The story was co-published with The TRiiBE.
On October 1, a day after federal immigration agents detained dozens of people — including Black American citizens — in a militarized raid on a South Shore apartment building, a chaotic scene erupted at the intersection of California Avenue and Congress Parkway in East Garfield Park. A white Chevy Malibu with an unknown driver crashed into a black Infiniti SUV driven by a 49-year-old Black woman, injuring her. In the aftermath of the crash, a federal agent was captured on witness video apparently placing a Black man in a chokehold. Agents claimed they were investigating a robbery when the crash occurred.
Via a public-records request, The TRiiBE obtained audio of a 911 call made by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent to report the crash and the alleged robbery, which he claimed had occurred moments before.
“Hi, this is a Border Patrol agent. We just witnessed a robbery in progress, and then there was, uh, pretty much a T-bone, an accident,” the Border Patrol agent told dispatch. “I don’t know if you guys got wind of it already. We’re on California and Congress.”
In response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by The TRiiBE, the Office of Emergency Management and Communications (OEMC) provided a recording of the 911 call between the agent and dispatch, along with audio between dispatchers and Chicago police and documents related to the calls.
The agent’s flustered description of the incident apparently sparked confusion among dispatch and police officers. It also conflicted with eyewitness accounts from bystanders and a security guard that were previously reported by The TRiiBE, as well as a statement later released by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The agent initially told the 911 operator that a “paramedic” was on scene, but when the OEMC operator asked whether they were with the Chicago Fire Department or a private ambulance company, the agent clarified that the medic was with Border Patrol.
“We have a paramedic on scene,” the Border Patrol agent told dispatch in the 911 call, which lasted for about four minutes. The dispatcher asked, “Is this, like, a private ambulance or Chicago Fire Department?” After some confused back-and-forth, the agent said, “No, Border Patrol, ma’am, Border Patrol.” A report documenting the 911 call that The TRiiBE obtained from OEMC said there was “private EMS affiliated w/ border patrol [sic] on scene.”
Listen to the Border Patrol agent’s 911 call:
On November 3, DHS sent a statement to The TRiiBE that did not address questions sent to them by a reporter. It’s also identical to a statement that the agency sent on October 2, the day after the car crash.
The Chicago Police Department (CPD) stated the car-crash victim sustained injuries to her shoulder, neck, and hip and was transported to Mount Sinai in good condition, while the unidentified driver of the other vehicle fled the scene. Eyewitnesses reported seeing an ambulance arrive, but they didn’t see anyone receiving medical aid inside it.
The TRiiBE interviewed the car-crash victim’s sister, Davina Jeans, at the scene just before 3:30 p.m. on the day of the crash. Jeans said her sister called her around 2:00 p.m. to let her know she’d been in a car accident and asked that she go to the scene to pack up her things. Her sister’s black Infiniti SUV was left at the intersection of Congress Parkway and California Avenue. While The TRiiBE was interviewing her, there were multiple Chicago police officers at the scene directing traffic and helping Jeans transfer bags to her car.
The Border Patrol agent called 911 at 1:56 p.m. He said the crash victim was a woman. Dispatch asked the race of the victim; the agent responded, “Uh, she’s, uh, African.”
Initially, the agent appeared confused about the robbery. Dispatch asked the agent how many people robbed the woman. The agent said one. Dispatch also asked the gender of the robber, to which the agent said, “It’s a female.”
After more questions from dispatch, the agent eventually clarified what happened. “No, no, no, no. Two males. Two males robbed, like, a little work site.” The agent didn’t mention the work site’s location on the call.
During the 911 call, the agent described the men as Black and skinny, and reported that they took off running. “Some of my partners went after ’em, after two of them.”
The dispatcher reiterated that help is on the way. She also asked the agent if he saw any weapons on “the guys that robbed her,” despite it being established minutes earlier in the call that the crash victim was not robbed.
“No, we did not see any weapons,” the agent said. Dispatch asked what the men were wearing.
“I just know one of them was wearing a white T-shirt, and I believe they’re walking with at least one of them in custody,” the agent said.
An account from the security guard at a nearby BP gas station corroborates this part of the story. The security guard told The TRiiBE that he saw a Black man in a white T-shirt running through the back door of the gas station.
When the two agents apprehended the man, the security guard said, they walked out the front door of the gas station, passed the gas pumps, and walked down an adjacent alley.
Witness video shows agents walking down an alley alongside the BP gas station with a Black man whose hands are behind his back. Another witness video shows federal agents apparently placing him in a chokehold at the intersection of California Avenue and Congress Parkway; a bystander can be heard on the video growing emotional while asking why the agents are choking the man.
“Alright, so we—I have help on the way,” the 911 operator said. She then asked the agent if he had an operator identification or badge number he could give her, and he declined. “Border Patrol, we don’t, ma’am, I’m sorry,” he said. An event report, The TRiiBE obtained from OEMC, identifies the caller as “Border Patrol Agent EZ16,” however. It’s unclear what that means.
On October 9, in a sweeping temporary restraining order, a federal judge ordered CBP agents to add individual identification to their uniforms while they operate in Chicago. Since then, agents have repeatedly been observed failing to comply with that order.
DHS denied the report of agents choking a Black man. “This is FALSE, the man was not choked,” a DHS spokesperson stated via email on October 2.
DHS also detailed in the statement that agents “witnessed what they believed to be a theft in progress. As they went to engage with the individual he fled in a vehicle and proceeded to crash into another motorist,” the email reads. “Agents attempted to render first aid when the suspect started resisting.”
One witness, Equity and Transformation’s (E.A.T.) organizing director Maurice Woodard, told The TRiiBE the detained Black man was released and ran down Congress Parkway.
According to the event report obtained by The TRiiBE, multiple people (it’s unclear how many) called 911 to report what was unfolding. The chronology of events began at 1:54 p.m., according to the event report. A written remark indicates one unidentified caller reporting “he is being harassed by federal agents, no badges are displayed.” In that same entry, the caller stated “they are threatening to tase him for no reason.” OEMC did not provide the audio for this call to The TRiiBE.
The event report lists the names of a Border Patrol agent and a caller, but The TRiiBE redacted the caller’s name because they are a private citizen. The report details that the agent’s 911 call came from a wireless T-Mobile carrier.
OEMC also provided a 14-minute communications call between dispatch and Chicago police officers.
During the exchange, a dispatcher relayed what the Border Patrol agent said on the 911 call. “So I’ve been getting a robbery in progress at California in Congress,” the dispatcher said. “He said he witnessed a female, Black, wearing a blue shirt, being robbed by two male Black people. They don’t have any descriptions of the offender.”
A moment later, a second person asked if they’d gotten a call about “an auto accident on California and Congress.”
“No, just a call about a robbery. There’s no car accident there,” the dispatcher said, adding that the Black men ran westbound on Congress Parkway. The time of this conversation is unknown.
“Well, there is a crash there,” the second person said. “Just confirmation. Looks like there’s some kind of federal operation happening there… give the units a heads up.”
Once dispatch confirmed information about the accident, police headed to the scene.
“We need you to head over to California and Congress. We’re getting multiple calls over there,” the dispatcher said to an officer.
Listen to Chicago emergency responders discuss the incident:
A moment later, an officer said, “I don’t know what’s going on, I just see like eight ICE cars,” referring to the scene of the accident at California and Congress. Photos obtained by The TRiiBE show the federal agents on scene wearing uniforms with “U.S. Customs and Border Protection” patches; one wore a vest with “POLICE” and “BORTAC” (designating CBP’s tactical operations units) written on it.
Dispatch asked if they need a sergeant. An officer responded, “They have about six ICE vehicles and then a bunch of patrols and it’s an accident that they say is a foot pursuit and a bunch of other BS.”
“So you guys not getting involved? Are we coding it out? You guys good? You need a sergeant? What’s going on?” a dispatcher asked. Seconds later, dispatch asked whether a supervisor from the 11th Police District was available to respond to the accident scene. A police officer told the dispatcher that they’d head to the scene.
Soon, an officer told dispatch, “It’s just a traffic crash, and it has nothing to do with ICE.” They requested a police car to “block traffic northbound on California from Harrison and southbound north of the bridge, so that we can get these vehicles moved.”
The TRiiBE filed a public-records request with the Chicago Police Department for a copy of an Investigatory Stop Report (ISR) that a department spokesperson said an officer on scene had completed. During investigatory stops, an officer can detain a person temporarily based on the suspicion that they’re involved in a crime. After conducting one, officers are required to complete an ISR. CPD has not fulfilled The TRiiBE’s request for the ISR; instead, they sent a service call event record, which contains the same details as OEMC’s Event Query Report. A police spokesperson did not immediately respond to The TRiiBE’s request for clarification, and the FOIA office did not respond to repeated inquiries about the request.
The police department also denied The TRiiBE’s public-records request for officers’ CPD body-worn camera footage, citing a state law that exempts such footage from disclosure unless an arrest, shooting, use of force, or civilian complaint is tied to it.
Since the launch of the DHS’s so-called “Operation Midway Blitz,” Chicago police Supt. Larry Snelling has repeatedly said that officers do not interfere with federal enforcement operations.
Following the October 1 incident, a CPD spokesperson emailed The TRiiBE: “At no point did CPD coordinate or assist federal authorities with immigration enforcement.”
Tonia Hill is a multimedia reporter for The TRiiBE. Her work focuses on the intersections between criminal justice, policing, politics and grassroots organizing.
