Officer video raises questions about ICE shooting of TikTok streamer
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- A federal judge dismissed an indictment against a TikTok streamer who was shot by ICE agents
- New body cam footage of the arrest shows the mayhem during the shooting
For more than two months, federal authorities have maintained that immigration officers opened fire on a TikTok streamer in South Los Angeles out of fear for their safety and that of the public.
Department of Homeland Security officials accused Carlitos Ricardo Parias of weaponizing his car and ramming a law enforcement vehicle in an attempt to flee an immigration operation in October. Officers “followed their training and fired defensive shots,” a Homeland Security spokesperson said shortly afterward.
But newly released body camera footage from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who fired his gun raises questions about the seconds leading up to the shooting, which wounded Parias and a deputy U.S. marshal hit by a ricochet bullet.
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The video obtained by The Times captures the officer holding a gun in one hand and using the other to break open the passenger window of Parias’ car. As the officer shouts at Parias to turn off the car, Parias raises his hands in the air and asks why he is being detained. The officer repeatedly tries to open the passenger side door, before moving the gun to his left hand — right before firing.
At the time, Parias’ car did not appear to be moving and other agents were positioned beside the driver’s side door. After the gunfire, an agent next to Parias leaps to the side.
“Oh,” the officer who opened fire said, sounding surprised. “F—.”
“Who shot?” an agent asked.
“I shot, I shot,” the officer responded.
After the Oct. 21 shooting, prosecutors charged Parias, who authorities say is living in the country illegally, with assault on a federal officer. On Saturday, U.S. District Judge Fernando M. Olguin dismissed the case against Parias, finding that he had been denied access to counsel while in immigration detention.
In his order, the judge also cited the government’s failure to comply with discovery deadlines — including the timely release of the body-worn camera footage that captured the shooting. The judge dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning prosecutors cannot refile the same charges.
A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office in L.A. did not respond to a request for comment. The Department of Homeland Security replied with a statement previously sent in October, accusing Parias of attempting to evade arrest and reiterating that officers “fired defensive shots.”
Federal Public Defender Cuauhtémoc Ortega and Deputy Federal Public Defender Gabriela Rivera, who represented Parias, said in a statement they were “pleased that the court dismissed the charges against their client.”
“While we remain quite confident that a jury would readily acquit Mr. Parias, the government prejudiced his right to a fair and speedy trial by denying him meaningful access to his defense team and failing to timely disclose the evidence they claimed supported the charges,” they said in the statement. “We are grateful that Mr. Parias’s constitutional rights were vindicated.”
Although the criminal charges against him have been dismissed, Parias could remain in ICE detention as his immigration case proceeds.
After reviewing the body-cam footage, Jim Bueermann, former chief of the Redlands Police Department and founder of Future Policing Institute, an organization that provides research and consulting on law enforcement issues, questioned the tactics used.
“Without knowing specifically what training ICE officers get in situations like this, I will just say that that is a poor example of how to remove somebody from a car that doesn’t want to get out of the car and you have that car completely boxed in,” Bueermann said. “There’s all kinds of poor police procedures involved in this.”
Bueermann added that it appeared that the officer experienced “an accidental discharge.”
“The gentleman in the car is probably very fortunate that as a result of that discharge that the other officers did not engage in what’s called contagious fire, where they think the driver shot at them,” he said. “He’s very, very fortunate that they didn’t kill him.”
Federal authorities sought to arrest Parias on Oct. 21 on an administrative arrest warrant in conjunction with a federal immigration proceeding, according to a criminal complaint filed against him.
An official with the Department of Homeland Security accused Parias of having “previously escaped from custody,” although video obtained by The Times appears to show the federal agents letting him go during a June incident.
A video casts doubt on government claims that Carlitos Ricardo Parias, who was shot and wounded by an ICE agent last week, “previously escaped from custody.” A judge ordered him released on bond Friday.
In October, Parias was leaving his home and driving down the street when federal agents — including from ICE and the U.S. Marshals Service — used their vehicles to box him in, according to the criminal complaint.
Body-worn camera footage captures the ICE officer approaching Parias’ passenger side door and almost immediately stating that he’s going to “break the window.” As the officer smashes the window, the car begins to rev, later sending smoke billowing into the air. The officer pulls out his gun soon afterward, holding it in one hand as he smashes the window at the same time with the other.
The complaint alleged that when the rear of the car began to “fishtail,” it “caused the agents to fear that PARIAS may lose control of the Camry and hit them.” A Homeland Security Investigations agent wrote that Parias’ acceleration of the Camry “caused debris (likely rubber being shed from the tires themselves) to fly into the air, which struck some of the agents.”
“Bajate, te vamos a disparar,” the ICE officer warns in the video. “Get out, we’re going to shoot you.”
Once the wheels stopped spinning, an officer reached in through the broken window of the passenger door, “brandishing a gun in one hand while attempting to open the door with the other,” the judge wrote in his order.
As the officer shouts at him to turn off the car, Parias says in the body cam footage that he doesn’t have anything and asks why he’s being detained. The officer shouts at the other agents, “Get him out.” But, seconds later, one of them then appears to say to Parias that if he moves, they’ll shoot.
“Mátenme, mátenme,” Parias says. “Kill me.”
In the video, the ICE officer can be seen firing shortly afterward and Parias begins to scream: “Mi mano” (“My hand”).
Within minutes of the shooting, the ICE officer opens his phone and sends a message. The content of the message is not visible in the footage.
Parias was hospitalized for nearly a week after the shooting before being transported to jail. Homeland Security officials said Parias was shot in the elbow and the deputy marshal shot in the hand by a ricochet bullet.
Although a federal judge later ordered Parias released on bond, once he was released from the custody of the U.S. marshals, he was immediately transferred to ICE custody on Nov. 24, pursuant to a detainer. He’s being held at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in San Bernardino County.
Olguin wrote in his order that “the government’s decision to administratively detain Mr. Parias in Adelanto is when and where the constitutional violations began in this case.”
By placing Parias in immigration detention, Olguin wrote, the government “has jeopardized this court’s ability to try Mr. Parias in compliance with the demands of the Sixth Amendment” — which provides for a fair and speedy trial.
Parias’ attorneys filed a declaration citing challenges to Parias’ access to counsel resulting from his detention in Adelanto, which is at least a two-hour drive from the defense counsel’s office in downtown L.A.
In Oxnard, families remain separated and shops are hurting because of deportations and fear of further immigration raids after two in July at Glass House Farms.
With less than three weeks before trial, Parias’ defense team had been unable to schedule any legal visits with Parias since the beginning of his ICE detention, Ortega said in a court filing. He cited the distance and difficulties scheduling a video telephone conference with Parias.
“Here, defendant’s detention in Adelanto has effectively denied him access to his counsel for nearly the entire month preceding trial,” Olguin wrote in his order. “In short, the obstacles and roadblocks that ICE has put in place at Adelanto make it difficult, if not impossible, for defendant to meet with his attorneys, and have caused defendant to suffer demonstrable prejudice or a substantial threat thereof.”
Olguin also noted that the government did not produce any discovery to the defense until Nov. 26, nearly a month after the initial request. He said the government “has continued to produce discovery to the defense well beyond the discovery cutoff.”
“Moreover, the prejudice to Mr. Parias has been exacerbated by the government’s conduct especially as it relates to meeting deadlines and producing discovery,” Olguin wrote.
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