Last month an illegal immigrant named Jerson Lopez-Sanchez allegedly rammed his truck into a vehicle containing three ICE agents during an attempt to escape arrest. He is now being charged with assault for that crime but is not in custody.
Jerson Lopez-Sanchez, 28, was charged with three counts of assaulting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, according to a grand jury indictment filed in the U.S. Eastern District of Texas. He is not currently in custody and has yet to turn himself in, the indictment said...
The charges stem from a Dec. 1 incident in which ICE agents on patrol were asked do a "routine check" on a Chevrolet Silverado, the indictment said. Officials said five people were in the truck but Lopez-Sanchez was the owner and driver of the Silverado...
Three ICE vehicles engaged in a traffic stop of the Silverado...
The three vehicles surrounded the truck and agents were starting to get out to approach the driver. At that point, Lopez-Sanchez allegedly put the truck in reverse, hitting the Jeep behind him. One of the agents in the jeep already had one leg outside on the ground and had to jump back inside to avoid being injured. The truck driven by Lopez-Sanchez then squeezed past the other two vehicles and fled.
Two agents in a Chrysler van, which had emergency lights on and sirens going, attempted to block the truck by turning sideways in the street.
"Jerson Lopez-Sanchez made no attempts to apply the brakes to his vehicle as he approached the two ICE agents in the Chrysler van and crossed over opposite lanes of traffic," the indictment said.
The Silverado accelerated into the agents' van, causing "significant damage" documented in photographs included in the indictment. The photos show the front of the van smashed in to the point where the hood is bent and smoke appeared to be coming from the engine block.
"The ramming was so violent that it deployed all the airbags in the vehicle," Combs said. "911 was called to assist the passenger in that vehicle, an ICE agent."
The last undamaged ICE vehicle followed the truck for another 10 minutes. Eventually, Lopez-Sanchez parked it in the street and all five people inside got out and ran for it. Three of them were caught by ICE agents pursuing on foot but Lopez-Sanchez got away. Authorities know he was the driver because one of the suspects who was caught was a relative and confirmed it. Now the FBI is searching for him.
Prosecutors said one of the men who was arrested was Lopez-Sanchez's uncle, who identified him as the driver.
The Department of Justice is asking anyone with information about Lopez-Sanchez to report it to the FBI, and said they may be eligible for a reward. He is described as a 5'8" Hispanic man weighing 165 pounds with black hair and brown eyes.
Lopez-Sanchez faces up to 20 years in prison on each of the three charges.
All of this seems relevant because we're in the midst of anti-ICE hysteria being ginned up by Democrats, especially the elected officials in Minnesota. What this case demonstrates is that ICE agents are already doing a difficult and dangerous job, one that involves enough risk from fleeing suspects. They don't need elected officials telling citizens to go out and interfere with their arrests, sometimes in way that are illegal as well as unwise.
Democrats are replaying the chaos of 2020 when, all of a sudden, everyone on the left was convinced police officers were the enemy and ought to be defunded or even abolished. This stupid plan quickly backfired on the Democrats who embraced it, both practically and politically.
Now we're seeing the same people run the same playbook focusing on federal agents instead of local ones. This may be more successful for them politically but it's still going to be a disaster for the agents who are out there doing a job dealing with sometimes dangerous people. That ought to matter to elected officials fanning the flames of this new anti-police movement, but it doesn't seem to. As long as Democrats are on the side of the angry mob, they seem content.
