US Citizen Shot From Behind After Trying To Warn ICE Agents Of Kids In The Area, Lawyer Says

Another day, another incident involving a federal immigration officer, police brutality, and a federal government that is dedicated to responding to allegations of police brutality by framing federal agents as victims and everyone else as really mean people who keep attacking the poor, defenseless  “criminal illegal alien” capturers. This time, a U.S. citizen says he was shot by an officer from behind after he tried to warn ICE agents about children who were in the area.

According to the Los Angeles Times, on Friday, Carlos Jimenez, a U.S. citizen and father of three, was charged in federal court with assault on a federal officer before he was released on bond. The charge stems from a Thursday morning incident in which he was leaving his home in Ontario to work at a food bank and decided to pull up and have words with federal agents who were conducting a stop. Attorneys for Jimenez, 25, and the Department of Homeland Security are, as usual, telling two completely different stories about the nature of that discussion and how events unfolded during the confrontation.

Cynthia Santiago, Jimenez’s attorney, said her client was simply trying to warn agents that school-age children would soon gather in the area where they were conducting operations to take the bus.

“He was telling them, ‘Excuse me. Can you guys please, you know, please wrap this up. And immediately, the masked agent pulls out a gun and exchanges some words,” Santiago said. “(The agent is) also shaking his pepper spray.”

“He’s in fear, and he’s trying to get out of the situation,” she continued. The agents and their cars had blocked one southern lane on Vineyard Avenue and jutted into a second.

“He had to reverse to get away,” said Robert Simon, another lawyer for the defendant.

“Then there was a shot from the side, back passenger window, to the car,” Santiago said. “Use of deadly force is to be used as a last resort. Coming out to communities with guns drawn is the opposite.”

Here’s the government’s side of the story via SF Gate:

According to the complaint filed in the Central District of California on Friday, Jimenez pulled up to three immigration officers, two from border patrol and another from ICE and “engaged in a verbal altercation,” it states.

An ICE agent, identified as E.O., told approached Jimenez’ in his Lexus and told him to leave. Then the agent “holstered” his fire arm and pulled out his pepper spray, according to the complaint. Jimenez pulled his car forward to the left.

“The Lexus then stopped, turned its wheels, and then rapidly accelerated in reverse back toward” a border patrol agent named in the complaint as “Officer N.J.” and the Honda the agents had stopped, which had three people inside.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Newsweek, “An ICE officer, fearing for his life, fired defensive shots at the vehicle. The subject fled the scene and abandoned his vehicle.”

So, let me get this straight. According to DHS officials, Jimenez pulled up on the ICE agents to exchange words. The officer, who, apparently, pulled his gun out for no discernible reason, “holstered” his gun and pulled out his peeper spray even though Jimenez, by the government’s own account, hadn’t done anything outside of “a verbal altercation” to threaten them yet. Jimenez then pulled forward and attempted to back his vehicle over the agents. Then, after getting shot in the back, Jimenez fled on foot. He did this despite the fact that all of this began with an ICE stop that he wasn’t even involved in.

No, no — this is a completely believable version of events.

To be fair, under normal circumstances, it might also sound far-fetched for an ICE officer to open fire on a citizen just for trying to warn him about children who would be in the area soon. But these aren’t normal circumstances. Right now, ICE agents are running wild in cities like Chicago, deploying tear gas near schools, residential areas, and, in one instance, an area where a Halloween parade was set to take place. And they continue to do these things even after they’ve been ordered not to by federal judges. This also wouldn’t be the first time DHS officials came to play clean up after an immigration officer shot someone with a version of events that differs from that of witnesses or recorded evidence.

In this instance, no video of the incident involving Jimenez has surfaced, and there’s no guarantee any footage will be provided by the government since agents have also been admonished by judges for failing to turn on their body cameras.

McLaughlin claimed the incident is “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,” which is a lie all by itself.

The fact is, Trump administration officials keep claiming without evidence that agents are “under siege,” courts keep telling them their claims aren’t backed by evidence, and they just keep lying about agents trying to save America from dangerous criminals, while their own data indicates that the overwhelming majority of detainees have no criminal records.

So, who do we believe, the guy who says he was just trying to protect kids from agents who have already proven public safety is, at best, a secondary concern, or an administration that has proven time and time again that propaganda is its default?

Yes, that’s a rhetorical question.

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