CHICAGO (WLS) — Throughout Operation Midway Blitz in the Chicago area, there have been two shootings by federal immigration agents, one of them deadly.<\/p>\n
The directive is clear. ICE agents are not permitted to use deadly force to prevent the escape of a fleeing subject, unless they have a reasonable belief that person poses a significant threat of death or physical harm.<\/p>\n
The narrative from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after the latest shooting in Minneapolis<\/a> is nearly word for word the same as the DHS response to two shootings during immigration enforcement in the Chicago area.<\/p>\n ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24\/7. Click here to watch<\/a><\/p>\n The first shooting during Operation Midway Blitz happened on Sept. 12 in Franklin Park. An ICE agent targeting Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez opened fire after he said Villegas-Gonzalez refused law enforcement commands and drove his car at officers. At the time DHS said the officer was hit and seriously injured and “Fearing for his own life, the officer fired his weapon.” Villegas-Gonzalez was killed.<\/p>\n But in body camera video obtained by ABC7 and the I-Team, the federal agent who fired his weapon said his own injuries were nothing major<\/a>.<\/p>\n Then on Oct. 4, Marimar Martinez was shot five times by an immigration agent and initially accused of “ambushing” federal agents during an immigration sweep at 39th and South Kedzie. The DHS statement after the shooting in Minneapolis Wednesday mirrors its statement in the Martinez incident almost verbatim, calling Martinez a “domestic terrorist” and accusing her of ramming agents with her vehicle.<\/p>\n “You’re taking these agents from outside areas, away from the border, and placing them into cities they’re not from into situations that are not controlled, and they are not they’re not prepared for this, and they’re not prepared for the general public not being fans of them,” Martinez’s attorney Christopher Parente told the I-Team.<\/p>\n He says the public should be critical of any DHS narrative. When the case against Martinez came before a federal judge in Chicago, all charges against her were dropped by the U.S. Attorney<\/a>.<\/p>\n “DHS continues to say that Miss Martinez rammed the vehicle, like black and white misstatements,” Parente said.<\/p>\n