RIVERSIDE COUNTY, Calif. (KTLA) — A California man who reportedly works as a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent is accused of illegally detaining a minor at gunpoint while off duty last week.
The Nov. 10 incident, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, played out at around 10:30 pm outside a home in Temecula.
Attorney Greg Kirakosian, who represents the boy and his family, told Nexstar’s KTLA that the 17-year-old was driving home after dropping a friend off down the street when he saw the suspect, identified by investigators as Gerardo Rodriguez, pointing a gun at his vehicle and demanding he pull over.
Gerardo Rodriguez, 45 (RCSD)
“In the moment, I think he was just scared for his life. He had a gun pulled on him, and he was told to immediately stop or else,” Kirakosian explained, referring to the teen. “Then that same person came up to his driver’s side door and pulled him out at gunpoint.”
In footage of the incident obtained by KTLA, the 45-year-old is seen pulling a gun from his waistband as he walks up the street, pointing it at the teen’s truck and demanding he stop the vehicle while reportedly brandishing his badge.
“Freeze, police,” Rodriguez shouts. “Put the car in f—–g park. Get out of the car. Turn it off, get out. You’re speeding in the f—–g neighborhood. Come over here, sit down, get your ass down. You have a driver’s license?”
The 45-year-old, who is known to residents on the street as an ICE agent and also reportedly told the boy he worked for ICE, then began interrogating the Mexican American teen, asking him who he was, where he is from and demanding documentation, eventually drawing the attention of others who live on the street.
“By the time our client’s parents showed up, the neighbors had essentially come to the rescue and stopped him from doing what he was doing, calming him down and forcing him to go back inside his house and leaving the boy alone,” Kirakosian said.
The teenager’s parents had been alerted by a friend to what was happening, prompting them to rush over from their home with their son’s passport, fearing the incident could be some type of immigrant enforcement operation. They called 911 after they arrived.
Responding deputies turned the investigation over to RCSD’s Investigation Bureau, who contacted Rodriguez later the same night, arrested him and conducted a search of his house “where evidence related to the investigation was collected,” the department said in a news release.
“I think right now, a lot of Mexican Americans, whether they are in a situation like this or not, who are angry upset and scared, and this just really came close to home for them,” Kirakosian said when asked how the family was doing after the harrowing ordeal.
The L.A.-based civil rights attorney added that he believes the 45-year-old has become emboldened by what he does and sees other ICE agents doing on a day-to-day basis.
“It’s gotten so bad where he thinks he can now turn his own block into his personal ICE checkpoint,” Kirakosian said. “I don’t know how much worse the situation is going to get, honestly. This kid could’ve been shot.”
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This incident comes after several others in which federal law enforcement agents have pulled their firearms on citizens.
On Nov. 9, video captured an ICE officer pointing his gun at a woman behind him in an intersection in Santa Ana, California, witnessed by a Fullerton police officer returning from the Santa Ana Jail facility, who refused to get involved if no crime had been committed.
Federal officials later claimed the woman was following the agent.
On Oct. 30, a 24-year-old Ontario man was shot by a federal agent who was reportedly trying to notify officers involved in an enforcement operation that there were children across the street.
In that instance, federal officials claimed the agent fired “defensive shots” while fearing the 24-year-old was attempting to run over officers.
As for this latest incident, Rodriguez was booked into the Cois Byrd Detention Center on allegations of assault with a deadly weapon, child endangerment and assault by a public officer. Jail records show he posted bond and was released the same night.
KTLA has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and ICE for comment and is awaiting a response.
Neither the juvenile nor his parents have been publicly identified by authorities.
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