The Department of Homeland Security has changed its account of an immigration enforcement-related shooting in Maryland that left two men injured on Christmas Eve, a move prompted by a local police account that contradicted the federal agency’s initial statement.
In the department’s announcement of the shooting on X, officials said officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement were executing a “targeted immigration enforcement operation” in Glen Burnie when they approached a vehicle and told the driver, Tiago Alexandre Sousa-Martins, to turn off the engine. In the passenger seat of Sousa-Martins’ van, the department said, was Solomon Antonio Serrano-Esquivel.
Officers “defensively fired” their guns at the vehicle, striking Sousa-Martins after he allegedly refused to power off his van and attempted to flee, ramming it into “several ICE vehicles” before driving in the officers’ direction, DHS said in its initial account. In that account, Serrano-Esquivel suffered whiplash when Sousa-Martins’ van crashed between two buildings.
But the Anne Arundel County Police Department issued a statement Friday that offered a counter narrative. One of the men was an ICE detainee and already in the agency’s custody when the incident occurred, police said. The other was injured by gunfire “while operating a separate vehicle.”
DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday about the discrepancy in accounts and the status of the two men’s injuries. In a statement provided to the Baltimore Sun, Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin confirmed Serrano-Esquivel was inside “one of the ICE vehicles that was rammed.”
In its initial account of the shooting, DHS said Sousa-Martins, a Portuguese national, had been living in the United States illegally on an expired visa that lapsed in 2009, according to a statement provided to The Washington Post in December. The statement also noted Serrano-Esquivel, who’s from El Salvador, was also in the country illegally.
Sousa-Martins is being held at a detention facility in Bowling Green, Virginia, according to ICE’s detainee locator website. No details were available for Serrano-Esquivel’s whereabouts and DHS did not immediately respond to questions about either man’s detention status.
The December incident is one of over a dozen ICE shootings during President Donald Trump’s second term, according to media reports and court records.
On Wednesday, Renée Nicole Good, 37, was fatally shot on a residential street in Minneapolis during an exchange with an ICE officer, sparking protests and scrutiny over ICE’s tactics. The following day, two people were shot and injured during a “targeted vehicle stop” in Portland, prompting an investigation from Oregon officials.
DHS has said ICE officers are facing a surge in threats and assaults, including with vehicles used as weapons, and blamed “sanctuary politicians and the media.” Officials have vowed to prosecute “rioters” and warned that demonstrations will not stop their immigration enforcement efforts.
Anne Arundel County police said in their statement on Friday that the Glen Burnie shooting is still under investigation, and that its officers do not enforce immigration law, work with ICE or ask people about immigration status. At a December news conference, department spokesperson Justin Mulcahy said the FBI will investigate the alleged attempt to run over the federal agents and ICE would conduct an internal investigation through its Office of Professional Responsibility.
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