SAN BERNARDINO, CA — Federal immigration agents fired at a San Bernadino family in their vehicle on Saturday, leading to a lengthy standoff that ended without arrests, according to reports.
The family told NBC 4 Los Angeles that masked men tried to pull the truck over as family members returned home from work Saturday morning, and when they refused to stop, the masked men fired on the truck, breaking three of its windows.
The family members got away and went to their home, the NBC 4 report said. There were no children in the vehicle, according to the report.
San Bernadino police responded to 911 calls reporting shots fired near Acacia Avenue and Baseline Street about 8:40 a.m., KTLA 5 reported. They found federal officers who confirmed the shooting and said a suspect had taken off.
The Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice told KTLA that the federal officers did not show a warrant to arrest the man, and said the man had no criminal record. Federal officers later alleged the man was wanted on a charge of assaulting a federal officer.
San Bernadino police found the man’s truck and spoke with him, but they did not know what he was wanted for, so they left, ABC7 reported.
Local police are barred from assisting federal agents with immigration enforcement under the California Values Act.
Federal agents arrived about 11 a.m. and surrounded the home, KTLA reported. About two hours later they called San Bernadino police because of a large crowd that had gathered as they tried to arrest the man, the ABC7 report said.
The family refused to come out of the home, however, and about 3:45 p.m. the agents left without arresting the man, KTLA reported.
A Patch message to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials seeking comment was not immediately answered Saturday night.
A father, son and son-in-law, were inside the truck when it was reportedly fired upon, but there were no injuries reported, according to NBC4.
The shooting happened two days after a man was killed when he was hit by a vehicle on the 210 Freeway while running from what was believed to be an immigration enforcement raid at a Home Depot in Monrovia.
In that incident, a Monrovia police officer saw Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents approaching the Home Depot on Mountain Avenue, just off the 210, according to a statement from City Manager Dylan Feik.
The man was taken to a hospital after being hit but died of his injuries, authorities said.
That incident prompted a statement from state Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez, D-Pasadena, decrying the raids.
“President Trump’s terror campaign has taken another life,” she said Thursday. “There is such incredible fear in our immigrant communities, so much so that people will run into freeway traffic out of fear when all they want is a chance to support their family and seek the American Dream.”
Pérez has called for an end to what she described as violent and sweeping.
“The Trump Administration is violating a federal court order by continuing to conduct deadly roving immigration raids within the area of the U.S. District Court’s Central District of California that includes Los Angeles County,” she said. “These raids have been ruled to be illegal racial profiling by a federal judge and the Trump Administration has been ordered to comply with a temporary restraining order.”
