Masked immigration agents shot at man during California standoff; weeks later, he is in custody

A man whom federal immigration agents shot at during a standoff in San Bernardino earlier this month was detained at a Riverside courthouse Thursday afternoon, Aug. 28, according to immigration rights advocates.

Authorities arrested Francisco Longoria at his home around 4 a.m. with a warrant, claiming he had assaulted federal officers during the Aug. 16 altercation when masked agents smashed Longoria’s driver’s side window and shot at his car as he drove away, said Tamara Marquez, communications director with the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice.

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When Longoria appeared in court around 2 p.m., Marquez said a judge dismissed the case, arguing there wasn’t evidence for the assault charges. After the case was dismissed, she said immigration authorities detained Longoria.

“We think that was the whole point of this arrest,” Marquez said. “They knew they weren’t going to get this felony charge, but that was their way to hand him over to ICE.”

As of Thursday evening, Marquez said advocates didn’t know where Longoria was being held.

The Department of Homeland Security said officials entered Longoria’s home and arrested him on suspicion of assaulting a federal officer. Federal officials didn’t respond in their statement to claims that the charges were dismissed but said U.S. Customs and Border Protection assisted with his arrest. DHS also said Longoria is an undocumented immigrant.

“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,” DHS said in its statement.

On Aug. 16, masked federal officers stopped a car with three men inside near Acacia Avenue and Baseline Street. The immigration officers told the driver, Longoria, to roll his window down before smashing the glass and reaching inside the car, according to a video posted by the immigrants rights coalition.

Longoria then drove away, and the social media video appears to show immigration officers shoot at the vehicle. A statement from the Department of Homeland Security accused Longoria of assaulting two federal officers.

Marquez said video the immigration rights coalition released and other evidence showed Longoria didn’t assault the officers. Many community members agreed, she said, that they also would have fled if masked people who hadn’t identified themselves as law enforcement smashed their car window.

San Bernardino police said in a statement that officers responded to reports of shots fired just before 9 a.m. in the area, where they talked with federal officers who said they were involved in a shooting with a man who fled in a car. Police received no reports of anyone who was hit by the gunfire.

Immigration officers later went to Longoria’s house, leading to an hours-long standoff as they tried to get him and his family to go outside. San Bernardino police conducted crowd control and kept community members away from federal officers.

Eventually, the immigration officers left without detaining Longoria or anyone in his family. DHS criticized San Bernardino police and said the agency acted “recklessly” because Longoria wasn’t taken into custody.