Current News

/

ArcaMax

Federal agents deploy tear gas following Chicago's East Side traffic crash

Sam Charles and Caroline Kubzansky, Chicago Tribune on

Published in News & Features

CHICAGO — Federal agents deployed multiple canisters of tear gas on Chicago's Far South Side on Tuesday to quell a clash with residents who demanded the enforcement officers leave the neighborhood.

At least 100 neighbors flocked late Tuesday morning to the intersection of 105th Street and Avenue N following a vehicle crash involving at least one U.S. Customs and Border Protection vehicle. It was not immediately clear how many people were taken into custody.

The Department of Homeland Security issued a statement Tuesday.

“This morning while conducting an immigration enforcement operation in Chicago a vehicle, driven by an illegal alien, rammed a Border Patrol vehicle and attempted to flee the scene. Border Patrol pursued the vehicle and was eventually able to stop it utilizing an authorized precision immobilization technique (PIT) maneuver,” the statement said. “Once the vehicle was stopped, the suspects, who are both illegal aliens, attempted to flee on foot. As Border Patrol arrested the subjects and attempted to secure the scene a crowd began to form and eventually turned hostile and eventually crowd control measures were used.”

Security video from one residence in the area captured the car containing the agents striking an SUV and spinning it into a parked car, but not any initial ramming, which could have occurred out of the frame of the fixed camera. The DHS statement called the incident part of a growing trend of targets violently resisting arrests.

Residents of the East Side neighborhood — a working class, mostly Latino enclave — hurled insults at the federal agents who milled in the intersection while tow trucks cleared the crash scene.

Several men from the neighborhood targeted agents who they believed to be of Latino descent.

“You came to the wrong community, chico,” one of the men yelled.

About a dozen CPD officers were on hand and later created a barrier for the agents to return to their vehicles and leave.

Just before 12:40 p.m., someone threw a large rock at the windshield of a vehicle, striking it. At least one tear gas cannister was then fired, largely dispersing the crowd.

Agents driving a white car were chasing a man driving a red car when the two cars crashed, hitting other cars parked on the block. Neighbors’ surveillance footage shows the man from the red car get out and run down the street, pursued by federal personnel.

By 12:30 p.m., hundreds of people were crowding the intersection of 105th Street and Avenue N, shouting insults.

“This ain’t your hood! Let’s go!” one man said as he stood at the corner. Most, but not all of agents were wearing gas masks.

 

Several bricks could be seen getting thrown into the intersection before tear gas started to rise in the street, scattering the crowd as agents sped away. Sierra Lane said agents told onlookers that “once they leave, they’re going to make everybody cry” in what she thought was a reference to the tear gas.

Lane, 21, said her friend’s boyfriend was detained for throwing things.

At the scene was Ald. Peter Chico, 10th, said he had come straight from City Hall and was still gathering information about the clash but encouraged people to peacefully voice their opposition to federal presence in Chicago neighborhoods.

Beatriz Ponce de Leon, the deputy mayor for immigrant, migrant and refugee rights, stood at Chico’s side as neighbors surrounded the sobbing mother of one detained teenagers.

“There’s absolutely no reason to have this kind of chaos happening in our communities, putting people at risk, putting people in harm’s way,” Ponce de Leon said. “This type of escalation is what is going to cause harm.”

A few dozen people remained at the intersection after the agents left the area. Agents left spent canisters of tear gas at the site of several other neighborhood confrontations scattered at the intersection along with canisters marked “muzzle blast CS powder dispersion rounds.”

One woman, Lucy, a resident of the area for 14 years who only wanted to be identified by her first name, told the Tribune that it was “scary” and “a little unsettling” to see news reporters wearing riot gear in her neighborhood, but she was heartened by the community’s response.

“I’m proud that my people are out here, I’m proud that they’re out here and resisting,” she said. “I love to see community together. You’re not taking our people like this.”

The Chicago Police Department issued a statement after the incident.

Chicago Police Department officers responded to the 10500 block of S. Avenue N at approximately 11:07 a.m. for a call of an auto accident involving federal authorities. CPD was not involved in any of the federal operations occurring at that location,” police said, adding officers documented the crash.

“Because this incident involved federal authorities, additional CPD supervisors responded to the scene to ensure the appropriate course of action was taken. A crowd began to form and as federal authorities were leaving the scene, CPD members attempted to de-escalate the situation for the safety of everyone, including community members who were gathering at the location,” the statement said. “Individuals then began throwing objects at the federal agents, at which point the federal agents deployed tear gas into the street. Thirteen CPD members were exposed to the tear gas. Exposure reports will be completed for all CPD members who were exposed to the tear gas.”

____


©2025 Chicago Tribune. Visit at chicagotribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

Comments

blog comments powered by Disqus

 

Comics

Chip Bok David M. Hitch Dick Wright Hagar the Horrible Daryl Cagle Aunty Acid