An ICE Agent Opened Fire at Truck During an Apprehension Near Nashville
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent fired a gun during an attempted apprehension in the Antioch neighborhood of Nashville on Thursday morning, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department and ICE tell TIME.
ICE stopped the driver of a white box truck in the parking lot of a Food Lion grocery store. The driver started to drive in the direction of one of the agents after they identified themselves as ICE, FBI spokesperson Joel Siskovic tells TIME.
That agent fired two shots at the individual, ICE Southern Region Communications Director Bryan Cox tells TIME, and the individual drove off. The vehicle was later found abandoned.
In a statement to TIME, the FBI says the individual surrendered Thursday afternoon and confirmed he had been shot. He is receiving medical treatment at a hospital near Nashville. The FBI has not arrested him or charged him with a crime.
The FBI is still overseeing an investigation into whether this was a potential assault on a federal officer, Siskovic says. He declined to provide further details. Cox says he cannot speak to the individual’s intent, but that it will be investigated.
ICE has identified him as a 39-year-old Mexican national who has been under surveillance and was targeted by ICE because of multiple prior deportations.
Cox says the man is in the country “unlawfully” and “has been deported multiple times” only to return “illegally.”
The ICE Office of Professional Responsibility will conduct its own investigation, as is protocol any time a weapon is discharged, Cox says. “That is in no way to suggest that the agency thinks that this officer did anything wrong,” he adds.
ICE contacted the Nashville police shortly after 7 a.m. on Thursday to inform them of the shooting, a police department spokesperson says.
“The Nashville PD was not involved except to protect the scene until the FBI and [Homeland Security Investigations] could mobilize and begin the investigation,” says the police spokesperson.
