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A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent briefly held at gunpoint a woman whom he claimed was following him, prompting a southern California police officer to intervene, authorities said.
The police department in Fullerton, a city in Orange county almost 30 miles (48km) from Los Angeles, said that on Sunday one of its officers had just finished taking an incarcerated person to a county jail when he saw two vehicles stopped in an intersection in Santa Ana.
The officer stopped when he saw a man exit one of the vehicles and point a firearm at the other driver, the agency said in a statement. He did not initially know the identity of the armed man, who was dressed in plain clothes and soon provided credentials showing he was an ICE agent.
Video of the incident surfaced online appearing to show the police officer “assisting” the ICE agent, and the department sought to clarify its role in a press release. In footage of the incident, a man in sunglasses and a green shirt can be seen standing in the middle of an intersection, pointing a gun at a driver when an officer pulls up.
“What are you doing?” the woman being held at gunpoint said in the video. “Are you for real right now? And now these cops are helping them … I’m just driving.”
The agent said the woman had been following and filming him, the department said, and the officer informed him he could not assist if no crime had been committed. The woman soon left, followed by the officer, according to the statement.
“ICE is a federal law enforcement agency, and Fullerton Police Officers will assist them, and any other local, state, or federal law enforcement agency, in situations involving immediate officer safety,” the department said.
“However, Senate Bill 54 prohibits local law enforcement from participating in immigration enforcement. The Fullerton Police Department has not and will not participate in immigration enforcement efforts.”
The Department of Homeland Security in a statement accused the driver of screaming at the agent and attempting to cause a collision, and said the agent “followed their training” and turned on emergency lights, identified themselves and ordered the driver to stop.
“To defend himself, following the aggression of the driver and her refusal to follow law enforcement commands, our officer followed his training and drew his weapon. The driver fled the scene before local police arrived and is still at large. No shots were fired,” said Tricia McLaughlin, the DHS assistant secretary, in a statement.
However, the driver can be heard on the video as the police officer responded to the scene, appearing to contradict McLaughlin’s statement that the driver fled before police arrived.
The FBI has urged US immigration officers to clearly identify themselves following a spate of crimes perpetrated by people who posing as agents.
