April 7 (Reuters) – ICE officers shot and wounded a man in California on Tuesday after the suspect tried to ram one of them with his vehicle, the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said.
The man was taken to a hospital and the FBI was on the scene, ICE Director Todd Lyons said in a statement.
“As officers approached the car, the wanted gang member weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run an officer over. Following their training, our officers fired defensive shots to protect themselves, their fellow agents, and the public,” Lyons said.
The suspected gang member from El Salvador was in the U.S. illegally and had been wanted for questioning in connection with a homicide, ICE said.
Reuters could not independently verify the ICE statement regarding the incident in Patterson, a farm town of 25,000 people in the San Joaquin Valley, about 90 miles (145 km) southeast of San Francisco.
The Department of Homeland Security said in January that ICE officers experienced 66 vehicular attacks against them in the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, up from two such incidents in the previous year.
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta in Carlsbad, California; Editing by Rod Nickel)
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