Top DHS official defends ICE agents filmed shooting pepper ball at pastor’s head
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 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. The anger stoked 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
“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.”
Black also claimed he heard the agents “laughing” after he was hit.
“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.
