EXCLUSIVE: Dash Cam Footage Shows Moments Before Oxnard Activist’s Violent ICE Detainment
Mina Wahab
OXNARD, Calif. (KEYT) — It’s been a stressful couple weeks for Leo Martinez, an Oxnard-based activist and VC Defensa volunteer who was detained by ICE after they rammed into his pick up truck last Thursday.
“These ICE agents are brutal in the way that they act when nobody’s watching. So to see them do this, when people are watching, it kind of gives you a hint as to how they operate, when nobody’s paying attention to what they’re doing,” said Martinez.
Martinez was in the area tracking ICE agents and warning community members about their presence.
“When they actually hit me, that kind of caused a little bit of a panic because like I said, it’s a – it’s a lonely street there. There’s not a lot of traffic. This is seven something in the morning. So my initial thought was like, ‘they’re going to drag me out of the car and beat me up.’ I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t going to get brutalized off-camera and that somebody would catch something over here,” said Martinez.
Oxnard police say that when they were called to the scene, ICE agents reported they were pursuing a truck that had hit their vehicle.
But the dash cam footage from Martinez’ truck does not show that.
Martinez says he was relieved to find the dash cam footage from that day.
“As you see this, I’m not speeding anywhere. They’re not turning on their lights at any point in time. And when I saw that they were going to continue following me as I kind of ran out of ideas and I said, ‘let’s go in circles for a while until I think about how it is I want to respond.’ And they just started getting really, really close to me,” said Martinez.
Martinez says he’s accustomed to helping families who say they’ve been pulled over and brutalized by ICE agents, but this is the first time that he’s experienced aggression firsthand.
He shows us exclusive dash cam footage from last Monday.
“They were in full gear. And as soon as they noticed that I was on them, they pulled over right away. They all got out with their guns out. They all got started moving towards me,” said Martinez.
That Monday, Martinez says ICE agents smashed the car window of another VC Defensa volunteer.
Martinez says despite the increased aggression his team has been experiencing at the hands of ICE agents, they will continue to fight for the community.
“The question is, ‘how do you speak out about this?’ ‘How do you draw attention to this?’ Because the other alternative is not doing anything. When we see these families come in for support, we see ourselves in every one of their kids. We’re never going to let that go,” said Martinez.
Oxnard police say Homeland Security is in charge of the investigation and they’re not taking an active role in the incident.
We’ve reached out to Homeland Security for comment.
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