An off-duty ICE agent was shot by a 72-year-old Fresno man and arrested after attacking the man and his daughter outside their home, according to the Fresno Police Department.
Police identified the agent as David Gonzalez, 32, of Texas. He was off-duty and alone during the October 9 encounter, and his reason for being in the neighborhood remained unknown.
The daughter had arrived home to find Gonzalez asleep on her front lawn. She alerted her father, who was inside the home they share, and he went outside to tell Gonzalez to leave.
At approximately 3:19 a.m., several callers reported a single gunshot near East Dudley Avenue and North Broadway Street. The department also received a ShotSpotter alert indicating one round had been fired.
Outside the Home
Embedded media follows; please allow a moment for it to load.
In the police account, Gonzalez appeared intoxicated and agitated when awakened, then assaulted the father, leaving him with several visible injuries as he was forced to the ground. When the daughter intervened, Gonzalez attacked her, and she also went to the ground.
Fearing for his own safety and his daughter’s, the father produced a firearm and fired one shot at Gonzalez. The daughter’s boyfriend, an off-duty police officer, arrived shortly afterward and handcuffed him.
Responding officers found Gonzalez in handcuffs with a gunshot wound to his midsection, and an ambulance took him to a hospital. The father legally possessed the firearm and was not facing criminal charges based on the information established during the investigation.
At the Hospital
ABC30 reported that Councilmember Miguel Arias and another local elected official claimed ICE had requested that Fresno police release Gonzalez into federal custody from the hospital. Chief Mindy Casto denied that account: “No such request was made. His supervisors are aware that he will stay in our custody.”
Fresno police separately denied any confrontation with ICE in the department’s public statement. ICE officials had contacted the department to initiate a personnel investigation.
The police statement listed Gonzalez’s charges as battery likely to cause great bodily injury, felony vandalism, and battery. It placed him in Fresno police custody while he received treatment and the father and daughter’s injuries were still being evaluated. Detectives were seeking additional witnesses or video.
All parties are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.