A federal agent opened fire Wednesday morning in the southern Los Angeles County community of Willowbrook during an immigration enforcement operation that resulted in a human smuggling suspect being taken into custody, the Department of Homeland Security said.
No one was struck by gunfire in the shooting, reported at about 7:30 a.m. in the 2400 block of 126th Street, but federal authorities said a Customs and Border Patrol officer was injured. Details about the injury were not immediately available.
The Los Angeles County sheriff’s Department said federal agents were conducting an operation in the area when there was a brief pursuit that ended in a crash. Video from NewsChopper4 showed a BMW with front-end damage and what appeared to be deployed air bags.
Video from a nearby home Ring camera appeared to show the man wanted by DHS getting into a car just before agents arrived. Shots were fired by a federal agent as officers were attempting to detain the target of the operation after the crash, authorities said.
“I woke up in the morning because I heard a loud crash,” said resident Miguel Carrillo. “I came outside and I looked and I saw all the agents, right here, right in front of my house. I looked and there was a car crash right over there.”
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said DHS officers were conducting the targeted operation early Wednesday in nearby Compton to “arrest a violent criminal illegal alien from El Salvador.” The agency said William Eduardo Moran Carballo was part of a human smuggling operation and has two prior arrests for inflicting corporal injury on a spouse or cohabitant.
An immigration judge issued a final order of removal from the United States in 2019, the DHS said. NBC4 Investigates is attempting to obtain more information about Carballo’s criminal record.
“In a dangerous attempt to evade arrest, this criminal illegal alien weaponized his vehicle and rammed law enforcement,” the DHS spokesperson said. “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 CBP officer was injured.
LA County Sheriff’s deputies were at the scene to provide traffic control. A group of people gathered near the intersection in protest, but the crowd diminished by late afternoon.
The sheriff’s department told NBCLA it has not plan to conduct an investigation into the shooting. Members of the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were at the scene.
“The fact that the residents in Willowbrook were concerned about it shows that when you create an atmosphere of mistrust, that even if it might have been a legitimate arrest, the neighborhoods don’t trust this situation because of what was going on in Minneapolis or what was going on here since last June,” said Mayor Karen Bass.
Federal agents have been in the Los Angeles are conducting immigration enforcement operations for months as part of President Trump’s mass deportation campaign promise. Border crossings have plummeted and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests have doubled in the past year.
NBC News has been tracking immigration enforcement using ICE data both public and internal as well as data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency. Through Jan. 8, 25.7% of the 68,990 migrants in ICE detention have criminal convictions; 48.4% are listed as “other immigration violator;” 25.9% have pending criminal charges; and 9.3% were fast-tracked for deportation, according to data obtained by NBC News.
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