Ronaldo Salgado and Lorenzo Jr., sons of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, hold a photograph of their father during a news conference Wednesday, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

HOUSTON (AP) — A Mexican national fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Houston had no criminal convictions during his decades living in the U.S. and was driving a crew to a homebuilding site when he was killed, his family and a Texas congresswoman said Wednesday.

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was working toward securing legal status in the U.S. and knew what to do if stopped by ICE, his son said.

Federal officials said they were stopping the vehicle in an immigration enforcement operation. Ronaldo Salgado said his father may have been scared that the people in unmarked vehicles were coming to steal the tools he had used for 35 years to build homes so he could send his three American sons to college.

“He did not deserve to die. He did not deserve to be reduced to a headline of Mexican man shot and killed by ICE. He deserved to live a quiet life as Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a husband, a father and a job creator for dozens of men who also wanted the American dream,” Salgado said during a news conference.

The shooting happened Tuesday in Magnolia Park, a neighborhood that has been a hub for Houston’s Mexican American community for a century. On Wednesday night, hundreds of people marched through the neighborhood chanting “ICE out of Houston!”

Salgado Araujo was shot after he ignored commands and attempted to ram an officer who fired his weapon in self-defense, the Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday. ICE officers were targeting him because he was living in the country without legal permission, according to the department, which oversees ICE. The man’s car struck an ICE vehicle, the department added.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia said Salgado Araujo had no criminal convictions.

Houston firefighters said he was shot in the abdomen. He died at a hospital.

Three other men appeared to be detained as Salgado Araujo lay moaning on the ground, according to his son, who said one of them was his uncle.

Daniel Tirado was one of the other men in the van and called his wife briefly to say they were being followed, Tirado’s stepdaughter Juana Degollado told The Associated Press.

“What he remembers is that an ICE agent shot Lorenzo and the van door was closed,” Degollado said.

Tirado wasn’t able to contact his family until Wednesday morning, and the call lasted only five minutes, his stepdaughter said. They haven’t been able to get additional information from ICE or the FBI.

Jose Rojas was also detained, according to his stepdaughter Griselda Silva. The 51-year-old Mexican national had lived in the U.S. for decades without legal status or a criminal record, she said.

Federal officials have not released video or images of the shooting or the vehicles. Salgado on Tuesday joined civil rights groups and Democratic officials in urging federal authorities to release all the footage and other information it has on the shooting.

In several other shootings involving federal officers, initial descriptions by immigration officials have sometimes been contradicted later by video evidence.