Local police body camera footage has cast new doubt on the Department of Homeland Security’s justification for an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent’s fatal shooting of Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez, a 38-year-old father of two, in Franklin Park, Illinois on Sept. 12.
In its initial statement, DHS claimed that Villegas-Gonzalez “refused to follow law enforcement’s commands and drove his car at law enforcement officers. One of the ICE officers was hit by the car and dragged a significant distance. Fearing for his own life, the officer fired his weapon.” The agency further reported that the agent “sustained multiple injuries” and was “seriously injured” by the car.
But body camera video from a Franklin Park police officer who responded to the scene, obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times, shows a different account. The injured agent’s torn blue jeans revealed only a scraped knee, and over the radio another agent reported “a left knee injury and some lacerations to his hands.” The agent himself described his condition as “Nothing major,” while his partner reiterated: “Nothing major.” Later, after the agent was taken to the hospital, his partner said, “I think we’re good, man. Just shooken up a little.”
The footage contradicts DHS’s description of serious injuries and its justification for the shooting. One of the agents told police on the scene, “He tried to run us over,” while the other agent said he had been “dragged a little bit.” A local truck driver who was struck during the incident told police that Villegas-Gonzalez had reversed when the agents cut him off and that he assumed shots were fired before the crash. “I don’t know if they shot him before and that’s why he crashed into me,” the driver said. “Because there should have been no reason for him to crash into me, he could’ve just gone to the left.”
Surveillance footage from nearby businesses had already raised doubts about DHS’s version of events, showing that Villegas-Gonzalez had not initially driven forward at the officers but that one agent grabbed onto his car window as he reversed. A witness also told police he did not see an agent being dragged behind the vehicle.
The ICE agents directly involved in the shooting were not wearing body cameras. “The ICE agents who conducted the arrest were not wearing body cameras at the scene after the Trump administration scrapped a policy requiring them,” the Sun-Times reported. The absence of federal footage and DHS’s refusal to release further details have fueled suspicion.
Franklin Park Police Director Michael Witz told his officers that they would not investigate. “It’s a federal shooting, you’re not going to investigate a federal officer,” he said. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin later stated that protocol requires the “appropriate investigative agency” to review ICE shootings first but did not specify which agency is handling this case. Franklin Park spokesperson Dawn Catanzaro said “the FBI Chicago field office is in charge of the investigation,” though the FBI declined to confirm ongoing involvement. McLaughlin added that ICE will eventually review “every use of force incident and any discharge of an ICE firearm.”
The apparent discrepancies have sparked strong reactions from lawmakers, human rights advocates, and Mexican officials. Belkis Wille, associate director of Human Rights Watch’s crisis, conflict, and arms division, noted, “law enforcement officers can only use lethal force when an individual poses an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to the officer or another person.”
Democratic Rep. Delia Ramirez, a Chicago native, wrote on social media: “An ICE agent shot Silverio dead. DHS lied about what happened.” She added, “There needs to be a full, thorough investigation into what happened that morning. All camera footage must be released. And [Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi] Noem must come to the committee and account for ICE’s unlawfulness and lies.”
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker called for a “full, factual accounting of what’s happened.” Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum condemned the killing, while Reyna Torres Mendivil, Mexico’s consul general in Chicago, said her government has requested a “thorough investigation.” “For everybody to be clear and to have peace of mind, I think it’s important to do that,” Torres Mendivil said.
Villegas-Gonzalez, originally from Michoacán, Mexico, worked as a cook and was described by mourners as a “devoted father” and “kind soul.” Rep. Ramirez said he had dropped off one of his children at school minutes before the shooting. He was later pronounced dead at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood.
The incident prompted protests outside the ICE field office in Chicago and in Franklin Park, where demonstrators gathered behind police tape as schools went into lockdown and streets were closed.
The federal agents involved have not been publicly identified, and DHS has provided few details about the investigation. The Sun-Times, which obtained the Franklin Park police bodycam footage through a public records request, continues to blur the agents’ faces in its reporting.
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