This article was originally published by LAist on June 11, 2025.

An incident at a church in Downey on Wednesday led to one person being detained and a man in a police vest pointing a gun at the church’s pastor, religious leaders said.

Faith leaders worry it’s a sign of immigration enforcement encroaching on places of worship.

What we know

About 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, the head pastors of Downey Memorial Christian Church noticed law enforcement agents surrounding a man sitting in the shade of a tree on the far side of the church’s parking lot. Revs. Tanya Lopez and Al Lopez went outside to ask the agents to identify themselves and to ask what they were doing.

The Lopezes said the agents refused to identify themselves and told them they didn’t have a right to confront them in the parking lot. In a video provided by Al Lopez, five officers wear plain clothes, masks and camouflage bulletproof vests. Several have the word “police” on the front of their vests.

In the background of the video, Tanya Lopez can be heard shouting, “We are not OK with you being on our property.”

Tanya Lopez said the agents kept directing her to back up as she spoke to them, and one officer eventually pointed a large gun directly at her. At that point, she said, she backed away. The man who had been in the parking lot was eventually taken away in an SUV.

The Lopezes said they also called the Downey Police Department, but were told nothing could be done.

Downey Police, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment.

Al Lopez later recounted the incident at a news conference.

The agents refused to identify themselves, he said. He told them, “We don’t want this on our property.”

What the agent said next will stay with him. He said one of the agents shouted: “The whole country is our property.”

“When someone tells that to you with a weapon in their hand, that was a very clear message,” Al Lopez said. “And as a man of faith, that is not … correct, and that goes against everything that our country stands for.”