HOUSTON — A substance investigators found in a van driven by a man fatally shot by ICE earlier this month was not an illegal narcotic, the Harris County District Attorney’s office said Friday.

Subscribe to read this story ad-free

Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 51-year-old father of three, was fatally shot by an ICE law enforcement officer during a July 7 traffic stop the agency said turned life-threatening. The government has alleged he weaponized the vehicle, but that argument has been disputed by others in the van.

After the fatal shooting, an FBI agent said small bags consistent with drug packaging that contained a substance resembling methamphetamine could be seen in plain view inside the vehicle. The bureau obtained a search warrant, allowing agents to search the van.

The Harris County District Attorney’s Office said Friday on X that the seized substance “tested negative for narcotics/ illicit drugs.” It said it would not comment further on the results, citing the pending investigation.

“We have notified Salgado Araujo’s family because we felt they had the right to know,” the DA’s office said.

David Donatti, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Texas, said in a statement Friday that Salgado Araujo was a “hardworking man” who built houses for Texas families.

“The government has demonstrated that it is more interested in creating a false narrative than in seeking the truth,” he said of the search warrant. “The Salgados deserve real answers about what happened.”

Ruby L. Powers, a lawyer who represents Victor Salgado Araujo, Salgado Araujo’s brother who was taken into custody following the shooting, said previously that the substance was believed to be “granulated salt, which is paired with lemon and water as a homemade electrolyte mix used by outdoor workers in extreme Texas heat.”

Powers said Friday that full lab results expected next week will confirm what the substance was.

“An unproven claim was allowed to circulate before it was tested, and the way it was made public did real damage, diverting attention from what actually matters in this case,” she said. “Lorenzo was shot, and no lab report answers for that.”

ICE referred a request for comment on the district attorney’s finding to the Department of Homeland Security, which did not immediately respond. The FBI said it has no comment.

Caucus hearing on shooting

The finding was announced a few hours after the Congressional Hispanic Caucus held a hearing on the shooting Friday in Houston and addressed the search warrant application for the van that Salgado Araujo was driving.

Along with members of the caucus, Rep. Bennie Thompson, ranking member on the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security, also attended.

Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said during the hearing that drug involvement would have been out of character for any of the people in the van that morning. The unsealing of the FBI’s search warrant request before a grand jury could see the investigation’s evidence was unprecedented in his career.

“To unseal it the day it’s signed, never seen it in my 20 years,” he said during the hearing.

Lawyer Hugo Balderas-Ibarra, who represents two others who were in the van, said in a statement on Friday that the possibility Salgado Araujo was involved in any way with drugs is “absurd.”

Lorenzo Salgado Jr., one of Salgado Araujo’s sons, testified at the hearing, criticizing ICE and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security.

“Over the past two weeks we’ve had to grieve our father too soon,” he said. “DHS first said ICE targeted our father, then admitted he was never their intended target at all. DHS also said he weaponized his vehicle, a claim the three men who were in the van with him have directly disputed and one that surveillance footage, so far, does not appear to show.”

ICE personnel at the scene did not have body cameras, DHS said, and any possible security or cellphone video of the confrontation, if it exists, has not been released.