A traffic stop outside Baltimore on Wednesday ended with one undocumented man shot and another wounded after US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents allege the driver of a van drove directly at the officers., prompting them to open fire.
It is the second incident published this week where ICE agents shot an undocumented person during an operation after the person allegedly tried to injure the agents, although that person was not hit by gunshots.
In Wednesday’s incident, the driver of the van was shot and another undocumented migrant in the van was injured, but both are in stable condition and expected to recover, the Department of Homeland Security said.
After a year of violent encounters between DHS and the public, the confrontation provides another example of how car crashes and scuffles are taking center stage in encounters with federal agents as immigration enforcement has stepped up across the country.
A stop by ICE agents leads to a shooting
ICE officers were in Glen Burnie, Maryland, Wednesday conducting a “targeted immigration enforcement operation” when they tried to stop the two men, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.
The undocumented migrants were identified as Tiago Alexandre Sousa-Martins, a Portuguese man who was driving the van, and Solomon Antonio Serrano-Esquivel, a man from El Salvador who was a passenger, McLaughlin said.
The officers approached the van and asked Sousa-Martins to turn off the engine, but he refused and tried to leave the scene, she said. He started digging up ICE vehicles and “then drove his van directly at the ICE officers” as “it looked like he was trying to run them over,” McLaughlin said.
A photo shared by the Department of Homeland Security shows two dark minivans involved in Wednesday’s shooting incident. – Department of Internal Security
“Fearing for their lives and public safety, (officers) fired their service weapons defensively, striking the driver,” she said. Sousa-Martins then drove his car between two buildings, McLaughlin said, although photos shared by the agency on X show a white van crashed into a tree. CNN has reached out to DHS for clarification.
In the process of the crash, Serrano-Esquivel was also injured, she said.
Officers immediately treated the two men and took them to the hospital, McLaughlin said, adding that no ICE agents were injured.
Sousa-Martins came to the United States from Portugal in December 2008, but did not leave the country when his visa expired in February 2009, DHS said. The agency did not provide additional information about Serrano-Esquivel’s immigration history.
It was not immediately clear whether the two men had obtained legal representation.
CNN reached out to local law enforcement in the area to see if they responded to the incident.
Car accidents are increasing over the last year
As images of dramatic immigration operations have increased across the country over the past year, incidents involving cars have become a common occurrence.
“Aggressors are now deliberately meeting with officers, boxing in law enforcement vehicles, running ICE law enforcement off the streets, and ramming their cars into law enforcement vehicles,” Emily Covington, ICE’s Assistant Director of Public Affairs, told CNN in October.
But the agency has been criticized for the use of the tactic itself, including “precision immobilization technique” or “PIT” maneuvers, which force a car to turn and stop. Experts told CNN that the maneuver is considered a use of deadly force.
In October, Marimar Martinez was shot by a Customs and Border Patrol agent after the agency alleged that she had deliberately run into an agent’s car. US District Judge Georgia Alexakis, who presided over the case, ultimately dropped the charges after repeatedly raising concerns about how the investigation was handled and apparent discrepancies.
Other incidents in Chicago, including a fatal shooting of a man during a traffic stop, have angered the community and caused widespread condemnation as agents under the DHS umbrella have been accused of lying in court and presenting different scenarios in public statements versus court documents.
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