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[UPDATES] Brooklyn Man Shot By ICE Officer Arresting Allegedly Undocumented Immigrant
By
Sydney Pereira
Published Feb 6, 2020
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By
Sydney Pereira
Published Feb 6, 2020
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An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot someone while on duty at a private residence in Brooklyn, officials confirmed to Gothamist.
An officer on the agency's Fugitive Operations Team shot someone on West 12th Street near Quentin Road about 8:10 a.m. Thursday in Gravesend while conducting targeted enforcement, officials said.
The officer "discharged at least one firearm in Brooklyn" while trying to arrest Gasper Avendando-Hernandez, a man who had been deported to Mexico twice in 2011, ICE spokesperson Rachael Yong Yow said.
ICE officers were "physically attacked" during the attempted arrest, she said. The Daily News reports that a video the newspaper reviewed shows a man struggling with two ICE officers, when another agent zapped him with a Taser.
ICE says Avendando-Hernandez had a 2011 assault conviction in New York City, though did not detail what the assault was. This week, he was arrested for having a "forged instrument," which the News and ABC 7 reported was a fake Connecticut license plate.
Avendando-Hernandez is currently in ICE custody along with another unidentified man. Two ICE officers were also transported to a local hospital for treatment. (The nature of their injuries was not immediately clear.)
Before the ICE officer fired a weapon, the officer was trying to detain Avendando-Hernandez, an allegedly undocumented immigrant, when his girlfriend's sons tried to intervene, according to the News. One of the sons, 26-year-old Eric Diaz-Cruz, was the man shot in the face, according to the News. Previously, it was believed two men were shot, but the News later reported that the bullet went through Diaz-Cruz's hand and then hit him in the face.
A Fire Department spokesperson said one person was rushed to Maimonides Medical Center with serious injuries from the shooting.
"There were a lot of people involved. The next thing I know there was this big bang," a witness told the News. "I heard a shot and I ran."
"ICE attempted to lodge an immigration detainer after [Avendando-Hernandez's] most recent arrest, however the subject was released from local custody before ICE could lodge a detainer," Yong Yow said. "This forced ICE officers to locate him on the streets of New York rather than in the safe confines of a jail."
In a separate case earlier this year, ICE said it filed a request to detain Reeaz Khan, a man who is accused of killing a Queens woman in January. ICE said it sent the detainer to NYPD in November 2019 for a separate assault charge, which NYPD has said it never received. The Trump administration's ICE has been increasingly frustrated with New York City's sanctuary city policy, which President Donald Trump blamed for the Queens woman's murder. ICE sued the city to get more information about Khan and another undocumented immigrant on Monday.
An NYPD spokesperson referred questions about the shooting to the agency involved. ICE's Office of Professional Responsibility is investigating what happened. We'll update this article as more information become available.
This story has been updated with additional reporting.
Barricaded Shooting Suspect in Custody @CitizenApp
1766 W 12th St 8:14:07 AM EST
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Sydney Pereira
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