Editor’s note: This story was updated with statements from an ICE spokesperson and the mayor of Long Beach.
Neighbors in North Long Beach rushed out of their homes yesterday and blocked federal immigration agents from arresting a man they had just violently knocked to the ground, according to first-hand accounts from four residents who spoke to the Long Beach Post.
The man is a U.S. citizen named Ricardo Gonzalez who lives near where he was detained, according to neighbors and an online fundraiser started by his family. He was riding an e-bike near Elm Avenue and 56th Street on Saturday afternoon when an agent jumped out of an unmarked car and tackled him, according to a neighbor who asked to be identified only by his first name, Joe.
(Other accounts online said agents rammed Gonzalez with their car. The Post could not locate any video of this or anyone who said they witnessed it first-hand. KTLA later aired video showing the agents’ vehicle veering toward Gonzalez, but it’s unclear if they hit him.)
After taking him down, agents accused Gonzalez of throwing something at their car, Joe said.
Agents tased him twice, and one agent knelt on his back while Gonzalez yelled in pain and said his arm was broken, according to two neighbors who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal.
As residents came outside to see what was going on, they started yelling and honking, alerting more neighbors.
The area was already on edge, Joe said, because eight or so unmarked law enforcement vehicles had been parked in the neighborhood since early that morning. He said his wife at one point had even called 911 to report the vehicles and ask if they could move because they were blocking multiple one-way streets.
Volunteers with anti-ICE rapid response groups had also brought loudspeakers to warn about the vehicles and urge everyone to stay inside. Instead, when neighbors heard the growing confrontation with agents, many intervened.
“If they try to take one of us, they’re going to have to take all of Long Beach,” said Patricia Velazquez, who has lived in the area for more than three decades.
In an email Tuesday, an ICE spokesperson said agents were in the neighborhood trying to arrest a specific person when “anti-ICE agitators attempted to impede operations, threaten officers, and damage government vehicles.”
“Officers followed their training and used the minimum amount of force,” said the spokesperson, who did not provide their name or identify the person agents were originally trying to arrest.
Agents took Gonzalez into custody after he “smashed the mirror of a government vehicle,” according to the spokesperson. They said agents did not hit him with their vehicle.
Once Gonzalez was on the ground, cellphone video shows roughly 50 people gathered around yelling expletives at masked agents. Neighbors demanded to see a warrant, dragged trash cans behind the agents’ vehicles or stood in front of them, blocking them from driving off.
One agent made racist comments to the mostly Latino crowd, saying they didn’t “look legal,” according to Joe. They also used pepper spray on the crowd, neighbors said.
At one point during the roughly hour-long standoff, agents grabbed two women — both U.S. citizens — and put them in the back of two ICE vehicles, according to two neighbors. They were quickly freed, according to Joe. He described the crowd distracting agents while people sneaked behind their vehicles to open their doors.
Long Beach police soon showed up. In a statement, they said federal agents had called for help providing medical aid to someone and dealing with a crowd that had vandalized vehicles.
One officer attempted to step in immediately but was held back by his partner, one neighbor said. Video shows ICE agents then allowed Gonzalez to leave with the Long Beach officers after agents searched his wallet and looked at his identification.
LBPD officers uncuffed Gonzalez and took him to a nearby fire station where paramedics then took him to a hospital.
Gonzalez is a Long Beach resident who, until recently, worked for the city, Long Beach City Councilmember Tunua Thrash-Ntuk said in a statement. He was riding through his own neighborhood, she said, “when he was racially profiled and violently assaulted by ICE agents—leaving him with broken bones and crushing medical bills.”
ICE accused Gonzalez of being a “rioter” and said he could be charged with a crime for damaging the agents’ vehicle.
By contrast, Mayor Rex Richardson said Gonzalez appears to have tried to diffuse the tense situation. When the two spoke by phone, Richardson said Gonzalez described calling Long Beach police to ask for help de-escalating it.
Richardson said he is outraged by agents’ actions and is demanding answers from the Department of Homeland Security.
Long Beach “shouldn’t allow a paramilitary force to simply roam our streets and harass and commit violence without any accountability in the United States of America,” he said.
In their online fundraiser, Gonzalez’s family says he is a hardworking man who supports his family. He is still recovering, they said, and asked for help spreading the word about what agents did to him.
Long Beach Congressman Robert Garcia said he was “proud of the neighbors who documented and stood up for the family being terrorized by ICE.”
“ICE agents brutally attacked and broke the arm of a North Long Beach resident and U.S. citizen,” he said in a statement. “The videos are horrific and should concern not just our community but the country.”