A ۷۲-year-old man shot an off-duty Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official in California early on Friday morning after the “intoxicated and agitated” official assaulted him and his daughter on their property, local authorities allege.
The Fresno police department said that the ICE official was receiving medical care after being shot in the midsection. The official, identified as David Gonzalez, is facing felony charges for assaulting the father-daughter duo, Fresno police said.
It was not immediately clear for how Gonzalez had been with ICE and what exactly he did for ICE. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, referred all questions about Gonzalez to Fresno police.
According to Fresno police, at about ۳am, a woman found Gonzalez sleeping on her and her father’s front lawn. She told her ۷۲-year-old father, who was inside, and then attempted to shoo Gonzalez off their property.
But when Gonzalez was awakened, “he appeared intoxicated and agitated” and physically assaulted the ۷۲-year-old father, forcing him to the ground, police said. When the father’s daughter tried to intervene, Gonzalez physically attacked and took her to the ground as well, police said.
The father feared for his and his daughter’s physical safety and shot Gonzalez once, police said. Shortly thereafter, the daughter’s boyfriend, an off-duty police officer, arrived and placed handcuffs on Gonzalez.
“It is unknown at this time why Gonzalez was in the area at the time of the [shooting], but it has been confirmed he was off-duty and alone,” local authorities said.
Fresno police on Friday said the investigation into the shooting was continuing while Gonzalez was in custody and receiving medical treatment. He was booked with battery likely to cause great bodily injury, felony vandalism and battery.
The father and daughter were not booked with any crimes as they recovered from injuries of their own, police said.
The confrontation that led to Gonzalez’s shooting is one of the latest cases in which federal ICE officials have fallen under scrutiny for alleged criminal behavior. ICE has also been met with nationwide criticism throughout Donald Trump’s second term for the agency’s aggressive arrest, detention and deportation tactics.
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Lawmakers have also criticized ICE’s hiring practices amid the agency’s rush to bring on more officials to carry out the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda. In August ۲۰۲۵, an ICE supervisor filed a whistleblower complaint to the DHS office of inspector general alleging that the agency was skirting basic vetting and violating federal rules during its hiring spree.
In July, an ICE officer shot and killed a Colombian immigrant in Biddeford, Maine. The ICE officer in question had reportedly been a recent hire by the agency despite an alleged history of violence and mental health problems.
Meanwhile, in April, a longtime ICE officer in Cincinnati was arrested after allegedly lying to DHS about domestic violence allegations against him. Local news reports say police had been called more than ۲۰ times in the past to years to the home he shared with his girlfriend.
The Ohio Immigrant Alliance, a pro-immigrant group, released a report in August documenting more than ۱۵۰ federal immigration officials accused of abuse and crimes. One of the latest entries in their report cited allegations that an ICE official reportedly broke into an ex-girlfriend’s apartment in south-east Louisiana.
