An off-duty law enforcement officer was arrested in Riverside County last week after pulling a firearm on a 17-year-old and detaining him on the side of the road.
Gerardo Rodriguez, 46, was known by neighbors to be an agent employed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Customs and Border Patrol, said Greg Kirakosian, a lawyer representing the teenager. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees both agencies, did not immediately return a request for comment.
The teenager had first driven by Rodriguez’s home in Temecula to drop some friends off at a nearby house at around 10 p.m. on Nov. 10, Kirakosian said. The minor drove back in the same direction to head home when he was stopped by Rodriguez, who pulled a gun on the minor as he was driving down the road.
The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department was dispatched to the 32000 block of Daybrook Terrace in Temecula at around 10:40 p.m., according to a Saturday news release.
Rodriguez was taken into custody without incident Nov. 11 and charged with assault by a public officer, child endangerment and assault with a deadly weapon, the Sheriff’s Department said. He posted bail the same day and his next court date is scheduled Dec. 26, according to the Sheriff Department’s inmate locator.
The teenager and his family, who are all U.S. citizens, “were already scared to begin with” before the incident happened, Kirakosian said, pointing to Latinos, even citizens, getting pulled into immigration enforcement across the country.
“They’re Mexican Americans, you know, in Southern California right now, and there’s ICE raids happening left and right,” he said.
Video footage captured from the next-door neighbor’s house shows Rodriguez “in the middle of the street, kind of marching down with a gun in his hand,” Kirakosian said.
“It’s not like he pulled it out in an emergency. He had it out. He was walking down the street with a gun in his hand,” he said.
Rodriguez, wearing shorts and a T-shirt, is initially seen walking on the roadway in security camera footage taken from the next-door neighbor’s house. As he sees the truck approach, Rodriguez walks toward the middle of the street and pulls out a gun before pointing it at the moving vehicle.
“Stop, stop. Slow down. Freeze. Police,” Rodriguez is heard yelling, his gun pointed at the truck as it approaches. The driver, fearing he would be shot, slows down and eventually stops, Kirakosian said. Rodriguez orders the teenager to park the car and once again identifies himself as police.
Rodriguez approached the driver’s side of the car and pointed his firearm at the driver. He interrogated the teenager, asking where he and his family were from and demanded identification, Kirakosian said. The teenager was detained for nearly 20 minutes.
In the video, Rodriguez is heard arguing with the teenager, claiming that he was speeding down the street. He repeatedly claims the teenager almost ran him over.
The teenager’s friends, who were still at a house nearby, saw the incident and notified the friend’s parents, who were also at the home and approached Rodriguez, eventually persuading him to let the teenager go, according to Kirakosian. They called the teenager’s mother, who immediately grabbed her son’s passport to prove his citizenship. By the time the mother had arrived at the scene, Rodriguez had left and they then called the police.
Police obtained a search warrant and arrested Rodriguez early on Nov. 11. They also confiscated Rodriguez’s security camera footage and the gun used in the incident, Kirakosian said.
This incident is the latest in a growing number of ICE agents confronting people and demanding identification. An ICE agent was confronted by local police when he pulled a gun on a woman in Fullerton earlier this month. Various ICE and Border Patrol shootings have also taken place across Southern California and Chicago in recent months.
Kirakosian said this incident likely resulted in an arrest because the agent was off duty.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“You got ICE agents who apparently feel so emboldened by what they do on a day-to-day basis, they’re essentially treating their own neighborhoods as an area they need to start investigating,” Kirakosian said.
