Shots were fired during a federal immigration enforcement operation in Willowbrook Wednesday, but while nobody was struck by the gunfire, federal officials said a border officer suffered unspecified injuries during the encounter.
A traffic collision was reported at about 7:10 a.m. Wednesday in the area of Mona Boulevard and 126th Street, according to the California Highway Patrol. The area is a couple blocks west of Alameda Street and several blocks south of the Glenn Anderson (105) Freeway.
According to a Department of Homeland Security spokesman, DHS law enforcement officers were conducting a “targeted operation” around 7:05 a.m. “to arrest a violent criminal illegal alien from El Salvador, William Eduardo Moran Carballo, who is involved in a human smuggling operation and has two prior arrests for inflicting corporal injury on a spouse or cohabitant.”
According to DHS, an immigration judge issued a final order of removal for Carballo in 2019.
“In a dangerous attempt to evade arrest, this criminal illegal alien weaponized his vehicle and rammed law enforcement,” the DHS spokesman alleged. “Fearing for his life and safety, an agent fired defensive shots. The criminal illegal alien was not hit and attempted to flee on foot. He was successfully apprehended by law enforcement. The illegal alien was not injured, but a Customs and Border Protection officer was injured.”
No details were released about the nature or seriousness of the agent’s injury. A spokesman with the Los Angeles County Fire Department said he could find no record of firefighters or an ambulance being called to the scene.
Deputies with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and CHP officers blocked off the shooting scene around a white sedan with front-end damage, a busted windshield and airbags deployed. All CHP officers left the scene by 8:30 a.m.
A sheriff’s deputy said the incident involved U.S. Customs and Border Patrol personnel.
Following the shooting, numerous residents and activists descended on the scene, with some seen attempting to speak or shout at masked federal immigrations agents.
Appearing on Fox11, Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly Mitchell, who represents the Willowbrook area, said it was fortunate nobody was injured by the shooting. She said Willowbrook residents “awoke to this news and are rattled and afraid and disappointed, as am I.”
“You should be concerned about your safety given the actions we’ve seen ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) taking across this country — in many instances unprovoked, people merely standing by watching being shot and in one instance killed, in several instances killed, the murder very recently here of Mr. (Keith) Porter on New Year’s Eve,” Mitchell said. “So L.A. County residents are on edge.”
Porter was fatally shot by an off-duty ICE agent in Northridge. Relatives said Porter was firing a weapon into the air to celebrate New Year’s Eve when he was shot. Federal officials said the ICE agent properly opened fire against an active shooter.