Federal law enforcement agents injured and briefly detained an Evanston man, a U.S. citizen, after they mistook him for another man for whom they said they had an arrest warrant, according to the Evanston Police Department.
A caller phoned Evanston police Sunday to report hearing two men get into an argument, with one stating that an individual was being taken into custody, according to police. Police arrived at approximately 9:49 a.m. at the 1700 block of Howard Street, on Evanston’s border with Chicago, to find an injured adult male on the ground with several individuals assisting him, an Evanston police press release stated.
Witnesses told police that men they believed to be U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents had attempted to take the injured man into custody, according to police Commander Ken Carter.
The victim reported injuries to his “head, neck and teeth” from the interaction and police requested an ambulance, Carter said.
Police Commander Chelsea Brown declined to identify the Evanston man involved in the Sept. 20 incident.
Carter said that one of the Evanston police officers who initially responded to the call encountered two SUVs near Dodge Avenue and Brummel Street, about two blocks north of Howard Street, with one of the vehicles containing a man wearing “plain clothes and a vest marked ‘POLICE’ with federal law enforcement markings.”
Police said that man later identified himself to Evanston police as a federal agent conducting a fugitive investigation and attempting to “identify an individual who resembled a person they were seeking.”
The federal agent said the individual accused of being a fugitive refused to provide identification and was briefly detained for fingerprinting and resisted detention, according to police.
Agents later determined the man was not the individual they were seeking and is a U.S. citizen. The man was released by federal agents, Carter said.
Video footage posted to social media Sunday depicts the end of the encounter with the Evanston man and the agents, where an individual is seen lying near the curb across from El Pueblito Mexican Grill, with two agents wearing ICE-style vests, one marked with the word “POLICE,” standing over him before driving away in a black SUV.
According to an Evanston police press release, the Evanston police officer who spoke to the federal agent observed blood on the agent’s hands and the agent responded that he was “injured while attempting to handcuff” the man. The agent declined medical treatment, police said.
He told police that he was one of five federal agents who had been active in the area, all using separate vehicles, but that the “person they were seeking had addresses associated with Chicago” and the agents had a warrant for the person’s arrest, according to an Evanston police statement.
The federal agent told Evanston police other agents “left the area after protesters began to gather” over fears they would be attacked, the statement said.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a Pioneer Press request for comment regarding ICE’s presence in Evanston or agents’ alleged detainment of a U.S. citizen.
Evanston police and Chief Schenita Stewart later contacted the detained man, an Evanston resident, at St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, where an evidence technician “photographed and documented” his injuries, according to police and Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss.
“EPD continues to investigate the incident,” the statement said. “Officers are conducting a video canvass, preserving available body-worn-camera and in-car video, and collecting photographs and video from witnesses and community members.”
Additional video evidence is being collected and reviewed and will be publicly released when available, Carter wrote.
This is the first confirmed incident involving ICE agents in Evanston in several months, nearly a year after federal agents first tore through Chicago’s north suburbs to conduct immigration enforcement raids during the Trump administration’s Operation Midway Blitz.
Evanston Mayor Biss declined a Pioneer Press request for comment, instead referring to a statement he issued on social media Sunday regarding the incident.
“We saw heightened ICE activity in Evanston today,” Biss wrote. “We know what to do. Check your rapid response chats, keep your whistles at hand, and let’s protect each other.”
Chief Stewart also declined to comment further on the incident.
Last month, Stewart sent the Cook County state’s attorney’s office a “formal request for guidance” regarding whether the city has legal grounds to prosecute ICE agents over immigration raids that took place last Halloween in Evanston and caused a car crash near Oakton Street and Asbury Avenue, in addition to other resident injuries.