Immigration agent who shot man in Chicago-area traffic stop says
injuries were 'nothing major'
[September 24, 2025]
By CHRISTINE FERNANDO
CHICAGO (AP) — Police body camera footage released Tuesday shows a
federal immigration agent who fatally shot a Mexican immigrant
describing his own injuries during a vehicle pursuit as “nothing major,”
a contrast from the Trump administration's characterization of events in
suburban Chicago earlier this month.
The Department of Homeland Security has said the officer was “seriously
injured” by Silverio Villegas González, who allegedly tried to evade
arrest after agents pulled over his car in Franklin Park. Nearly three
hours of video and audio clips obtained by The Associated Press through
a Freedom of Information Act request shed new light on the shooting that
has escalated tensions amid a federal immigration crackdown in the
country's third-largest city.
DHS said Villegas González drove his car at officers, dragging one of
them “a significant distance,” leaving the officer to “fear for his
life.” The officer then opened fire. Federal officials have said their
officers weren't wearing body cameras at the time.
Franklin Park police footage shows local officers arriving at the
roadside where a car had crashed into a cargo truck in Franklin Park,
about 18 miles (29 kilometers) west of Chicago.
Two ICE agents attempt to explain to the police officer what had
happened moments after an agent shot and killed Villegas González,
“He tried to run us over,” an ICE agent says.
“I got dragged a little bit,” said the injured agent, who can be seen
walking and talking while wearing ripped jeans with blood on them.
The videos show the first agent saying his partner had suffered “a left
knee injury and some lacerations to his hands” while speaking over a
radio.
“Nothing major,” the injured officer says while putting his arms up to
shrug off concerns.
Immigrant rights advocates, Illinois’ top elected officials and Mexico’s
president have called for a thorough investigation and more transparency
after the shooting that put area schools on lockdown and prompted
protests.
“We want answers to questions that we have raised,” U.S. Rep. Jesus
“Chuy” Garcia, a Chicago Democrat, said Tuesday. “The family is entitled
to it. The community wants to know what is going on, and the public
deserves answers as well."
Federal officials had previously said the agent suffered “multiple” and
“serious injuries.” DHS, which has not identified either agent, said the
injured officer who fired his weapon has been a member of ICE since 2021
and served in the military. DHS said it was the officer's first time
firing his weapon in a “use of force incident.”
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Law enforcement personnel investigate after the Department of
Homeland Security said an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent
fatally shot a man in the Franklin Park suburb of Chicago on Friday,
Sept. 12, 2025. (Candace Dane Chambers/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
“His life was put at risk and he sustained serious injuries,”
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who visited
Chicago for an immigration operation last week, posted on X last
week. Marcos Charles, the acting head of ICE’s Enforcement and
Removal Operations, told the AP on Friday that he had met with the
officer in the hospital, saw his injuries and felt that the force
used was appropriate. He declined further comment, saying there is
an open investigation.
DHS officials did not return messages Tuesday.
The videos, from the perspective of multiple officers arriving on
the scene, also show the two ICE agents performing chest
compressions on an unresponsive man lying on the ground before other
emergency personnel take over. Blood can be seen on the pavement.
ICE operations in Chicago, where federal officials have arrested
more than 550 people, have drawn comparisons to the Trump
administration’s immigration crackdown in Los Angeles earlier this
summer. In Los Angeles, at least two people died while attempting to
evade ICE — a farmworker who fell from a greenhouse roof during a
raid and a man struck by an SUV while running from agents outside a
Home Depot store.
Villegas González, who worked as a cook, had just dropped off one of
his children at day care the morning of the shooting in the
close-knit and largely Hispanic suburb of roughly 18,000 people. DHS
said he had a history of reckless driving and did not have legal
permission to live in the U.S.
The day care's director described him as a good father while many
Franklin Park residents came to vigils and remembered him as a kind
family man.
The 38-year-old was from the state of Michoacan in western Mexico,
according to the Consulate General of Mexico in Chicago, which said
it would “closely monitor” the investigation.
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Associated Press writer Sophia Tareen contributed to this report.
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