Federal agents cornered a Venezuelan man in a New Hampshire courthouse elevator before tackling him as he tried to flee — and taking down an elderly bystander in the melee, wild security footage shows.
Video released Monday from the Nashua Circuit Court shows two agents throwing 33-year-old Arnuel Marquez Colmenarez down to the floor and handcuffing him just outside an elevator on Feb. 20.
An elderly man with a cane, who also rode the elevator with the agents and Colmenarez, was knocked to the floor during the confrontation. He was seen writhing in pain on his back.
Another older man who was in the elevator with the group tried to speak to the agents while they held Marquez Colmenarez down, the footage shows.
The agents tapped Marquez Colmenarez on the shoulder as he was exiting the elevator. They spoke to him briefly before he tried to escape through the doors, making it just a few feet before the agents pinned him to the ground and barrelled into the man with the cane.
Marquez Colmenarez was appearing in court to face an arraignment on charges for drunken driving, driving without a license and failing to provide information after an accident all filed on Feb. 9, according to Nashua police.
Jared Neff, a court liaison officer for the Hudson Police Department, helped the agents restrain Marquez Colmenarez after overhearing a loud commotion near the elevator.
“There were voices yelling, ‘Stop!’ and then a loud ‘bang,’ which sounded like people had fallen on the ground and were actively fighting and struggling,” he wrote in an incident report.
Neff noted that Marquez Colmenarez was actively resisting arrest.
The agents asserted they were working on orders to detain illegal immigrants and had tried to apprehend Marquez Colmenarez in the elevator before he fled, Neff said.
The judge presiding over Marquez Colmenarez’s arraignment issued a bench warrant when he failed to appear, even though he was already in the agents’ custody. The prosecutor handling the case was never contacted by federal agents about the arrest, police said.
Marquez Colmenarez was sent to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Texas, where he remained as of Monday, according to an online database.
Judges and other local officials are trying to fight President Trump’s efforts to place immigration officers in courthouses. Earlier in his term, Trump repealed a 2011 policy requiring that agents avoid public places like schools, religious places, and hospitals.
Immigration officers can make arrests “in or near courthouses when they have credible information that leads them to believe the targeted alien(s) is or will be present” as long as it is permitted under state or local law.
With Post wires
The post Fed agents tackle accused drunk driver from Venezuela in NH courthouse as elderly bystander knocked down in melee, wild video shows appeared first on New York Post.
