“Finally, we got an ICE agent who crossed the line so bad, he got arrested,” Attorney Greg Kirakosian said in a statement to L.A. TACO. “This is something I think our local law enforcement has to start doing with such clear examples of unnecessary tactics.”
An off duty ICE agent in Temecula, CA (Riverside County) decided he would force a teen at gunpoint to stop his vehicle and exit it.
Video footage of the encounter—obtained by the law firm Kirakosian Law, and shared exclusively with L.A. TACO—shows off-duty federal agent Gerardo Rodriguez wearing shorts and standing outside of his home on Daybrook Terrace just after 10 p.m. in an affluent part of Temecula, where houses sell for over $2 million.
“Stop, stop, slow down,” Rodriguez shouts, as the 17-year-old drives slightly past the officer before coming to a stop.
“Freeze, police,” Rodriguez says as he approaches the car with his weapon still drawn. “Put the car in fucking park.”
Rodriguez then orders the teenager out of the truck at gun point, and begins interrogating him.
“You’re speeding in the fucking neighborhood,” Rodriguez shouts.
Come over here, sit down, get your ass down. You have a driver’s license?”
Rodriguez, who is known to residents on the street as an ICE agent, also reportedly told the boy he worked for ICE, then began interrogating the Mexican American teen, asking him who he was, where he is from and demanding documentation, eventually drawing the attention of others who live on the street.
During the detainment, neighbors who overheard Rodriguez yelling came out and begged Rodriguez to stop what he was doing, Kirakosian said.
After detaining and questioning the teen for nearly 20 minutes, Rodriguez eventually let the 17-year-old go without charging him or citing him with anything.
Fearing that the stop was immigration-related, the teenager’s parents rushed over to the scene with their son’s passport, after a friend alerted them to what was happening.
Once there, the parents called the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.
Full video:
RCSD’s Investigation Bureau, who contacted Rodriguez later that same night, arrested him and conducted a search of his house “where evidence related to the investigation was collected,” the department said in a news release.
Rodriguez was booked into the Cois Byrd Detention Center for assault with a deadly weapon, child endangerment, and assault by a public officer.
This is an ongoing investigation, and no further details will be released.