HOUSTON — María Guadalupe García walked helplessly among the gravestones at Forest Park Lawndale, a funeral complex in Houston’s East End neighborhood.Subscribe to read this story ad-freeGet unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.“It can’t be, they killed him without mercy,” said García, who had come to pay her last respects to Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, the Mexican immigrant and father of three who was shot and killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during a traffic stop in Texas last week.“We always greeted each other, he would ask about my family, and he was a hard-working man,” said García, 57, a resident of the East End neighborhood where Salgado Araujo lived.
“We never saw him in a scandal, nothing like that.He raised his children and gave people jobs.
What happened is a tragedy.”Another neighborhood resident who asked to remain anonymous because of his immigration status pointed at the gravestones while saying: “We all end up here, buried, but Lorenzo had a lot of life ahead of him, it’s not possible that the government shot him like that.”Lorenzo Salgado Araujo.LULAC Institute via GoFundMeGarcía and hundreds of others attended Salgado Araujo’s public wake Thursday, many wearing blue at the family’s request to honor the immigrant worker.Volunteers from various nongovernmental organizations assisted with access and distributed water and refreshments.
The family prohibited the use of cameras and cellphones at the funeral to protect its privacy, and the ceremony took place amid a heavy police presence, with officers guarding the entrance to the building.“We will always remember you and demand an investigation into your death,” Edgar Morales, a University of Houston student who attended the funeral, wrote on a condolence card.“We are Hispanic, and now we are afraid that any of us could be killed,” he added.Remembering a life, and its detailsInside, in the grand chapel of the funeral home,...