(Dave Mason, The Center Square) Local and federal law enforcement searched for two illegal immigrants who allegedly tried to ram their vehicle into U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement officers near Colorado Springs.
The search was started in the Black Forest area, where ICE said the immigrants Thursday morning tried to run over officers from the agency’s Denver office with a vehicle during an ICE operation at a construction site. ICE said one of its officers fired at the immigrants’ vehicle in self-defense.
“Two criminal aliens attempted to ram their vehicle into ICE officers during a targeted enforcement operation in Colorado Springs, Colorado, July 31,” an ICE spokesperson said in a statement. “As a result of their violent actions and to protect the officers and agents onsite, an officer fired three shots into the vehicle.”
The fugitives, who ICE said fled and abandoned their vehicle, have not been identified.
The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office assisted the Department of Homeland Security and ICE after the incident and set up a containment area to preserve the crime scene, the sheriff’s office said Friday in a news release.
At least two dozen unmarked vehicles and deputies blocked off the area, The Gazette, a Colorado Springs newspaper and website, reported.
A shelter-in-place order was placed at 10:30 a.m. Thursday in the 9900 block of Burgess Road and was lifted around 6 p.m.
The sheriff’s office said it used deputies assigned to its patrol division, school resource officers, drones and community service specialists. Deputies also went door to door to check on residents’ safety.
The FBI is involved with the investigation.
“FBI Denver is investigating an alleged assault on a federal officer that occurred in El Paso County, Colo. earlier today,” the FBI said in a statement Thursday to Fox 21, a TV station in Colorado Springs. “As this is an ongoing investigation, we do not have any further information to provide at this time.”
The Center Square reached out to the Department of Homeland Security Friday, but did not receive a response.
ICE said assaults on its officers and agents are up 830% and blamed that on anti-ICE rhetoric from Democratic politicians.
