DENVER (AP) - A federal immigration officer shot a man who fled a traffic stop and displayed a weapon during a confrontation Friday, Denver police said.
The man, who was wanted on two felony warrants, ran away after he was pulled over in an industrial area of the city. Police said he suddenly stopped and confronted officers with an “edged weapon.”
An officer with Immigration and Customs Enforcement fired one shot, grazing the suspect’s forehead. The man is being held for investigation of first-degree assault of a peace officer.
Police did not elaborate on the “edged weapon.”
ICE said the officers stopped the vehicle to arrest someone who had been convicted of unlawful sexual contact.
Agency spokesman Gregory Palmore said he could not identify the person who was shot or release other details because the shooting is being investigated.
The shooting followed ICE’s denial of a request by Mayor Michael Hancock, city council members, school officials and others to refrain from arrests of immigrants near public schools, inside courthouses and other sensitive locations.
ICE also refused a request to have its agents stop wearing clothing identifying themselves in large block letters as “POLICE,” with the much smaller acronym “ICE” below.
Matthew Albence, ICE’s assistant executive director, responded in a May 25 letter that ICE agents will continue to identify themselves as “police,” as well as “ICE,” so that they are recognizable as law enforcement authority.
Albence said the agency is abiding by a 2011 memo that urges caution in sensitive locations such as schools, courthouses, places of worship and hospitals.
Hancock’s office issued a statement saying the city “fundamentally disagrees with ICE’s approach to enforcement in and around our courthouses,” which it said is “causing fear in the heart of our immigrant community and … deterring people from cooperating in our local judicial system.”
A January report by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General shows ICE officers used force 95 times in the fiscal year ending in 2015.
Six of those incidents were classified as “lethal,” meaning they involved techniques such as discharging a firearm or striking someone in the neck. The report doesn’t specify further what happened in each case.
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