ICE Agents Shoot Undocumented Man They Allege Tried To Run Them Over

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

An undocumented man was shot by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on Wednesday while attempting to evade arrest, officials say.

Officials claim that ICE officers opened fire after a driver of a van drove directly at them during a traffic stop in Glen Burnie, Maryland.

The driver, Tiago Alexandre Sousa-Martins, was hospitalized, and another undocumented man in the passenger seat, Solomon Antonio Serrano-Esquivel, was injured. Both are in stable condition and expected to recover, the Department of Homeland Security said.

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that officers asked Sousa-Martins to turn off his engine. She alleges he refused to do so and tried to flee the scene.

“He then drove his van directly at ICE officers, attempting to run them over,” she said. “Fearing for their lives and public safety, the ICE officers defensively fired their service weapons, striking the driver.”

McLaughlin further claims that ICE agents shot Sousa-Martins after he rammed his van into ICE vehicles he crashed between two buildings. It was the crash that injured the passenger of the van, she says.

Photos released by DHS show a white van crashed into a tree, rather than a building. Clarification has not yet been provided on this distinction.

A spokesman for the Anne Arundel County Police, Justin Mulcahy, confirmed the shooting, telling reporters at a news conference that the “van attempted to run agents over.”

No police officials were involved in the incident, according to Mulcahy.

Sousa-Martins came to the U.S. from Portugal on a visa in December 2008 and failed to leave the country when his visa expired in February 2009, DHS said. The agency did not provide information on Serrano-Esquivel’s immigration history, though he has been identified as an El Salvadoran national.

The event is the second this week in which ICE officials opened fire while conducting arrests.

Agents fired “defensive shots” at an undocumented Cuban immigrant, Juan Carlos Rodrigues Romero, in St. Paul, Minnesota on Monday after officials claimed he struck two officers with his vehicle while attempting to flee. Romero was not hit with the shots.

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