Leaving his home in Ontario to work at a food bank Thursday morning, Carlos Jimenez pulled over to warn a group of federal agents that they should wrap up their stop of a car quickly because school-age children would soon gather there to take the bus, his lawyers said Sunday. <\/p>\n
In the following moments, the attorneys said an ICE officer shot Jimenez<\/a>, a U.S. citizen and father of three, from behind.<\/p>\n Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, said at the time that Jimenez had \u201cattempted to run officers over by reversing directly at them without stopping\u201d and that the shots were \u201cdefensive.\u201d<\/p>\n Jimenez, 25, was charged in federal court with assault on a federal officer. A judge released him on bond Friday. <\/p>\n Lawyers for Jimenez offered a counter narrative. They said that Jimenez reversed because he was afraid, then was unnecessarily shot in the back of his right shoulder, where a bullet remains lodged. The agents\u2019 actions were \u201cunreasonably aggressive\u201d and a violation of their own policies, said attorney Robert Simon.<\/p>\n Jimenez, who lives in the mobile home park along the same road, approached the officers to \u201ctell them that there\u2019s kids that are coming out to wait for the bus,\u201d according to his lawyers. <\/p>\n \u201cHe was telling them, \u2018Excuse me. Can you guys please, you know, please wrap this up.\u2019 And immediately, the masked agent pulls out a gun and exchanges some words,\u201d said lawyer Cynthia Santiago. \u201c[The agent is] also shaking his pepper spray.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s in fear, and he\u2019s trying to get out of the situation,\u201d she said. The agents and their cars had blocked one southern lane on Vineyard Avenue and jutted into a second. <\/p>\n \u201cHe had to reverse to get away,\u201d said Simon.<\/p>\n \u201cThen there was a shot from the side, back passenger window, to the car,\u201d Santiago said. \u201cUse of deadly force is to be used as a last resort. Coming out to communities with guns drawn is the opposite.\u201d <\/p>\n So far, no video of the incident has publicly surfaced. <\/p>\n Federal authorities have painted a different picture of what happened. According to the complaint filed in the Central District of California on Friday, Jimenez pulled up to three immigration officers, two from Border Patrol and another form ICE and \u201cengaged in a verbal altercation,\u201d it states. <\/p>\n An ICE agent, identified as E.O., approached Jimenez in his Lexus and told him to leave. Then the agent \u201cholstered\u201d his fire arm and pulled out his pepper spray, according to the complaint. Jimenez pulled his car forward to the left. <\/p>\n \u201cThe Lexus then stopped, turned its wheels, and then rapidly accelerated in reverse back toward\u201d a Border Patrol agent named in the complaint as \u201cOfficer N.J.\u201d and the Honda the agents had stopped, which had three people inside. <\/p>\n Immigration agents have been increasingly involved in aggressive confrontations with suspects and protesters.<\/p>\n McLaughlin called it at the time \u201canother example of the threats our ICE officers are facing day in and day out as they risk their lives to enforce the law and arrest criminals.\u201d<\/p>\n But advocates and lawyers say that heavy-handed tactics are spawning dangerous situations in neighborhoods.<\/p>\n \u201cOur communities are not training grounds, they are places where children and families should be safe and able to go about their day,\u201d said Santiago. \u201cWhat we are seeing in communities such as [the Inland Empire], L.A. and Ventura is as if they are training grounds, where violence and aggression is being used against community members with or without status.\u201d<\/p>\n The shooting is the second in a little more than a week in Southern California. Last week, ICE officers fired at a man in South Los Angeles<\/a> after agents boxed his car in. Carlitos Ricardo Parias was shot in the elbow, and a deputy marshal was hit by what authorities said was a ricocheted bullet. They accused Parias of trying to ram the agents\u2019 cars.<\/p>\n