The fatal shooting of a Mexican immigrant by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer has left a community “shaken” and in need of transparency, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said on Monday, after police bodycam videos of the incident emerged.
“Two weeks ago, a man was shot and killed by ICE in Franklin Park, Illinois. Shortly after, ICE issued a statement justifying the killing, saying the federal agent was ‘seriously injured,’’’ Pritzker said, referring to a statement from the Department of Homeland Security.
Bodycam videos from Franklin Park police officers showed the hurt ICE agent describing his own injuries as "nothing major.”
Pritzker on Monday focused on that comment, saying the video “has brought to light that the injuries were — in the agent’s own words — ‘nothing major.’ A man is dead. A community is shaken up. And we are yet again left with more questions than answers.”
The Sept. 12 shooting death of Silverio Villegas González, 38, is at the center of growing tensions over President Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration crackdown, more recently the surge in immigration enforcement in the Chicago area this month as part of “Operation Midway Blitz.” The administration said the effort is necessary due to the city’s sanctuary policies that restrict local officials’ ability to aid federal immigration authorities in detainment operations.
At the same time, Trump administration officials have repeatedly said increased immigration enforcement is resulting in ICE agents facing more assaults. A shooter who last week fired at a Dallas ICE facility was targeting ICE agents, according to authorities, citing evidence found at the scene and in the shooter’s devices. Two immigrant detainees died as a result of the shooting and one was injured.
Villegas González was shot and killed on Sept. 12 after two ICE agents pulled him over, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The federal agency said Villegas González dragged one of the ICE officers “a significant distance with his car” after he resisted arrest and attempted to flee — injuring the agent, who “fearing for his own life,” opened fire.
No videos show the actual shooting or the ICE agent being dragged and injured, making it difficult to corroborate DHS’s account of what happened. The agents themselves were not wearing body cameras, a DHS official told NBC News.
To piece together the timeline of events, officials and the community are relying on video, including security and body cameras from local police who responded to the scene.
The body camera video from Franklin Park police officers obtained by NBC News through a Freedom of Information Act request captured the ICE agents’ actions in the immediate aftermath of the shooting.
The FBI opened an investigation into Villegas González’s death. DHS and ICE officials have said they believe the ICE agents followed their training and used appropriate force in their interaction with Villegas González while some policing experts have said the agents used tactics that put them and others around them in unnecessary risk.
A traffic stop turns fatal
Villegas González, a single father of two boys, was driving to work after having dropped off his sons, who are 6 and 3, at school and day care on the morning of Sept. 12, according to relatives and friends.
As Villegas González was driving his car, a silver Subaru, a white unmarked Jeep pulled in front of him, according to security video from a nearby nail salon broadcast by a local CBS Chicago. Two ICE agents are seen getting out of the Jeep. One agent approached Villegas González on the passenger side of his Subaru and the other agent on the driver’s side.
The nail salon’s security video shows the ICE agents interacting with Villegas González, who had his car’s windows down. As the agents leaned into the car through the windows, Villegas González began to back up his vehicle.
“They tried to get him, but he reversed,” said a truck driver who witnessed the traffic stop and whose trailer was later hit by Villegas González’s car, according to body camera video from Franklin Park police officers who interviewed him at the scene.
“I didn’t know what was going on,” the truck driver told officers, adding he decided to pull over on the side of the road in an attempt to get out of the way.
As Villegas González then drove his car forward, the ICE officer standing by the passenger side attempted to go after Villegas González. But the other officer on the driver’s side is not visible in the video anymore, the nail salon’s security video shows.
ICE agents told police Villegas González “attempted to flee in his vehicle while dragging an agent alongside the car,” the incident report states.
Then Villegas González attempted to drive around the truck. “He lost control and crashed into the driver side of the trailer,” the police incident report of the crash states.
The truck driver said he heard at least one gunshot, but was not sure if Villegas González crashed into his trailer as a result of being shot.
Security video from a nearby auto shop appear to have captured the sounds of at least two gun shots.
A DHS news release following the shooting said ICE agents were after Villegas González because he was an undocumented immigrant “with a history of reckless driving.” An NBC News review of publicly available records found that Villegas González had never been criminally charged, but pleaded guilty to four traffic violations, including speeding in 2013.
After Villegas González crashed into the truck driver’s trailer, the two ICE officers removed him from his car, according to video from a bystander. In that witness video, Villegas González appears to be unconscious and with a bloody wound in the neck area.
ICE officers then began providing first aid to Villegas González on the side of the road and attempted to cover his wound with gauze, according to video shot by the truck driver and obtained by Telemundo Chicago.
This is the scene Franklin Park police first encountered when they arrived.
What police first saw at the scene
“One subject shot,” one of the Franklin Park police officers can be heard saying on his radio, body camera video shows. Villegas González is seen on the ground, unresponsive, as the ICE agents performed chest compressions.
“He tried to run us over,” one ICE agent told the Franklin Park police officers.
About three minutes later, emergency medical personnel arrived at the scene and took over performing CPR on Villegas González.
Franklin Park police asked the ICE agents if they were OK, according to body camera video. The ICE agent who was previously seen on the passenger side of Villegas González’s car during the traffic stop appeared not to be injured and put one thumb up.
The other ICE agent, who had been on the driver’s side when Villegas González began moving his car and was apparently dragged, said, “I got a cut.” That agent can be seen moving around with part of his jeans ripped and his left knee bleeding.
Video from one Franklin Park police officer captured a brief conversation between the ICE agents. The injured agent can be heard telling his partner about Villegas González’s children.
“We gotta let them know,” the injured ICE agent said, since they had been following Villegas González before pulling him over, The New York Times reported. “I know he’s got one minor in the day care down here to the left and another one down at the elementary school here.”
A still unresponsive Villegas González is then seen being placed on a stretcher, his right arm dangling off, and put into an ambulance, body camera video shows.
‘Nothing major’
Video from two Franklin Park police officers captured the ICE agents speaking to federal immigration officials through their radio.
When asked whether they had been injured, ICE agents said, "left knee injury, some lacerations, elbow," referring to the ICE agent who told police he had been dragged. The injured officer then added, "nothing major," putting his arms slightly up to seemingly shrug off concerns following those remarks. His partner then repeated, "nothing major" through his radio.
One Franklin Park police officer told the ICE agents he suggested getting them to the hospital, according to the bodycam video. Both ICE agents agreed.
The injured ICE agent walked to the ambulance to be transported to the hospital. The other ICE agent got on the Jeep to follow the ambulance to the hospital.
Villegas González was pronounced dead at the hospital. A medical examiner later determined he died of multiple gunshot wounds in a homicide.
The ICE agent who was hurt was released from the hospital after receiving care for back injuries, lacerations to the hand and knee tears, according to DHS.
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin had said the agent was “in serious condition“ during a TV appearance on “Fox & Friends” a day after the shooting.
When asked for clarification, McLaughlin told NBC News in an email Thursday, “Why is the media smearing our brave ICE law enforcement officer who was dragged by an illegal alien with his car leaving him seriously injured?”
“Despite his injuries, the officer and his partner immediately started administering emergency medical care to the illegal alien,” McLaughlin said, adding that ICE officers are facing growing assaults against them.
McLaughlin had previously told NBC News that the fatal shooting was under review by DHS. On Thursday, she did not comment on the status of that review process.
McLaughlin said the officer who shot Villegas González has been with ICE since 2021 and previously served in another federal law enforcement agency. He also worked as an EMT and served in the military. “This was his first time firing his weapon in a use of force incident,” she said in a news release.
The family of Villegas González in Mexico received his remains on Thursday and mourned him at a funeral in his hometown of Irimbo, Michoacán over the weekend.
“We are in a lot of pain,” Jorge Villegas, Silverio’s older brother, told Reuters through tears. “At least my brother is here now. We can finally give him a Christian burial.”
“He was a good father. He didn’t deserve what happened to him,” Jorge said.
The Mexican Consulate in Chicago is involved in assisting Villegas González’s family with custody matters of his two surviving children.
