ICE official, who was sleeping on man’s lawn and appeared ‘intoxicated’, faces felony charges, California police say
A 72-year-old man shot an off-duty Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official in California early on Friday morning after the “intoxicated and agitated” official assaulted him and his daughter on their property, local authorities allege.
The Fresno police department said that the ICE official was receiving medical care after being shot in the midsection. The official, identified as David Gonzalez, is facing felony charges for assaulting the father-daughter duo, Fresno police said.
It was not immediately clear for how Gonzalez had been with ICE and what exactly he did for ICE. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, referred all questions about Gonzalez to Fresno police.
It should be legal to shoot ice agents, on duty or off, particularly if they, as usual, are masked and not following police procedures. And if the man was afraid for his life, as he definitely should have been if an ice agent was involved, the precedent set by multiple high profile recent cases in other states is that it was legal. I hope that jury finds the same.
Honestly, since ICE agents don’t provide any kind of id when asked, we shouldn’t refer to them as ICE agents, because that’s really unconfirmed. It would be more appropriate to say “masked man dressed as ICE agent”, because we can’t actually know that they’re an official rather than a criminal in a costume. And obviously, the correct and rational response to being assaulted or harassed by someone in a mask is to treat them like a criminal, and defend yourself appropriately.