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Darius Fitzgerald, a security guard, was in the midst of a 10-hour shift at a BP gas station in East Garfield Park on Wednesday when he saw a Black man come running through the back door. The man was being chased by two federal agents, who weren’t too far behind him. The Black man sported locs, and had on a white T-Shirt and black socks, but wasn’t wearing any shoes.
“I was at work and I seen ICE [federal agents] chasing a Black male. The male came running through the back door because our back door was open,” Fitzgerald said.
The man Fitzgerald saw is the same Black man who federal agents choked at the intersection of California Avenue and Congress Parkway following a car crash.
When the two agents apprehended the man, they walked out the front door of the gas station, passed the gas pumps, and walked down an adjacent alley.
Witness video posted to the “Chicago Ghetto 3” Instagram account shows parts of the scene Fitzgerald described. Fitzgerald also can be seen in the IG video observing the incident. Once federal agents apprehended the Black man, they escorted him down an adjacent alley with his hands behind his back.
Another video, obtained by The TRiiBE on Wednesday, shows federal agents placing the Black man in a chokehold at the intersection of Congress Parkway and California Avenue, a short walk from the BP gas station located at 520 S. California Avenue.
While the masked agents, dressed in military fatigues, walked the man down the alley, Fitzgerald said a small crowd of people followed them in protest. Some recorded the action.
At one point, Fitzgerald said one of the federal agents yelled to the crowd, “get back!”
Both Fitzgerald and the narrator on the footage posted to “Chicago Ghetto 3” say the agents hit the man while walking him down the alley. Fitzgerald heard the man say “ouch.”
Fitzgerald also recalls the agents carrying rifles that resemble M16s.
“I don’t know if they had the right to just start shooting if you get too close or not, so I stepped back,” Fitzgerald said. “I don’t know what their protocols are, what they’re allowed to do. He [federal agent] pointed that gun, as if to say, if you get any closer, where someone touched him, that’s what would give him the right to shoot.”
Wednesday marked the first time Fitzgerald has seen federal agents in the neighborhood. The crowd at the gas station voiced their anger. Fitzgerald said people in the crowd were saying, “he’s not Mexican or whatever, he’s Black.” They also questioned where federal agents were taking him, according to Fitzgerald.
He said he saw federal agents walk to the end of the alley past the gas station with the Black man. They ended up walking back to the car crash site on California Avenue and Congress Parkway, according to Fitzgerald.
It’s still unclear why federal agents were in the neighborhood, and why they temporarily detained the Black man.
The Chicago Police Department (CPD) is investigating the car accident. On Wednesday, a CPD spokesperson said a white Chevy Malibu with an unknown driver crashed into a black Infiniti SUV driven by a 49-year-old woman, injuring her. CPD officers were present at the scene following the crash and assisted the woman’s sister in gathering her belongings and transferring them to her car. The CPD spokesperson added that “at no point did CPD coordinate or assist federal authorities with immigration enforcement.”
Staffers with Equity and Transformation (E.A.T.) and Westside Justice Center, whose headquarters are located across the street from the site of the crash, said federal agents caused the car accident while chasing a Black community member.
A day later, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) responded to The TRiiBE’s inquiry about them placing the Black man in a chokehold, which was caught on witness video. A DHS spokesperson emailed the following statement.
“This is FALSE, the man was not choked. Border Patrol witnessed what they believed to be a theft in progress. As they went to engage with the individual he fled in a vehicle and proceeded to crash into another motorist,” the email reads. “Agents attempted to render first aid when the suspect started resisting. Again, we are urging the media to stop fanning the flames of division and stop demonization of law enforcement.”
The TRiiBE sent a follow-up email to DHS, asking why federal immigrant and patrol agents were interfering with a suspected robbery.
Responding to DHS’s statement, a coalition of Black-led civic and community-based organizations said none of their witnesses reported seeing a burglary.
“There is a clear video that shows a Border Patrol agent choking this young man and detaining them where they had no jurisdiction or right to do so,” Nicole Laport, a spokesperson, wrote in an email. “These federal agents were obviously aware that is why once Chicago police arrived, the young man was released.”
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office declined to comment on the DHS statement.
Hours later, Fitzgerald said, the Black man who was temporarily detained by federal agents returned to the gas station with some friends. Fitzgerald recalled seeing the guy shopping in the gas station before.
Fitzgerald said the man told him that he wasn’t the person driving the car in the crash, and that he wasn’t the person the agents were looking for, so they let him go.
“It was a rough day,” Fitzgerald said.
