A local mayor who attended an anti-immigration enforcement demonstration over the weekend in Bell told the Los Angeles Times that the crowd’s mood changed from peaceful to angry after two unmarked SUV’s drove toward protesters.
The violence unfolded Friday in the 7000 block of Atlantic Avenue, north of Florence Boulevard, when federal immigration agents conducted raids at Jack’s Car Wash and detailing and then visited another car wash in nearby Maywood.
At least three people were detained at the Bell location, prompting massive crowds to take to the streets in protest.
Footage of the incident obtained by KTLA shows local police officers attempting to cordon the street off with yellow crime scene tape while demonstrators, many with their cellphones out, crowded around what appears to be vehicles carrying federal officers.
At some point during the incident, Cudahay Mayor Elizabeth Alcantar Loza said it was allegedly federal law enforcement in unmarked cars that incited the violence.
“It felt like there was a point being made to incite violence. People were peacefully protesting, and it became something completely different because of the vehicle that was trying to drive into the crowd,” Alcantar Loza told The Times. “We’ve seen it across the board, folks show up to immigration activity and then violence is enacted upon them. Then they respond and we’re shown as violent protesters — when in reality folks were calm, they were chanting, they were protesting. And they tried to run people over.”
Just before 3 p.m., officers with the Bell Police Department responded to reports of a traffic collision near Atlantic Avenue and Brompton Street, according to the department’s statement.
At the scene, they say the driver of a Jeep, with a juvenile passenger, had rear-ended a U.S. Border Patrol vehicle. The driver, according to Bell PD, had already been removed from the Jeep, presumably by federal authorities, when they arrived.
“Due to heightened tensions surrounding federal immigration enforcement activities, a crowd began to form around the scene,” BPD added. “Some individuals breached traffic safety barricades, attacked U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents, and vandalized police vehicles.”
In a statement posted to X, DHS officials said the driver was arrested for suspicion of vehicular assault and that as a “mob formed,” several federal vehicles had their tires slashed and windows broken.
“Federal law enforcement is facing an ever-escalating increase in assaults—but we will not be deterred. Secretary Noem’s message is clear: If you assault a federal officer, you will be prosecuted. CBP and our partners will continue to enforce the law—relentless and unapologetic,” federal officials added.
Video captured at nearby Riverfront Park in Maywood shows a black SUV slowly driving with a masked man standing on the ledge just outside the vehicle’s open door when he tosses what appears to be a flash bang grenade at people taking filming with their cellphones.
It’s unclear how long federal immigration officials plan to continue carrying out operations in the region, but a growing number of state, county and local officials are calling for a ban on law enforcement officers, including federal agents, wearing masks.
The post Feds seemed to incite violence at L.A. County protest, local mayor says appeared first on KTLA.
