At around 12:15 p.m. on Sunday, an unmasked federal agent threatened Sol, a community watch member on a regular shift in Santa Ana, with a weapon at the intersection of Santa Ana Boulevard and Shelton Street.
She had been legally observing with other members when they spotted a white SUV in a parking lot on Standard, between Grand and Edinger, that they recognized as an ICE vehicle. These major streets have been the subject of various immigration enforcement raids in Santa Ana this year.
L.A. TACO spoke with Sol and a community watch member named Addie, who was also on scene as the incident unfolded.
“Yesterday, around 11:45 a.m., we got a message about a suspicious vehicle parked for too long in a small industrial lot on Edinger Avenue, between Grand and Standard,” Addie says. “A community watch member, Sol, went to document it and found two men sitting inside a white SUV with dark tinted windows. The vehicle matched one we’d seen before coming out of the federal detention building in Santa Ana.”
She says that when she arrived, she noticed the suspicious white SUV began to move, and out of caution, she and Sol followed from a distance to be ready to alert the community if need be.
Addie says that she drove ahead of Sol before they noticed that the vehicle was heading to the Federal Building on Civic Center, when out of nowhere, a gray SUV sped up behind them. Rapid responders would later notify L.A. TACO that the gray SUV was present at a San Juan Capistrano raid on Halloween Morning at “El Nopal Mercadito,” on Camino Capistrano and Acjachema Street, where two people were kidnapped.
Addie says that the same gray SUV had boxed Sol in right in the middle of the road at the corner of Shelton and Santa Ana Blvd, as the white SUV drove off.
After legally documenting the moving vehicles, the agent from the gray SUV stopped his vehicle at the intersection, halting traffic, and boxed Sol in. The agent stepped out of his vehicle and immediately brandished his firearm.
“I was cornered by a man in plain clothes who got out of his car with a gun pointed directly at me,” Sol says. “As soon as I took out my phone to record, I noticed a police vehicle had already parked to my left. The man pointing his gun repeatedly asked the officer to arrest me for following him. While Fullerton PD later confirmed that I had NOT committed any crime, it’s incredibly disturbing that a local police officer witnessed a gun being drawn on a civilian and did not properly intervene. It’s a bad look for police, who already struggle to earn the community’s trust—especially when everyday residents are keeping each other safe from these so-called federal agents.”
In a statement posted on Instagram, the Fullerton Police Department said that when the incident occurred, one of their officers had just finished transporting an inmate to the Orange County Jail and was returning to Fullerton when he observed two vehicles stopped at the intersection of Santa Ana Boulevard and Shelton. The officer saw the male exit his vehicle and point his firearm at Sol. The officer stopped to assist and Fullerton PD states that the officer did not know the identity of the male.
After the agent identified himself as an ICE agent and presented his credentials, he told the officer that a woman was following him, to which the police officer told the agent he could not assist with someone following him or recording him if no crime had occurred.
In video footage provided by Addie, the agent then walks back to his vehicle, and both Sol and the police officer leave the area.
Fullerton Police Department received some scrutiny over the video after it was circulated on social media and promptly released their statement, although it isn’t the first time that a Fullerton Police officer was seen around an immigration enforcement agent.
Back on October 3, a community watch member ran into a Fullerton Police officer speaking with a Border Patrol agent in Anaheim.
This isn’t the first incident in Santa Ana where an immigration enforcement agent drew a weapon towards a civilian either. There were incidents on October 26th and just last week, on November 5th.
“Yes, a federal agent pulled a firearm on a community member. For what? For driving down the same streets we live on? For daring to keep an eye on what’s happening in our own neighborhood?” Addie asks.
“These so-called agents are violating due process, constitutional protections, and human rights. If anything, this incident is a reminder that city policing agencies are not legitimate authorities on what public safety actually looks like,” Sol says.
