A Mexican national living in the U.S. was charged this week after he was shot by law enforcement following an attempt to dislodge his car during an arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.
Both the defendant, Carlitos Ricardo Parias, 44, of South Los Angeles, and a deputy U.S. marshal were shot and injured during the Tuesday incident.
Parias was a popular journalist on the video platform TikTok, NBC News reported, noting he frequently posted about fires, car crashes and other breaking news in Southern California.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) said earlier this week that Parias was living illegally in the U.S., was the subject of an ICE arrest warrant and had previously avoided capture.
Officers located the TikToker and boxed in the Toyota Camry he was driving, leaving the vehicle with “no reasonable means of escape,” according to the DOJ.
“Once the Camry was boxed in, federal agents approached it and gave Parias orders to exit the car and submit to arrest,” the administration said. “Parias ignored those commands and drove the Camry both forward and back, hitting two of the law enforcement vehicles.”
“Given Parias’s continued refusal to comply with agents’ orders, an agent attempted to break the Camry’s driver’s side window. Parias still refused to submit to arrest, and then drove the Camry more aggressively, forwards towards one law enforcement vehicle,” prosecutors continued.
They added, “All these factors, including the large amount of smoke produced by the spinning of the Camry’s tires, caused the agents on scene to fear that Parias would successfully dislodge the Camry from between the Durango and Ram and injure them.”
Parias, if convicted, could face a statutory maximum sentence of eight years in federal prison.
