reuters.com
www.reuters.com

Police records and witness accounts from a Chicago suburb where a man was fatally shot by a federal immigration enforcement agent earlier this month complicate the picture of the event presented by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which said the agent fired his weapon after the man drove his vehicle toward agents.

Silverio Villegas Gonzalez, 38, was pulled over and eventually shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Franklin Park, Illinois on September 12, just after dropping off his two children at Passow Elementary School and Small World Learning Center, a daycare located blocks away from the incident.

Bodycam footage, which Reuters obtained on Tuesday, captures an interview with the truck driver, named in police records as Josue Hernandez-Rodriguez.

“He was trying to escape from them,” Hernandez-Rodriguez said.

In multiple statements, DHS has said the agent, who has not been identified, responded with lethal force because he was “fearing for his own life.” But in bodycam footage, the agent, in a bullet-resistant police vest and torn jeans, described his injuries as “nothing major.”

  • PhilipTheBucket@quokk.auEnglish
    6·
    11 days ago

    Surveillance footage from a nearby nail salon obtained earlier by CBS News showed the passenger side of Villegas Gonzalez’s silver sedan.

    The two agents could be seen leaning into his car windows, one reaching in, after which the car backed up and drove off. The agent on the driver’s side was not visible after the car pulled away.

    A lot of American cops will shoot you if you drive away while they’re half-inside your vehicle, or even if they’re somewhere vaguely in path of where you’re driving it, because that’s an action that can potentially kill or fatally injure them.

    Not to give ICE a pass on killing this guy. His death should be felony murder for them, because they never should have been there in the first place, because they shouldn’t be wandering around disguising their identities snatching up random people and sending them to whatever global prison they want to with no due process. I don’t really know what any random civilian is supposed to do if ICE is putting them in fear for their safety by cosplaying as law enforcement. I’m just saying that shooting him because he stepped on the gas isn’t the part of it that is fucked.

    • pelespirit@sh.itjust.worksOPMEnglish
      3·
      11 days ago

      after which

      is doing a lot of heavy lifting. It’s hard to understand what happened from their description.

      • PhilipTheBucket@quokk.auEnglish
        1·
        11 days ago

        I read it as the guy leaning in the window, then the car driving away and the guy no longer being in his original location (meaning he was traveling with the car at that point). Maybe I’m wrong, but that’s how it sounds to me and it doesn’t seem that Reuters would have any reason to lie or phrase things misleadingly about what was in the surveillance video they saw.

        • pelespirit@sh.itjust.worksOPMEnglish
          1·
          11 days ago

          Although I think they’re writing is accidentally vague in this line, Reuters absolutely has adjusted things in the past, especially their headlines.

          Regardless, you saying this means we’re going off of opinions:

          Maybe I’m wrong, but that’s how it sounds to me

          • PhilipTheBucket@quokk.auEnglish
            1·
            11 days ago

            Reuters absolutely has adjusted things in the past, especially their headlines

            When did this happen? I generally trust Reuters, if they’re being dishonest I definitely would appreciate knowing about it.

            • pelespirit@sh.itjust.worksOPMEnglish
              1·
              11 days ago

              You’re going to have to go through reuters every day to figure that out for yourself. I generally trust them about 90%. They’re one of the best, but still not great.

              They’re owned by Canadian billionaires, so their priorities are a bit different. But still, billionaires.

              💲 Reuters

              ◾ Owned by the Thomson family, the wealthiest family in Canada.

              Canadian multinational information conglomerate. The company was founded in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and maintains its headquarters at 19 Duncan Street there.

              Thomson Reuters was created by the Thomson Corporation’s purchase of the British company Reuters Group on 17 April 2008. It is majority-owned by The Woodbridge Company (no info found), a holding company for the Thomson family of Canada.

              ◾ CEO is Steve Hasker

              Steve assumed his role of President and Chief Executive Officer and a director of Thomson Reuters effective March 15, 2020. Previously, Steve served as Senior Adviser to TPG Capital, a private equity firm, Chief Executive Officer of CAA Global (which includes entities like CAA China, merchant bank Evolution Media and the incubator CAA Ventures), a TPG Capital portfolio company, and global president and chief operating officer of Nielsen, an information, data and measurement firm. Steve spent more than a decade with McKinsey as a partner in the global media, information and technology practice. Before joining McKinsey, Steve spent five years in several financial roles in the United States, Russia and Australia.

              Steve started his career with PwC, where he qualified as a chartered accountant. He then received an MBA and master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University. He grew up in Australia and during his career he has lived and worked across North America, Europe and Asia. Steve is also a non-executive director of Appen Limited and a member of the Australia and New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants.

              Source

              Here are a lot of the major media owners from before the election last year. I’m sure some of them have changed a little: https://sh.itjust.works/post/20890256