Sept. 24 (UPI) — A U.S. citizen was injured in the head, neck and teeth by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in a suburb of Chicago.
Evanston, Ill., police responded to the incident Sunday morning. ICE agents had left the scene after the man identified himself as an American citizen. He was taken to a hospital Sunday.
The man looked similar to the person the agents were seeking and initially refused to provide identification, the Evanston police said they were told.
The incident happened on the same day that an ICE agent shot a man in Austin, Texas.
“Today, EPD responded to a sighting of federal agents at Dodge/Howard, where a U.S. citizen was briefly detained and then released. The person was treated at St. Francis Hospital for minor injuries. EPD continues to investigate the situation, and we will remain vigilant about federal activities,” Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss posted on X.
The city’s police chief met with the man at the hospital, and the man’s injuries were photographed by a technician.
“ICE encountered an individual who resembled the target. ICE approached the individual and immediately identified themselves as law enforcement,” a DHS spokesperson told CNN, but said the man did not identify himself.
The ICE agents “later left the scene without further incident once the individual finally identified himself,” the statement said. DHS said the man refused help from ICE agents.
Surveillance video shows the man in a struggle with the ICE officers, then they put him on the ground. At least three vehicles of bystanders park and begin watching and filming the incident.
One bystander’s video begins with the man on the ground, with one agent holding him there.
A man’s voice is heard saying he is a U.S. citizen. The officers then release him and step away. He tells the officers not to touch him. The agents then leave the scene in their vehicles.
Bystanders step in to help the man and call for help.
Witness Miguel Olivares told CNN affiliate WLS Chicago he was taking a break while helping out at a nearby Mexican restaurant when he noticed a confrontation unfolding.
“It looked like police vehicles until I started hearing, ‘I’m a U.S. citizen. I’m a U.S. citizen,'” Olivares said, then he began filming.
“They were being rough with him; they had him pinned against the floor, and it looked like one of the agents hit him in the face,” Olivares said. He and others tried to comfort the man after agents released him.
Ryan Garton, 56, a marketing executive in Evanston, said he noticed a commotion on the way home from his son’s soccer game.
“I saw two ICE agents pinning a guy to the ground,” he told The New York Times, adding they were “beating him up.” Garton said he then parked his car and joined other bystanders.
Garton said he knelt to comfort the man along with other witnesses.
The man told Garton that he had been in an emergency room the previous day and was walking to fill a prescription when he said the agents assaulted him.
“He was like, ‘I don’t understand. I’m a citizen,'” Garton said the man told him. “‘Why did they attack me?'”
Garton told The Times that the agent’s conduct was unacceptable. “Let’s say it was a fugitive and they got the wrong guy,” he said. “If you tackle the wrong guy, you don’t leave him on the ground bleeding and drive off. It’s like fleeing the scene of a crime.”
“People are horrified to see this happening on the streets of Evanston or any other U.S. city,” Nathan Ryan, a spokesperson for Sanctuary Evanston, told The Times. “It’s been a continuation of the violence we’ve seen, and it reinforces that it’s not about safety, it’s about violence. It’s about the federal government sabotaging the safety of our cities.”
Source: U.S. News
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