Bernardino

Francisco Longoria, a San Bernardino man who was driving his truck when a masked U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer shot at it, has been arrested and charged by federal authorities. They allege he assaulted immigration officers during the incident.

In a statement, Longoria’s attorneys said Homeland Security Investigations agents arrived at the Longoria household at 4:18 a.m. Thursday, with an armored personnel carrier, a type of military vehicle, and deployed more than a dozen “fully armed and armored” agents to swarm the home, breaking the locks on his gate. An agent called out to Longoria to come out, using a bullhorn, as agents stood at each door and pointed their rifles at the door and at the occupants inside, the attorneys said.

“These are the type of tactics reserved for dangerous criminals such as violent gang members, drug lords, and terrorists,” the attorneys said. “It was clearly intended to intimidate and punish Mr. Longoria and his family for daring to speak out about their attempted murder by ICE and CBP agents on August 16th.”

On that day, federal immigration officers stopped Longoria in San Bernardino. During the encounter, Longoria, who was in his truck with his 18-year-old son and 23-year-old son-in-law, feared for his safety and drove off after masked officers shattered his car window, his attorneys said.

Department of Homeland Security officials have said officers were injured during the encounter when Longoria tried to “run them down.” Longoria’s attorneys dispute their client injured the officers or attempted to hit them, and earlier this week they called for an investigation of the shooting.

On Friday morning, the U.S. attorney’s office confirmed that Homeland Security Investigations agents arrested Longoria the day before. Word of his arrest was earlier reported by the San Bernardino Sun.

Ciaran McEvoy, spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles, said Longoria made an initial appearance before a U.S. District Court judge in Riverside, and is set to be arraigned on Sept. 30. The federal magistrate judge ordered him released on a $5,000 bond.

Longoria was being held at the San Bernardino County jail, in custody of the U.S. Marshals Service, as of Thursday afternoon, McEvoy said in an email.

“Since Longoria is an illegal alien, ICE has a detainer on him,” he said. Longoria’s attorneys said their client was transferred into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody as of Friday.

An unnamed Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed federal agents arrested Longoria at his home.

“CBP and ICE remain committed to enforcing the law, protecting officers, and keeping dangerous criminals off America’s streets — even as local officials in California undermine those efforts,” the official said.

According to a criminal complaint submitted by a Homeland Security Investigations agent, whose name is redacted, Longoria is facing a charge of assault on a federal officer with a deadly/dangerous weapon.

In the complaint, the agent, who interviewed the officers who stopped Longoria, said the officers had stopped Longoria’s GMC pickup truck to conduct “an immigration check.” Two of them were ICE officers and the other two were CBP officers.

The complaint states that the officers were identifiable by their visible clothing marked with “police.”

After they stopped Longoria’s truck, the complaint states, he refused to comply with the demands to turn off his vehicle and roll down the window. One of the CBP officers, identified as J.C., decided to break the window after Longoria refused the commands, and was allegedly struck by the driver’s door on his left elbow and left calf. The passenger side window was also shattered by agents during the encounter.

Another CBP officer was allegedly struck by the front bumper/fender of the truck on his right leg. “The Truck kept pushing Officer S.T., and Officer S.T. shot at the Truck, afraid for his life,” according to the complaint.

Longoria’s attorneys had previously released surveillance video of the incident, which appears to dispute a key claim by Homeland Security — that Longoria drove his truck toward officers and injured them.

In the surveillance video, the moment Longoria drives away, officers on both sides of the truck remain in sight of the video, and they then pile into their vehicles and pursue Longoria’s truck down a side street.

After Longoria drove off, the family called 911. While San Bernardino police were questioning Longoria, the immigration officers arrived, and family members identified the one they believed had shot at the truck.

At the initial court appearance, the judge questioned the assistant U.S. attorney prosecuting the case, Cory Burleson, about the government’s claim that it was conducting an “immigration check,” a term he couldn’t clarify when asked by the court, according to Longoria’s attorneys. Burleson also claimed Longoria was stopped due to a traffic violation, but couldn’t identify the violation, his attorneys said. When the judge asked Burleson to identify the alleged injuries of the officers, Burleson said he was “not aware of any injuries,” Longoria’s attorneys said.

Longoria’s attorneys said their client was granted bond, but because of the ICE hold, has since been transferred into ICE custody, which they believe is the “true purpose of this false and baseless charge.”

“No reasonable prosecutor could believe that a conviction would be secured against Mr. Longoria for the August 16th stop, when every video supports Mr. Longoria’s version of events and directly contradicts DHS’ story,” his attorneys said. “Yet [the Department of Justice] will not drop the charges; it has been their practice during this Administration to pursue charges based on unsubstantiated and false affidavits in order to arrest individuals and then turn them over to ICE.”

His attorneys said they intend to continue advocating for Longoria, his son and son-in-law.

“We are in contact with local and State authorities and are encouraging a state investigation and criminal charges against the ICE/CBP agents,” the attorneys said.

This article is part of The Times’ equity reporting initiative, funded by the James Irvine Foundation, exploring the challenges facing low-income workers and the efforts being made to address California’s economic divide.

San Bernardino police responded to what they described as “an officer-involved shooting” involving federal immigration officers Saturday morning.

When police officers responded to the area of Acacia Avenue and Baseline Street shortly before 9 a.m., they encountered immigration agents who said they had fired at a suspect who then fled the scene.

Soon after, according to the San Bernardino Police Department, a man — who has not been identified — contacted the dispatch center, saying that masked men had tried to pull him over, broke his car window and shot at him. He said he didn’t know who they were and asked for police assistance.

In a statement Saturday night, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said agents had been conducting a targeted enforcement operation in San Bernardino and said that “Customs and Border Protection] officers were injured during a vehicle stop when a subject refused to exit his vehicle and tried to run them down.”

“In the course of the incident the suspect drove his car at the officers and struck two CBP officers with his vehicle,” the statement read. Because of that, the official said, a CBP officer discharged his firearm “in self-defense.”

According to a news release from the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, federal agents broke the driver and passenger windows of the vehicle and fired three times. Video the group uploaded on Facebook appeared to capture the interaction, showing agents wearing “police” vests and shouting at those inside to roll down the window.

“No la voy a abrir,” the man said from inside, saying he wasn’t going to open it.

Soon after, the video captured the sound of shattering glass and what sounded like three shots being fired. The video showed a man wearing a hat with CBP on it.

The video appears to show the vehicle leaving after the windows are smashed, but does not capture the driver striking the officers.

“This was a clear abuse of power,” the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice said in its release. “Firing at civilians, harassing families without cause, and targeting community voices must stop.”

According to the San Bernardino Police Department, officers later located the vehicle in the 1000 block of Mt. View Drive and made contact with the man, but they said it was unclear what federal agents wanted him for.

“Under the California Values Act, California law enforcement agencies are prohibited from assisting federal officials with immigration enforcement, so our officers left the scene as the investigation was being conducted by federal authorities,” police said in a news release.

In a statement, a DHS spokesperson misidentified the police department, describing it as the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, and said local authorities had the man in custody but then set him free.

“This decision was made despite the subject refusing to comply and wounding two officers — another terrible example of California’s pro-sanctuary policies in action that shield criminals instead of protecting communities,” the unidentified spokesperson said.

At 1:12 p.m., federal officials requested assistance from the department because a large crowd was forming as they attempted to arrest the suspect, the police said. At that time, federal agents told police he was wanted for allegedly assaulting a federal officer.

Police responded and provided support with crowd control, according to the department.

The Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice said in a news release that the agents didn’t present a warrant and remained outside the home until 3:45 p.m., “pressuring the individual to come outside.”

The group added that two community members “were detained using unnecessary force, including one for speaking out.”

“Federal agents requested assistance during a lawful arrest for assaulting a federal officer when a crowd created a potential officer safety concern,” the police department said in a statement. “This was not an immigration-related arrest, which would be prohibited under California law.”

Federal investigators are currently investigating the circumstances surrounding the shooting, according to the police.