Two Chicago residents have been charged with using their cars to “assault, impede, and interfere with the work of federal agents,” federal prosecutors said on Sunday.
The charges stemmed from a confrontation Saturday morning between federal agents and motorists on the Southwest Side of Chicago that resulted in a federal agent shooting one of the motorists, Marimar Martinez, 30. She was treated and released from a hospital.
She was charged along with another motorist, Anthony Ian Santos Ruiz, 21.
The criminal complaint makes no mention of any weapon in the possession of either motorist, in contrast to an earlier statement from the Department of Homeland Security.
According to the criminal complaint, three Border Patrol agents who were conducting an operation in Oak Lawn, Ill., were followed by Ms. Martinez and Mr. Ruiz. They pursued the agents’ cars, running red lights and stop signs as they did so, and eventually crossed the city line into Chicago, the complaint said.
During the chase, the complaint said, Ms. Martinez “regularly and loudly” referred to the agents as “la migra,” the Spanish term for immigration authorities.
Ms. Martinez and Mr. Ruiz then drove into one of the federal agents’ cars, causing the agent to lose control of the vehicle, the complaint said. Once the agents’ car had stopped and the agents had stepped out of it, Ms. Martinez drove her car directly at one of the agents, the complaint said, prompting him to fire five shots at her.
The account given in the complaint differs significantly from the one offered on Saturday in a statement from the Department of Homeland Security. That statement said that agents were “forced to deploy their weapons and fire defensive shots” at a driver who was “armed with a semiautomatic weapon.” The criminal complaint does not include that claim.
It also differs from an account given to The New York Times by Mr. Ruiz’s mother, Elizabeth Ruiz. She said her son called her immediately after the confrontation and told her that federal agents were being chased and rammed by other cars, not his, and that the agents had struck him.
“‘Mom, they hit me, they hit me,’” she said he told her. “‘I said, ‘What do you mean?’ And he said ‘ICE.’”
“I told him to get himself situated and then I started hearing boom, boom, boom, and he yelled, ‘Mom, they’re shooting,’” she said.
Ms. Ruiz said she raced to the scene and saw her son being arrested. On Sunday, she said he was still in custody.
Christopher Parente, a lawyer for Ms. Martinez, said he was gathering information about what had happened and was working to gain Ms. Martinez’s release.
Robert Chiarito contributed reporting. Susan C. Beachy contributed research.
Julie Bosman is the Chicago bureau chief for The Times, writing and reporting stories from around the Midwest.
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