A federal immigration agent pulled out a handgun and pointed it just inches from the face of a bystander during an apparent operation in North Hollywood on Friday morning, according to video obtained by The Times.
The bystander was not detained or taken into custody by federal officials during the incident, but a person who appeared to be a masked federal agent shoved the man into bushes and pointed the handgun at his face after the bystander tossed a spray canister into the street that had been dropped by another agent, according to video and a witness.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request to comment on the incident.
The encounter occurred just before 8:30 a.m. near the intersection of Vineland Place and Otsego Street, said Damari Butler, a resident. Butler was sitting on his balcony when he said he saw a pedestrian get tackled on the sidewalk by two masked men who appeared to be U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Butler said there seemed to be no warning before the man was tossed into nearby bushes. That’s what prompted Butler to record.
“There was no asking what his name was, no ID, nothing,” Butler said. “They just grabbed him.
The video shows a masked ICE agent taking a pedestrian into custody on the sidewalk, as a man with two dogs on leashes stands nearby.
After a few seconds, a second masked person wearing tactical gear that says “ICE Police” across the chest runs over, telling the man with the dogs to back up while aiming what witnesses say was a can of pepper spray at him.
The man with the two dogs is then seen stepping back as the two agents handcuff the man on the sidewalk. Someone can also be heard yelling “ICE!” in the background.
As the agents carry the man by his arms, one agent is seen in the video dropping the canister. The bystander with the dogs is then seen rushing toward the can. One ICE officer sees this and races toward him. The man tosses the object away, toward the street. That is when the second officer pulls out the gun.
“The guy with the dog, I guess he moved the pepper spray out of the way, and then the other ICE agent ran over,” Butler said.
The confrontation between the two lasts only a split-second, because the man with the dogs steps back after tossing the canister, and the agent confronting him lets up.
But behind that agent was the other one who’d been detaining the pedestrian. That masked person pulls out a gun with his right hand, aims it at the man with the dogs and walks toward him. He then extends his left arm and shoves the man into the bushes and leans over him, holding the gun just inches from the man’s face. The person then steps back and reholsters the gun and walks back to the SUV.
The agent yells at the unidentified bystander and leaves him on the sidewalk while another agent retrieves the can from the street.
Someone in the area can be heard using whistles, a tool that some activists have employed to alert people when ICE is in the area. Meanwhile, the detained man is seen lying on the street yelling for help in Spanish.
Eventually, more agents show up and put the detained man into the back of an SUV. As the man with dogs and a second witness look on, an agent approaches them and sprays the man with the dogs.
The bystander is seen running away.
ICE and Department of Homeland Security officials did not respond to inquiries about the man who was detained, or why he was detained. The incident occurred a day after a federal judge barred agents in Southern California from stopping people based on racial stereotypes, and found that immigration officials had stopped and detained people in the area because they appeared Latino.
Seth Stoughton, a University of South Carolina law professor and former police officer, said the agent’s reaction to the bystander was inappropriate.
“I can understand agents not wanting a bystander to have a canister of pepper spray, but at the point the agent pointed his weapon at the guy, he’s tossed it quite a distance,” Stoughton said.
Butler said the incident was unnerving to witness, and has left residents in the area rattled.
“It just shows you how powerless we are,” he said. “I thought that man was going to die. If someone is throwing out a gun and putting a gun to his face that close, you just expect the worst to happen at that moment.”
Since then, the video has been circulated on social media.
Ron Gochez, a leader with Union del Barrio, a community group that has been monitoring ICE activity in the area, said several videos of the North Hollywood incident have been sent to the group.
Mayor Karen Bass called the situation “unacceptable” and something that “will not be tolerated in L.A.,” in a statement on Friday evening. She said she was engaging with the Attorney General’s office to ask them to “investigate and prosecute any wrongdoing by these federal agents.”
“Additionally, I referred this matter to the Office of U.S. Representative Robert Garcia, the ranking Democrat leading oversight on federal immigration enforcement abuses,” she said in a statement. “We beat Trump and ICE in court, and new state laws have implemented accountability measures for ICE agents to protect our communities.”
Councilmember Nithya Raman, who is running against Bass in the upcoming election, also released a statement on social media, stating she was outraged by the incident, calling ICE arrests in city streets “kidnappings.”
“LA is not a playground for the Trump regime’s inhumane operations, and Angelenos should not have to live in fear of going to work, taking their kids to school, or living their life.”
A spokesperson for Councilmember Adrin Nazarian, who represents the area on the City Council, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
