‘I was trying to help him’: Dog walker says he reached for items dropped near an ICE arrest. Then video appears to show an agent pointing a gun at him
The bystander says he was returning dropped items to the man being arrested, while DHS says he was armed with pepper spray.
Video from an arrest in North Hollywood, California, appears to show an ICE agent aiming a gun at a man walking his dogs and shoving him into bushes. According to People, the footage comes from the detention of a Venezuelan man by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents last Friday morning.
Three agents hoisted the handcuffed man by his limbs and carried him to a vehicle, ABC7 reports. A neighbor who was walking his dogs then approaches, and an agent appears to hold a gun to his face and push him into a bush.
The outlet reports the neighbor had picked up what appeared to be a canister of pepper spray and threw it aside as officers rushed toward him. It describes him as appearing unarmed. He later picks up another object in the footage. An agent tells him to put it down and then appears to spray a substance at him, and he runs off with his dogs.
The bystander and DHS describe the moment differently
A resident who recorded the footage described the encounter to the outlet. “The guy with the dogs, he stepped in a little bit. The ICE agent pulled out a gun, backed him up in the bushes with the gun to his face,” he states. A second witness told NBC Los Angeles the man yelled at the agents and asked what they were doing.
The bystander later spoke with Los Angeles City Councilmember Adrin Nazarian, who posted the conversation online without identifying him. The man states he wanted to draw attention to the arrest so the detained man would be treated fairly. Of the moment itself, he adds that “he dropped some things and I was trying to help him pick them up and trying to return them back to him, and I think the cop felt threatened by that and he pulled out his gun on me and then pepper-sprayed me.”
The Department of Homeland Security attributes the “chaos” to both the bystander and the arrested man, and it alleges the bystander carried pepper spray. “At the same time, a bystander armed with pepper spray encountered the officers, creating a moment of chaos in an otherwise controlled scene,” a spokesperson states. The spokesperson adds that officers “took all available measures to safely secure the scene” without further incident.
DHS separately states that any bystander who “assaults, obstructs, or violently attacks officers will be subject to arrest.” It describes the arrested man as having fled on foot from his vehicle and physically resisted officers while refusing lawful commands. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called the incident “unacceptable” and states she is engaging the Attorney General’s Office.
DHS has also issued statements after other recent encounters. It responded after agents detained a man who resembled a fugitive in Evanston, Illinois, and after an agent from ICE shot a man near his car in the Bronx. In both cases it described the agents’ actions as part of a targeted operation.
DHS states the arrested man came into the US in July 2023 using the CBP One app. It adds that an immigration judge issued him a final order of removal after he failed to appear for his court date, and that he “will remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings and will receive due process.”
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