Michael Sheppard was the warden at the West Texas Detention Center before he was arrested for allegedly shooting two immigrants, one fatally.
Asylum-seeking immigrants from Cuba walk along a dirt road after crossing into the US from Mexico in Del Rio.
On Tuesday near sundown, the brothers allegedly drove past a group of suspected undocumented immigrants who had stopped to drink water out of a reservoir in the desert near Sierra Blanca, Texas, according to law enforcement affidavits. Michael Sheppard is accused of backing up his truck and yelling at the group to leave before leaning over the hood of his truck and firing the shotgun.
The shootings come amid a contentious national debate about immigrants and asylum-seekers at the border. They also follow years of complaints by immigrants against Michael Sheppard, who was the warden at the West Texas Detention Center in Sierra Blanca, Texas. The facility operated by the for-profit prison company LaSalle Corrections held immigrants for ICE up until October 2019.
Dalmar, an African detainee, said the warden of the West Texas Detention Center hit him in the face four times while he was at the nurse's station, according to the report. When Dalmar was sent to solitary, he said he was forced to lie on the ground with his hands handcuffed behind him while he was kicked repeatedly by the warden.
"ICE’s failure to hold Sheppard accountable emboldened him to continue his pattern of abuse towards migrants," RAICES said in a statement."Culminating in Sheppard and his brother harassing migrants in the street, shooting into a group of migrants, killing one man and wounding a woman."