Immigration agents shot and killed an unarmed 38-year-old father outside Chicago on Friday—and their initial narrative of events was quickly disproven by videos captured by witnesses.
By Steve Held, Raven Geary, and Dave Byrnes, Unraveled
Less than one week into President Donald Trump’s surge of deportation arrests in Chicago, an immigration agent shot and killed a man during a traffic stop on a near suburban street Friday morning.
The Department of Homeland Security identified the man as Silverio Villegas González, confirmed by the Mexican consulate as a 38-year-old Mexican citizen from the state of Michoacán. An unidentified ICE agent fatally shot him in the heavily Latine Chicago suburb of Franklin Park during what DHS described as a “vehicle stop,” according to an official statement.
The statement, which was immediately quoted by media outlets, places much of the blame on Villegas González for his own death. The agency also claimed Villegas González drove his car at ICE agents conducting the vehicle stop, resulting in serious injuries.
“He refused to follow law enforcements [sic] commands and drove his car at law enforcement officers,” the statement reads. “One of the ICE officers was hit by the car and dragged a significant distance. Fearing for his own life, the officer fired his weapon.“
Bystander videos and eyewitness accounts, however, tell a different story.
Security footage near the scene in Franklin Park, as reported by CBS, shows two plainclothes agents approaching a silver sedan that had been blocked off by an unmarked SUV.
The sedan eventually reverses from the two agents, and the officer on the passenger side points his firearm at the vehicle.
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