Federal authorities are investigating a shooting involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Ontario, the second one in a little more than a week as enforcement operations unfold across the state.
ICE officers were conducting a vehicle stop around 6:30 a.m. Thursday in the 2800 block of Vineyard Avenue in Ontario, according to Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security. During the stop, an unknown person who was not the officers’ target pulled their vehicle over in front of them, she said.
Officers ordered the driver to leave, McLaughlin said, but as the driver began to pull away, “the car stopped and attempted to run officers over by reversing directly at them without stopping.”
“An ICE officer, fearing for his life, fired defensive shots at the vehicle,” McLaughlin said. “The subject fled the scene and abandoned his vehicle.”
McLaughlin called it “another example of the threats our ICE officers are facing day in and day out as they risk their lives to enforce the law and arrest criminals.”
The driver’s family identified him as Carlos Jimenez, 24, a U.S. citizen, and said he was on his way to work at a food bank when the shooting occurred.
His two brothers waited outside the two-bedroom mobile home Jimenez shares with his wife, their children, his younger brother and his mother as the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations and Ontario police gathered at the scene.
Jimenez’s 20-year-old brother, Brayan Jimenez, said he’d been sleeping when his older brother came into the house and said he’d been shot by ICE and “to take him to the hospital.”
Jimenez’s wife took him to the hospital with a gunshot wound to the shoulder, according to his family. He was later taken into custody by authorities and booked at the West Valley Detention Center, relatives said.
Blood is visible inside a car after ICE agents fired shots at the driver in Ontario.
(Francisco Jimenez)
The family shared a photo of Jimenez’s car that showed blood on the driver’s seat, center console and steering wheel. The passenger-side front window was shattered.
“I don’t think he would do anything aggressive,” said his older brother, Francisco Jimenez. “He is always trying to help out his community. At the food bank where he works, he is always trying to see what they need and he goes and gets it.”
“His No. 1 priority is his wife and kids,” Francisco said. “He’s not really political.”
Richard Ermer, who lives near where the shooting took place, said he was awakened by the sound of two or three gunshots. He also heard tires screeching but couldn’t recall if that was before or after the shots.
Javier Hernandez, executive director of the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, said volunteers arrived at the scene within 10 minutes. Hernandez said it was unclear whether ICE was able to take the initial person they were targeting into custody.
“When you have unmarked vehicles coming into Ontario, or any community, and you have men that are heavily armed, that are using weapons … that causes a lot of fear in our community,” Hernandez said. “That is the violence we are seeing from the federal government right now.”
Immigration agents have been increasingly involved in aggressive confrontations with suspects and protesters.
Last week, ICE officers fired at a man in South Los Angeles after agents boxed his car in. The man, Carlitos Ricardo Parias, was shot in the elbow, and a deputy marshal was hit by what authorities said was a ricocheted bullet. They accused Parias of trying to ram agents’ cars.
On Wednesday, a man was hospitalized after a shooting in Phoenix involving an ICE agent. According to local media reports, ICE officers conducted a traffic stop. But when the driver began speeding away, an officer in the vehicle’s path feared for his life and fired his weapon.
In September and October, there were two shootings, by ICE and Border Patrol, into vehicles in Chicago, one fatal. And in August, federal agents shot into a car in San Bernardino during an immigration stop.
In a news release, the Ontario Police Department said it responded to a request for emergency assistance from Homeland Security officers regarding an officer-involved shooting.
Police officers were not involved in the initial incident, according to the release. Several officers responded to the scene to provide traffic control and security while the Department of Homeland Security conducted its investigation.
On Tuesday afternoon, Rep. Norma Torres (D-Pomona) said ICE refused to provide her office with information about the incident despite multiple requests.
“There must be a full, transparent investigation with immediate updates,” Torres said in a media statement. “As we’ve seen in numerous incidents over the past several months, statements from the Department cannot be taken at face value. Witness statements, body-camera footage, security footage, and all relevant information must be released so the public can judge for themselves what really happened. Accountability is not optional; it is demanded.”
A spokesperson for the FBI said the agency was assisting with investigating the shooting and sent an evidence response team to the scene.
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