A man is recovering from injuries he sustained Sunday morning after ICE officers mistakenly targeted him in a Chicago suburb.
In one video verified by NBC News, a Black man is seen sprawled on the street, near a curb, behind a black SUV in Evanston, Illinois. Two agents wearing ICE-style vests are seen standing over him. One of the agents has his face covered and is wearing a vest that reads “POLICE,” and the other appears to be pinning the man down to the ground. The man is shouting at them and can be heard saying, “I’m a f------ U.S. citizen.”
According to Evanston police, the man reported injuries to his head, neck and teeth, and officers on the scene requested an ambulance.
Police said they are investigating the incident, which was recorded by bystanders and gained attention after being posted on social media.
One bystander in the background of the video is heard saying the ICE officers used force against the man. Other bystanders begin shouting at the man on the ground, asking him if he is OK. The ICE officers eventually get in the black SUV and drive off, leaving the man on the ground. The bystanders begin trying to help the man and call Evanston police.
“I saw two agents pinning down a gentleman. They were using very rough force on him, and it looked like they really did hurt him because we had to call 911,” Miguel Angel Olivares, one of the people who witnessed the encounter, told NBC Chicago on Monday.
“When we saw him, he had his jaw swollen and he had a little blood on his shirt. I’m not sure if it was the agent’s or it was his blood,” Olivares said.
In a news release Sunday, Evanston police said they spoke to an ICE agent who said federal immigration officers “had attempted to identify an individual who resembled a person they were seeking.” After the man refused to provide identification, he was “detained for fingerprinting, and resisted detention.”
An Evanston police officer reported observing blood on the agent’s hands. The agent said he was injured while attempting to handcuff the individual and declined medical treatment, according to the news release from Evanston police. “Agents later determined he was not the person they were seeking and learned that he was a U.S. citizen. He was released.”
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told NBC News in a statement Tuesday that their officers encountered a person who resembled someone they were targeting in an enforcement operation in Evanston on Sunday.
“ICE approached the individual and immediately identified themselves as law enforcement. The individual was given lawful commands but was not cooperative and refused to identify himself. ICE officers relied on their training and later left the scene without further incident once the individual finally identified himself,” the DHS statement reads. “DHS enforcement operations are highly targeted, and officers do their due diligence.”
DHS did not state anything about the injuries the man suffered and why ICE officers did not appear to render aid.
Neither the police nor DHS identified the man who was injured.
Evanston police said they spoke with the injured man at a local hospital on Sunday. They “photographed and documented his injuries” as part of an ongoing investigation into the incident, police said.
