BELMONT CRAGIN — A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and wounded a 53-year-old man in Belmont Cragin on Monday morning, officials said.
About 6:20 a.m., agents from ICE went to the 6100 block of West Grand Avenue to arrest someone, according to the agency. A man who was there during the arrest pointed a gun at agents, and an ICE agent shot and wounded the man, according to ICE.
The man, identified by family members as Felix Torres, was hit in his left arm and taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was in serious condition, police said. ICE said the wounded man was not the person they came to arrest.
Torres' daughter, Carmen Torres, was sleeping in the basement of the house with her husband and 1-year-old daughter when agents burst through the front door, she said.
"They didn't say anything. They just came in and pointed pistols in our faces and dragged us out," Carmen Torres said. "We didn't even have time to dress or grab milk for the baby."
Standing outside the home in sweatpants and slippers Monday morning, Carmen Torres denied that her father had pointed a gun at the agent before being shot.
"It's a lie when they say he was holding a gun He doesn't even own a gun," Carmen Torres said. "They shot my dad. They shot him, and I don't know why."
At least eight family members were in the house during the raid, Carmen Torres said, including her two nephews, ages 9 years and 5 months old.
No members of the family are undocumented, and the family has lived in the home for "at least 30 years," she said.
The Chicago Police Department did not participate in the raid, but they did respond to the shooting, a spokesman said.
The shooting calls for the relationship between local and federal officials to be revisited, said 36th Ward Ald. Gilbert Villegas, who represents the area where the shooting occurred.
"We're going to have to talk to CPD to find out if this was a coordinated effort, because if it was in any way, that raises concerns about us as a sanctuary city," Villegas said. "Is this our future in Chicago with Donald Trump as president?"
Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th) was also highly critical of the raid.
"ICE’s guns blazing raid on a northwest side home filled with sleeping kids is exactly why the City of Chicago should refuse to collaborate with ICE. ICE routinely violates the American people’s constitutional rights," he said in a statement. "This guns blazing ICE raid deepens my resolve to organize my community so we can keep each other safe from the threat posed by ICE.
A City Council committee last week unanimously approved a resolution to renew Chicago's status as a sanctuary city, meaning that city police would not help federal officials find and deport undocumented immigrants.
Villegas said he was assured that the ICE officer "defended himself" from potential danger, he said, but that didn't reassure him of the operation's legitimacy.
"The community's got to be nervous about this, and rightfully so, because you have a right to be in your own home without being intimidated," Villegas said. "I'm conflicted because I haven't got all the details [of the incident] yet, but from the way this has started to play out, it looks like an overstep by an overzealous ICE agent who's just trying to follow Trump's orders."
ICE's Office of Professional Responsibility will review the shooting, according to the agency.
Chicago police said they would "investigate the underlying criminal offense."
