CHICAGO LAWN — Fresh bread in hand from Carniceria La Hacienda, Edgar Manzo was returning to his car when a red minivan pulled up quickly.

The situation caught Manzo by surprise. The red Chrysler Pacifica came close to the front of his car on West 63rd Street, and he briefly “thought someone was pulling up” on him the morning of Oct. 15.

As he got into his own car, Manzo saw an apparent officer in “full uniform,” but no badge, exit the minivan, pull up his mask and approach a man walking toward the same grocery store Manzo had just left.

Manzo pulled out his phone and started recording, he said.

Manzo’s quick decision would end up providing a Chicago Lawn family with the only concrete evidence they could find that their missing loved one — who has schizophrenia — had been taken by federal agents.

At the time, Manzo was taken aback by how fast the immigration officer apprehended the man on 63rd Street.

“Maybe two seconds — two or three seconds — that’s all it took for him to take out the zip ties, tie him up, and then he walked him to” the car, Manzo said. Another officer joined them.

“I was trembling myself,” Manzo said. “I’m recording and I’m not sure if these guys are going to throw their car at me next or come to my window next for some reason.”

The apprehended man was “so calm, he didn’t fight back,” Manzo said, adding that he couldn’t make out anything agents might have said to the man. 

Then the agents took the man away. Manzo didn’t know who he was, but posted the video on Facebook.

It soon circulated among community groups, and made its way to a pastor who recognized the man as Omar Huerta Cisneros, a permanent U.S. resident who has had a green card allowing him to live and work in this country since 1988, according to his family. The pastor, Rose Garcia, contacted his family.

Without the video, barely longer than 30 seconds, Huerta Cisneros’ family says they wouldn’t have known what happened to him. And, because he has schizophrenia, he “doesn’t have the mental capacity to reach out to anybody,” Araceli Favela, his sister-in-law, previously told Block Club.

“He doesn’t know anybody’s phone number,” she said. “He does not even have a cellphone himself.”

The family scrambled to find him.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement wouldn’t help them, even after the family reached out to members of Congress and the Mexican consulate. Family members searched for Huerta Cisneros for two weeks before Favela received tips about someone matching his description near a Walgreens in Franklin Park. She rushed to the area and found him Tuesday morning.

Family members believe immigration agents dropped him off there — possibly a day after detaining him. But federals officials never contacted the family with details, and they don’t know where he slept during his time away from home.

“He said something about ‘They said it was too far’ to take him home,” Favela said.

Spokespeople for immigration agencies didn’t respond to requests for comment on the detainment.

Edgar Manzo Credit: Provided

Manzo said “with everything going on in the neighborhood” it was his “instinct” to record because “what if something bad happened?” Filming Huerta Cisneros’ detainment was the first time he’d documented an immigration arrest, Manzo said.

He was “emotional” afterward, calling his wife and his parents to “let it out.” 

“I’m like, ‘Oh my God, this poor guy. This is crazy the way they’re doing these things,’” Manzo said. Huerta Cisneros was “minding his own business — not creating havoc. He’s just a guy … a dark-complected guy.”

Manzo doesn’t know Huerta Cisneros but has learned about him through community posts and realized he went to school with his niece. The family thanked him via Facebook for taking the video, he said. 

The speed with which the car pulled up and how quickly Huerta Cisneros was detained has stayed in Manzo’s mind, leaving him mulling the question, “What if it was your family?”

“It’s just the fact that he was an older gentleman, walking down [the street], doing nothing,” Manzo said. “It’s like ‘wow.’”

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