An alleged off-duty immigration agent was arrested after holding a Latino minor at gunpoint as he was returning from a party last week, in the second recent incident of a federal officer targeting a driver in Southern California.
Gerardo Rodriguez, 45, was arrested by Riverside County authorities for the events that took place the night of November 10.
Gerardo Rodríguez points gun at a minor
The Riverside Sheriff’s Department said in a statement that its deputies responded to an emergency call reporting a person brandishing a firearm in the residential area.
Upon arrival, the uniformed officers spoke with the minor’s parents who reported that their 17-year-old son had been stopped by a subject on the street while driving home.
The man, captured on video in his pants and T-shirt, was standing in the middle of the street with the gun when the young man drove by in his pickup truck and ordered him to stop, pointing the gun at him.
He is then observed approaching the vehicle driven by the minor.
The teenager said the subject who pulled him over flashed a badge and ordered the minor out of the vehicle at gunpoint, according to the family’s attorney Greg Kirakosian.
The U.S.-born minor was reportedly questioned about his immigration status and was not released by Gerardo Rodriguez until his mother brought his U.S. passport.
“It’s not like he pulled the gun in an emergency. He had it drawn.
He was walking down the street with a gun in his hand,” Kirakosian stressed in statements quoted by the Los Angeles Times.
Gerardo Rodriguez was arrested days after the incident for assault with a deadly weapon, endangering a minor and assault by a public officer, according to the Riverside Sheriff’s Department press release, which did not state which force the youth belonged to.
The family of the young man, who is of Mexican descent, has asked that charges be filed against the agent, who is known in the neighborhood to be a member of immigration enforcement.
“My client and his family thought he would be shot to death or ICE would detain him that night,” Kirakosian told CBS.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has not yet confirmed whether Gerardo Rodriguez belongs to any of its forces.
This incident is the latest in a growing series of immigration enforcement agents confronting people at gunpoint in Southern California.
Earlier this month an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer was caught targeting a female driver in the Fullerton area.
Kirakosian warned that agents appear to be “emboldened” by their daily immigration operations, which have brought investigations into their own neighborhoods.
With information from EFE
