An Austin City Council candidate and member of the Democratic Socialists of America was arrested Saturday over his alleged actions at a protest against an ICE officer’s shooting of a man in Texas. Misael Ramos faces a Class B misdemeanor charge of participating in a riot. State authorities say he tried to obstruct traffic during the September 20th demonstration, while Ramos denies wrongdoing. He was released from jail later Saturday on $1,000 bail.
Ramos is one of six candidates seeking Austin’s District 1 council seat. The protest followed the shooting of Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, a Venezuelan man, during an encounter with an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in North Austin. Demonstrators gathered near the scene that Sunday, and Ramos attended the protest. State officers arrested him six days later on a warrant connected to the demonstration.
Officers arrested Ramos around 8:50 a.m. Saturday while he was walking his dog near Stafford Street and Manor Road, according to his campaign manager, Jeffrey Clemmons. His neighbor, Denisse Vargas, witnessed and filmed part of the encounter. The footage obtained by KUT shows five officers wearing Texas Department of Public Safety and Texas Rangers uniforms surrounding Ramos and ordering him to stop. A neighbor took care of his dog after the arrest.
Ramos was booked into the Travis County Jail at 9:31 a.m., KUT reported. In the arrest video, he told officers, “Let me walk my dog.” Ramos later claimed that officers told him they had a warrant but gave him no details about it. According to his account, he learned the reason for his arrest hours later when a friend visited him in jail.
The Texas Department of Public Safety gave a more specific account of the allegation to The Associated Press. The agency said video captured Ramos taking construction barricades, sandbags and other items and attempting to obstruct traffic. It provided photographs and video that it said showed some of his actions. A DPS affidavit said investigators identified Ramos using social media posts, cellphone video and government records.
Ramos’s campaign said he denies wrongdoing and intends to contest the charge. His attorney, Edmund “Skip” Davis, disputed the description of the demonstration as a riot, saying he saw people chanting and protesting. Clemmons said Ramos went to the scene after learning about Garces Perez’s shooting and joined the demonstrators. Clemmons also said Ramos shared information about the incident through his campaign channels.
Saturday afternoon, Clemmons and other speakers addressed more than 100 people gathered outside the Travis County Jail. Ramos was released around 5 p.m. on $1,000 bail, according to Davis, and met supporters who had been waiting for him. Ramos spoke about the surprise of being detained and criticized federal immigration enforcement in Austin. “At the end of the day, I am one of many cases that have been impacted,” he said.
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Watch the video of Ramos’s arrest here:
The shooting that prompted the demonstration remains under investigation. An ICE officer shot Garces Perez on September 20th, and he was subsequently taken into federal immigration custody. Austin police said their officers were not involved in the federal operation or the shooting. Accounts of the encounter have differed, and the circumstances that led the officer to fire haven’t been fully established publicly.
Ramos wasn’t the only person arrested in connection with the protest. Paul Quinzi, an attorney with the Austin Lawyers Guild, told KUT that at least three others faced charges of resisting arrest or participating in a riot related to the demonstration. KUT did not report the outcomes of those cases. More protests over the shooting and Garces Perez’s detention were planned in Austin for Sunday.
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video.