The Department of Homeland Security now said agents shot a woman in the Brighton Park neighborhood Saturday morning after they became boxed in by vehicles. DHS originally said the shooting happened while agents were patrolling in Broadview.
According to a statement from the Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, the incident unfolded when agents were patrolling in west suburban Broadview, where they have an ICE facility that has been the site of ongoing protests and clashes between agents and demonstrators.
The patrolling agents were rammed by vehicles and “boxed in by 10 cars,” DHS said. The statement did not say where in Broadview this occurred, but that it was “in the same area” as the ICE facility.
DHS said the agents were unable to move their vehicles and got out of the car. According to DHS officials, one of the drivers of a car boxing them in had a gun, which the agency said was a semi-automatic weapon. DHS said the agents opened fire, striking the driver, who they said is a woman. She was taken to a hospital for treatment. A spokesperson for Sinai Health System said the woman has since been released.
In their statement, DHS claimed the woman was named in a U.S. Customs and Border Protection intelligence bulletin last week for doxxing agents and posting threats against ICE online. They have not released her name or any other further information that could corroborate those claims.
DHS said no agents were injured.
Protest erupts at the scene of the shooting
Once protestors got to the area, Alderwoman Julia Ramirez (12th) said she saw another man taken by federal agents at this gas station nearby.
“Since then, there was one car that was at this gas station with a person, a US citizen, that has now been detained,” Ramirez said.
All morning and into the afternoon there were tense moments between agents and protestors, with yelling, objects thrown, and officers spraying pepper balls.
Groups of federal agents kept arriving on scene. Four to five undercover federal agents SUVs made their way through the crowd and go underneath tape. Each time they came through protestors fought back.
“If they are zooming through a crowd of protestors and they are doing it every five minutes to continue the irritation on people, it’s almost like they want people to be provoked,” Ramirez said.
At one point a military vehicle pulled up near the protestors and an agent drew his gun from the roof pointing it at protestors below.
“Now they got the SWAT truck here like we are like the military now, this is like a war zone here,” Gabriel said.
DHS accused Chicago police of not helping during the incident, though Chicago police have no jurisdiction in Broadview. DHS also said in its statement that “there is a growing crowd and we are deploying special operations to control the scene.”
Chicago police said in a statement they responded to the 3900 block of South Kedzie in the city’s Brighton Park neighborhood for a report of a person shot. Brighton Park is several miles away from Broadview, where McLaughlin’s statement said the shooting took place.
A second statement from DHS, a short time later, said Border Patrol officers were patrolling near 39th Place and S. Kedzie before repeating McLaughlin’s statement that said the incident took place in Broadview. CBS News Chicago has reached out to DHS officials for clarification, but they have just referred us to their statement.
Chicago police said they responded to document the incident and to maintain safety and traffic control, but are not involved in the incident or investigation. CPD said federal authorities are investigating the shooting and “all further inquiries regarding the circumstances of this shooting should be referred to the appropriate federal authorities.”
The FBI said in a social media post Saturday afternoon that, “Following recent events during immigration enforcement in Broadview, the FBI and our federal law enforcement and prosecutorial partners continue to aggressively pursue charges and investigate violence against officers, obstruction of justice, and destruction of federal property. Our office is committed to ensuring the safety of Chicago’s streets and all of our neighborhoods.”
CBS News Chicago has reached out to Broadview police for more information and are waiting to hear back.
contributed to this report.
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