A U.S. Border Patrol agent who was arrested for drunkenly fighting Long Beach police last month has died, officials said.
The death of Isaiah Hodgson, 29, was confirmed Tuesday afternoon by Natlain Daldalian , communications director for the L.A. County Public Defender’s Office, which was representing Hodgson on charges of resisting arrest and battery against a peace officer.
Daldalian could not immediately provide additional information about Hodgson’s death, but asked the media to “respect his family’s privacy during this time.” The agent’s death was first reported by L.A. Taco, which said the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department confirmed the agent’s passing. No cause of death has been reported.
Public records show Hodgson once lived in Hemet. The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department did not immediately respond to an inquiry from The Times. A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not immediately offer any comment.
Hodgson played a visible role in the Trump administration’s intensive immigration enforcement efforts in Southern California over the last few months.
He was involved in the controversial detention of Adrian Martinez, a U.S. citizen, who was accused on June 17 of interfering in immigration arrests at a Walmart in Pico Rivera, according to Martinez’s defense attorneys.
Agents rushed the 20-year-old and shoved him to the ground after he confronted them as they tried to arrest one of his co-workers. Footage from the scene shows officers dragging Martinez to a truck. While U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli publicly accused Martinez of assaulting an officer, footage from the scene did not show Martinez striking anyone. He was indicted on a charge of conspiring to impede a federal officer last week.
Roughly three weeks following the incident with Martinez, Hodgson was “off-duty, intoxicated and armed with a handgun” at a restaurant in the Shoreline Village area of Long Beach when he approached a female in the women’s restroom, according to a statement issued last month by the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. The woman complained to restaurant staff, which asked Hodgson to leave because guns were not allowed inside the eatery.
Long Beach police responded to the scene and contacted Hodgson, who fought with officers as they tried to detain him. Officers eventually subdued him with a stun gun, according to a Long Beach police department spokeswoman. Hodgson “refused to provide employment information” when questioned by officers, one of whom suffered a minor injury during the scuffle, police said.
Prosecutors charged Hodgson with three counts of resisting arrest, one count of battery causing injury to a police officer and several misdemeanor weapons offenses. He was due back in court in late September, records show.
Both the district attorney’s office and Long Beach police referred questions to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.
Times Staff Writer Brittny Mejia contributed to this report.
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