A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent reportedly shot a man in the face while trying to serve a deportation order in Brooklyn Thursday morning.
The agent was attempting to arrest and deport Gaspar Avendano-Hernandez, a 33-year-old man who immigration officials described as having been “twice-removed” from the United States. The agent managed to approach Avendano-Hernandez Thursday as he was returning home from work with Kevin Yanez-Cruz, the 19-year-old son of his girlfriend and a co-worker, according to the New York Daily News.
While the agent was serving the deportation order, Yanez-Cruz’s mother came running out of the home with her other son, 26-year-old Eric Diaz-Cruz, according to the Daily News. Some sort of altercation took place — the Daily News and local station WABC described it as a “scuffle,” while an ICE spokesperson said in a statement to VICE News that it was a “physical attack” — and an agent reportedly shot Diaz-Cruz in the face. Yanez-Cruz told the Daily News his older brother was unarmed.
Diaz-Cruz survived the shooting and is being treated at a local hospital.
During the chaos, Avendano-Hernandez ran back into the home and barricaded himself indoors but later surrendered, according to the Daily News.
