An undocumented man was shot and another injured at a traffic stop outside Baltimore on Wednesday after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said the driver of a van drove directly at police., prompting them to open fire.
This is the second incident announced this week in which ICE agents shot an undocumented person during an operation who allegedly tried to harm the agent, but the person was not shot.
The driver of the truck was shot and another undocumented immigrant in the truck was injured in Wednesday’s incident, but both were in stable condition and expected to recover, the Department of Homeland Security said.
The confrontation comes after a year of violent clashes between the Department of Homeland Security and the public, providing another example of how crashes and collisions have taken center stage in encounters with federal agents as immigration enforcement ramps up across the country.
ICE agent stop leads to shooting
ICE officers conducted a “targeted immigration enforcement operation” in Glen Burnie, Maryland, on Wednesday to try to stop the two men, Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of Homeland Security, said in a statement.
McLaughlin said the undocumented immigrants were identified as Thiago Alexander Souza Martins, a Portuguese man who was driving the van, and Solomon Antonio Serrano Esquivel, a Salvadoran man who was a passenger.
She said officers approached the van and asked Sousa-Martins to turn off the engine, but he refused and tried to leave the scene. McLaughlin said he began ramming ICE vehicles “and then drove the van directly at the ICE officers” because “he appeared to be trying to run them over.”
A photo shared by the Department of Homeland Security shows two dark-colored minivans involved in Wednesday’s shooting. – Department of Homeland Security
“Fearing for their lives and public safety, (the officers) fired defensively, striking the driver,” she said. McLaughlin said Sousa-Martins then crashed his car between two buildings, although photos shared by the agency on X show a white van crashing into a tree. CNN has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for clarification.
Serrano-Esquivel was also injured during the crash, she said.
Police provided immediate medical attention to the two men and transported them to the hospital, McLaughlin said, adding that the ICE agent was not injured.
The Department of Homeland Security said Sousa-Martins came to the United States from Portugal in December 2008 but did not leave the country when his visa expired in February 2009. The agency did not provide additional information about Serrano-Esquivel’s immigration history.
It was unclear whether the two men had received legal representation.
CNN has reached out to local law enforcement in the area to see if they responded to the incident.
Car accidents continued to increase last year
As images of dramatic immigration operations emerged across the country last year, accidents involving cars became commonplace.
“Assailants are now intentionally ramming into officers, punching and kicking law enforcement vehicles, keeping ICE officers off the road and ramming their cars into law enforcement vehicles,” ICE Assistant Director of Public Affairs Emily Covington told CNN in October.
But the agency has been criticized for its use of the tactic itself, including the controversial “Precision Immobilization Technology,” or “PIT,” maneuver that forces a car to skid and come to a stop. Experts told CNN the move was considered a use of deadly force.
Marimar Martinez was shot by a Customs and Border Patrol agent in October after the agency claimed she intentionally rammed an agent’s car. U.S. District Judge Georgia Alexakis, who presided over the case, ultimately dropped the charges after repeatedly raising concerns about how the investigation was handled and discrepancies that emerged.
Other incidents in Chicago, including the shooting of a man during a traffic stop, outraged the community and drew widespread condemnation as agents with the Department of Homeland Security were accused of lying in court and presenting different scenarios in public statements than in court documents.
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