene, I wasn't allowed to approach the van at all. My intent was to retrieve the van so that I can take it up to the job site so the work could be done. It's what my dad would have wanted. Even if he had been detained, he would have wanted the van to be taken to his workers to finish the houses. At that point, did you know your father had been shot? I did not know. It wasn't until I checked again and someone posted a video of someone on the ground yelling for help. And I recognized the voice. You did?

It was dad. Yeah. And seeing it on video-- and I still hear that sound in my head of him screaming for help-- is something that I'll never forget. But if it were not for the Facebook page, I wouldn't have known that it was him. Someone did tell me that someone was shot, and I just didn't want to believe that it was my dad until I saw the video. I had held out hope that he was still alive. People can survive gunshot wounds. And my dad-- He was strong. --he's a strong man, physically strong man. He works construction. Yeah, construction job. He would work out, too, right? He did push-ups at the job site to keep up with his physical regimen. His supervisor on site is this very, very muscular guy, and my dad, every chance he got, he would get on the floor and do a couple push-ups, see if he can get the muscles like the guy had. This guy is strong. He never really complained about pain. And I knew he was going through some pain in his day to day. I mean, when you put in decades of hard labor, it does a toll to your body, but he never complained. So when I saw that he was shot, I, in my heart, was, he's alive. That's what I thought. He's moving. He's alive. He's yelling. He's going to come back from this. I'm going to go find him, and I'm going to be able to at least see him and apologize that I didn't get there sooner. But no one would tell me anything. So I waited and waited to the police because there was a possibility of them turning the van over to me. I didn't know that at that point that the FBI was considering it a scene, that they wouldn't release it. But I was willing to stay there for hours. Ronaldo, when you saw that video of your father on the ground screaming, how did you feel? I felt surprised. At first, I felt relieved because, I mean, I saw my dad, and then I felt scared because I'd seen that he'd been shot. He was actively bleeding. He was screaming for someone to help him. I just felt a lot of fear at that point, and I was running around the site trying to look for answers, but those answers never came. Lorenzo, when you saw that video, what went through your mind? So I don't live in Houston, so I'm at a distance. And being at a distance, I knew there wasn't really much I could do in terms of actionable things. I was at home that morning, and I got a call from my mom telling me that something had happened. And. I remember frantically calling hospitals and being really afraid because I had heard that something had happened, and I had seen the video, and it-- yeah, I recognized him immediately by his yells. And it was a blur, really, that morning because I really thought that he would be OK. And I flew in that afternoon because I knew there would be tasks ahead of time, and being able to maybe see my father later that evening at the hospital was really my goal once I got on that plane. And once I was on that plane, I knew that the person shot had been transported to the hospital, and they were performing CPR on them. And that's all I knew up until I got onto the plane. And maybe an hour into the flight, I opened the same article that reported that the person had been shot. In the middle of the flight on the in-flight Wi-Fi, the article updated to read shot comma killed. And I remember the woman I was sitting next to-- I didn't want her to know that I think my dad had just died. I was going back and forth between the bathroom to clear my nose, and I really tried to stop the tears from falling because I didn't want anyone's attention. I really just wanted to get home and be with my family, regardless of whether the reports were true or not. And that's where my mind was. My mind was to be with my family and hopefully seeing my dad later that evening. But you couldn't say goodbye to your dad. I did not say goodbye to my father. Ronaldo? Yes? When you learned that your father had died, what immediately went through your mind? What were you thinking about? Were you angry, sad? Was it a combination of emotions? It was a combination of emotions, for sure. I didn't know what to do. No one really prepares for anything like this. I felt anger for sure. My dad had been taken away from me, from us. I felt guilt because I should have been there sooner. I thought I could save him or at least see him one last time. I felt sadness for my mother because she had just lost a partner that she's been with for 40 years, since they were kids. And I felt-- I felt that I now had this mission to carry on the family, to be strong for my family as the oldest. I basically put upon this responsibility for myself to take care of my mom, to take care of my youngest brother. So I felt that I couldn't necessarily cry at the moment because I was needed with my family. I needed to be working to get answers. So, yeah, I felt that this was a responsibility that I needed to take care of. What has been the most difficult and painful part of this entire situation for you? Lorenzo? Lorenzo? I think just accepting that he's never going to come back. I'm not sure I'll ever accept that. But I have to, and I know I've really been heartened by everyone's response. And I've seen my mom slowly gain strength based off of the small amount that she's seen because she hasn't opened any social media. She hasn't seen any TV. Everything that she's heard has been from us. And so managing my dad's absence and helping my mom stay strong and help her understand that there's people behind us, and we're so grateful for all the community support that we've received. It's been invaluable to us in terms of keeping us going because we definitely couldn't do this alone. CAMILO MONTOYA-GALVEZ: Of course not. For me, I'm always going to feel some sort of guilt that I could have been there sooner, that I could have done something. I fear that I will always live with that guilt because who knows what would have happened if I had been there or if I had arrived at the scene much sooner? I'll always think about that, and it's just a lot of guilt. Oh man. Ronaldo and Lorenzo, what does justice look like for you in this case? The first step is to continue pushing for a independent, transparent investigation. That is the first step to obtain any form of justice. It really is a difficult question. I think we'll have justice when my mom feels ready to go outside without fear, when people don't have to live in shadows. And, of course, the first step there, like my brother said, is completing an investigation completely transparent and in full. And I think that's the very first step. Have you received answers to the questions that you have about your father's killing so far? Not at the moment, no. Not enough to satisfy my mom. To defend its immigration policies, The Trump administration routinely says that ICE is targeting the worst of the worst. Based on what you guys just told me, it does not sound like your dad fit that description. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. That, no. It doesn't align with who we know him to be. No. This is a man with the utmost respect to people, to the law, utmost respect to his workers and families. That doesn't sound like the man I know, but what-- you know?