Top DHS official defends ICE officer who shot pastor with pepper ball
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin on Wednesday defended an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer who shot a pastor with a pepper ball from a rooftop, after a video of the incident went viral this week.
Videos of the Sept. 19 incident, which circulated widely Wednesday on social media, showed the Rev. David Black of the First Presbyterian Church being struck in the head by an officer outside an ICE processing facility in a Chicago suburb. It stoked anger toward federal officers who have been deployed to the city by President Trump.
“What this clipped video doesn’t show is that these agitators were blocking an ICE vehicle from leaving the federal facility—impeding operations,” McLaughlin wrote in a lengthy statement on social platform X.
“Over and over again, law enforcement ordered these agitators to move off of federal property so the vehicle could move. Law enforcement verbally warned these agitators that they would use force if they did not move and stop impeding operations. They did not comply,” she added.
McLaughlin accused demonstrators of throwing rocks, bottles and launching fireworks at the law enforcement agents on the roof. However, in the recorded clip, Black could be seen gazing at officers with open hands prior to being shot by a pepper ball.
“I invited them to repentance,” Black told Religion News Service in an interview. “I basically offered an altar call. I invited them to come and receive that salvation, and be part of the kingdom that is coming.”
“He was praying to them and they just ended up shooting him. It was like casual to them,” bystander Amanda Tovar told CNN.
“They [demonstrators] weren’t scaling a fence. They weren’t throwing any items. They weren’t even saying anything in the least that would be threatening. And that’s when they [ICE officers] just started opening fire at them,” she added.
Later in the evening, Black was again shoved and sprayed with pepper spray outside the ICE facility in Broadview, a village outside Chicago.
His treatment has been decried by residents and journalists alike who say federal officials have been threatening citizens’ safety and First Amendment rights.
The Chicago News Guild and other news organizations sued DHS and ICE on Monday in connection with allegations of excessive force used on journalists at recent protests in the area.
“Never in modern times has the federal government undermined bedrock constitutional protections on this scale, or usurped states’ police power by directing federal agents to carry out an illegal mission against the people for the government’s own benefit,” the complaint states.
Broadview officials have also sued the Trump administration for erecting an 8-foot fence around an ICE processing facility, alleging that the barrier blocks emergency services and patrons from accessing the site and surrounding businesses.
The president has only ramped up the federal presence in the area this week, sending 200 members of the Texas National Guard to patrol the city’s surrounding neighborhoods with the help of 300 federalized members the Illinois National Guard.