Exclusive video footage reviewed by L.A. TACO shows ICE rear-ending Leonardo Espartaco Martinez, a VC Defensa community observer patrolling for ICE activity in his community last week. Then, ICE speeds up and intentionally rams the rear passenger door on the driver's side of Martinez’s truck on Pacific Ave. and Mountain View Ave. in Oxnard, around 8 a.m. on the morning of Thursday, October 16, according to video footage.
Dash cam footage from Martinez’s vehicle shows him following a grey Jeep SUV at 7:46 a.m., about four to five car lengths away, through an industrial area. There appears to be pre-existing damage to the Jeep on the passenger side front quarter panel. Suddenly the Jeep pulls off the main road, into a parking lot of EAB Collision, and u-turns into oncoming traffic, as the Jeep heads straight towards Martinez–who slowed down and pulled towards the side of the road.
The vehicles are facing each other, bumper to bumper. Martinez starts to slowly reverse the vehicle, as the driver of the Jeep aggressively speeds up and slows down towards him. A truck veers around them. The front window of the jeep is heavily tinted so that the dash cam footage is not able to capture who is inside of the Jeep. The jeep drives into a puddle of water and continues to aggressively follow Martinez. The Jeep brakes–Martinez drives around the Jeep on the drivers side of the vehicle. The footage switches to the rearview camera of Martinez’s truck, where the Jeep can be seen reversing backwards alongside Martinez.
The Jeep pulls backwards into the street blocking both lanes–another truck can be seen in the distance. Martinez pulls forward into a u-turn. The Jeep tails Martinez, as they circle the street, weaving between both lanes. When the sunlight hits the tinted window, the dash cam captures the profile of a masked agent with sunglasses and a tactical vest. Martinez maintains a consistent speed while driving in a circle and it appears the agent is speeding up and braking. Martinez slows down and breaks.
No police lights are turned on at any point in the footage L.A. TACO reviewed. The agent rear ends him and stops. Martinez pulls forward slowly. The Jeep speeds up and goes into oncoming traffic before ramming the rear passenger door, on the driver's side of Martinez’s vehicle at 7:47 a.m. The Jeep's grill and bumper is damaged and hanging down. The Jeep stops and agents get out of the driver's side and passenger's side of the vehicle. They then reenter the Jeep. Martinez drives forward slowly down the street. The Jeep catches up with Martinez as he turns onto another street. The rear view footage ends at 7:48 a.m. There is no audio captured on the dash cam or the rearview camera.
Secondary footage captured by a bystander and reviewed by L.A. TACO shows the vehicles circling each other. Martinez’s passenger driver's side is smashed in and the rear light hangs off. No police lights are seen flashing in this video either.
In a statement to L.A. TACO today, Oxnard Police Department provided the information below:
While ICE initially told Oxnard Police Department that Martinez’s vehicle had backed into them, video footage reviewed by L.A. TACO shows the unmarked ICE vehicle rear-ending Martinez. Martinez also told L.A. TACO that the federal immigration agents hit him first.
L.A. TACO reached out to ICE and DHS for comment.
An ICE Spokesperson responded to L.A. TACO’s comment request, as follows:
“On Oct. 16, 2025, ICE officers were conducting a targeted enforcement operation in Oxnard, California, to locate and apprehend an illegal alien from Mexico who is a registered sex offender. During the operation, officers were confronted by an agitator group, who engaged in the recording and verbal harassment of the officers on scene. During the confrontation with ICE officers, two vehicles were involved in a collision. No injuries were reported. This is an ongoing investigation.”
Martinez told L.A. TACO he was the only person in his truck during this incident.
“Just followed. No horn honking, yelling nothing,” said Martinez.
Martinez was detained and taken to Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks. He was then transferred to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Downtown Los Angeles, where he was later released at 3:02 p.m.
Martinez told L.A. TACO that he received a report this morning of four federal immigration vehicles in an industrial area a few blocks from his location, causing him to head there. When he arrived in the area, he noticed that one of the unmarked vehicles that had been reported was missing, leading him to look for it. He found the vehicle at a traffic light and decided to follow it at a distance he was comfortable with.
“We've been patrolling for awhile, so we know what lines to cross and what lines not to cross,” he tells L.A. TACO. “I don't get too close to them, keep my distance. We have dash cams on our cars just in case anything happens, cuz things tend to happen, and they [federal immigration agents] tend to lie when things happen.”
He says he followed the vehicle for about a quarter of a mile. That’s when the vehicles tucked into a street he described as “lonely.” The vehicle he was following stopped in the middle of the road, causing him to stop his car “three car lanes behind” them. Martinez “thinks” he saw agents get out of their car. He proceeded to reverse his vehicle to create more distance between his car and the federal immigration agent’s vehicle.The agents got back into their vehicle.
At this point, the federal immigration agents began to drive at him aggressively, he says. Federal immigration agents and Martinez began to circle each other Martinez says that’s when the agent collided into his vehicle, the first time.
“That probably pissed them off more–the fact that they hit me,” he says. “So, at that point they probably said ‘fuck it, what do we got to lose,’ and they came back and hit me even harder on the side of the car that got all smashed up.”
“I wasn't gonna pull over there in that moment, not with these fucking terrorists being so aggressive. So, I had to do a slow crawl through downtown Oxnard,” Martinez says. “My thought process there was that if I'm gonna get arrested, I'd rather get arrested in front of everybody than get arrested on some lonely side street where I'm gonna get fucked up and dragged outta the car.”
L.A. TACO has documented at least one instance of the brutal detainment of a community patroller by federal immigration agents.
As Martinez debated where to pull over, a caravan of federal immigration agent vehicles and Oxnard Police Department vehicles assembled and followed him, according to Ryan Drury, a member of VC Defensa.
Martinez pulled into a dirt parking lot, where at least a half dozen law enforcement vehicles parked, according to video footage. At least five federal immigration agents were seen wearing masks, there were about a dozen law enforcement officers in the parking lot during the time Martinez was being questioned by law enforcement.
VC Defensa put out a call for community support on Instagram, as soon as they heard about the situation unfolding. Around 80 people showed up to protest the detention of Martinez, according to Drury, who was there.
Law enforcement officers had Martinez stand up against a vehicle, where Drury witnessed Martinez being questioned by the Oxnard Police Department, ICE, and HSI agents.
Drury says what he witnessed was “collaboration” between local law enforcement and federal agents, noting that ICE agents and the Oxnard Police Department set up a perimeter around the scene.
Oxnard Police Department released a statement on Instagram at 11:35 a.m., writing that they initially received a call about a road rage incident, eventually learning that ICE agents had reported their pursuit of a vehicle. They alleged that the vehicle they were following had collided with another vehicle before driving away.
At this time, it was unclear to the Oxnard Police Department if the reported collision was an intentional collision or a traffic accident., sending their officers to the scene to make that determination.
“The federal authorities asserted that the traffic collision was intentional, and because of that, it is under their jurisdiction. This means that this is a federal investigation, and not that of the Oxnard Police Department," wrote the Oxnard Police Department in the post.
“As the contact developed, additional federal agents arrived on scene, as well as members of the public,” the post continued. “The scene became boisterous, and Oxnard Police were there at this point to ‘keep the peace’ and maintain order. The crowd grew to an estimated eighty persons, who were exchanging words with the federal agents. Some comments are circulating on social media about Oxnard Police ‘working with ICE.’ This was not the case. As we have explained before, we have a ‘duty to respond’ as well as a ‘duty to investigate’ when called upon by anyone.”
The Oxnard Police Department released another statement via Instagram at 1:50 p.m. on the intentional collision.
The post read:
“After the post was published, we were made aware of additional details, including video evidence, and we have shared them with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).The investigation continues to be led by DHS. The Oxnard Police Department is monitoring the situation but has no jurisdiction over the ongoing investigation.”
L.A. TACO reached out to Martinez and his mother, Laura Valdez Gonzalez regarding dash cam footage. Gonzalez verified that at the time of the incident, Martinez told her he had a dash cam on his truck. His vehicle was towed following his detention, Martinez told his mother that he has not had the chance to get his vehicle since he was released. Additionally, he believes that following his detention federal immigration searched his vehicle, locked the doors and took his keys. He told his mom he does not have spare key to his truck. Martinez plans on trying to get access to his vehicle tomorrow, with the help of a locksmith, according to Gonzalez.
“It is legal for a volunteer or for any private individual to follow ICE as long as they're not interfering with their work or their arrest, as long as they maintain a reasonable distance from them,” says Pedro Chavez, a popular immigration attorney who has a large platform on social media.
However, Chavez says that if you interfere with a federal immigration agent's work or an arrest they can charge an individual with assault on a federal officer or interference with a federal officer's investigation. Neither charge requires any physical contact between an individual and an agent. However the agents would have to prove interference, assault, or intent to do either. To prove intent of interference ICE would have to prove that Martinez tried to intentionally scare them or intimidate him. He says ICE is getting more creative with their charges but he ultimately thinks the evidence of either is thin in this situation.
According to Drury, as ICE agents put Martinez in a white Ford explorer and prepared to drive away, federal immigration agents pepper sprayed protestors, pushed them, hit them with batons, and began to unholster their handguns. Federal immigration agents acted aggressively towards protestors, even after Martinez had been taken away, Drury says.
Video footage shows Martinez being detained and protestors yelling at the federal immigration agents “Nazis” and chanting, “Let him go,” in support of Martinez’s release. ICE agents yelled at protestors to “back the fuck up.”
Martinez was taken to Los Robles Hospital in Thousand Oaks, where VC Defensa volunteers waited outside of the hospital when they heard Martinez was being taken there.
At the same time, VC Defensa and a coalition of other community organizations called for a protest outside of the Federal Building in Downtown Los Angeles, where they believed Martinez would be taken.
Organizations and community members gathered in front of the Federal Building and outside of the Metropolitan Detention Center in Downtown L.A.on Thursday, to demand the release of Martinez. The protest flyer that was released on the VC Defensa instagram account called for the protestors to meet at the federal building. When L.A. TACO arrived at around 1:30 p.m. there were protestors who were holding up signs calling for Leo’s release at the Metropolitan Detention Center entrance. Several of the protestors who were advocating for the release of Martinez walked to the Federal Building after 20 minutes.
Protestors chanted “Free Leo,” and held up signs that said “ICE out of CA!" on the sidewalk in front of the Federal Building.
Among the protestors was Laura Valdez Gonzalez, Martinez’s mother, who spoke with L.A. TACO.
“The aggressiveness that federal immigration agents are putting on our citizens, not just on legal residents or the undocumented, places in jeopardy the safety of an entire community,” Gonzalez said. “He has been willingly available 24 hours a day to help out with any immigration issues when there are raids.”
“It is unjust that a leader, someone who has been trying to do good in their community, has been arrested in an aggressive manner,” she said.
Martinez told L.A. TACO that he requested medical aid for pain in his neck and a headache due to the intentional collision by federal immigration agents.
While at the hospital, Martinez received an MRI, which came back clear. From the hospital, he was taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Downtown Los Angeles for processing, where he was placed in a cell until he was released at 2:58 p.m. A crowd of supporters and protestors greeted him. Martinez gave a speech to those who had assembled.
“I know that I didn’t do anything fucking wrong, that’s whey they released me with pending charges,” said Martinez. “They smashed into me and then they tried to accuse me of assaulting them.”
Despite having been detained with brutal force by federal immigration agents, Martinez tells L.A. TACO that he and other community observers will continue to patrol their neighborhoods and keep their community safe.
“ We're ready to do this day in day out,” Martinez says. “A lot of us put our bodies on the line because we understand the sacrifice and the hard work our parents and friends and family put in to give us the privilege of being born here with citizenship. So the bare minimum that we could do to repay that shit is put in as much work as possible in our neighborhood to keep them safe.”
