Leonardo Espartaco Martinez, a U.S. Citizen and community watcher with the rapid response group VC Defensa in Ventura County, was violently detained by federal immigration agents in Simi Valley. Martinez was discharged from Los Robles Regional Medical Center at around noon on March 10.
The events started around 6:50 yesterday morning, when a fellow community patroller responded to a notification that several ICE agents and vehicles were in a residential neighborhood on Buyers Street in Simi Valley. After the agents pepper-sprayed the anonymous community member, Martinez came to their aid. Agents had reportedly left the scene, but returned about 45 minutes later when Martinez was on the scene.
Video footage shows agents in three vehicles that include a black Nissan Maxima, a blue Ford Expedition, and a black Chevrolet Tahoe, blocking and ramming into Mr. Martinez’s minivan as he attempted to reverse and pull away from the agents. A fourth vehicle, a black Nissan SUV, also pulled around behind Martinez’s minivan, from which a masked agent jumps out of the vehicle with an assault rifle, prompting the legal observer recording the incident to run in fear.