The Woodland Police Department on Wednesday directly disputed the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's account of a collision a day earlier between a vehicle operated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel and a man who was filming an immigration operation in Woodland, California, KION Central Coast, reporting CBS News Sacramento, said. Police said investigators reviewing footage of the Tuesday, October 20 incident determined the pedestrian, Antonio Moreida, did not jump onto the hood of the ICE vehicle or slide off it, contradicting DHS's description, and that the video shows he was struck by a vehicle driven by an ICE agent, with the driver applying the brakes before the collision.

Source: KION Central Coast / CBS News Sacramento — Woodland police dispute DHS account

DHS had said on Wednesday: “An agitator jumped onto the hood of an ICE vehicle and the officer driving applied the brakes. The agitator slid off the hood. ICE immediately contacted EMS and the Woodland Police Department. Flopping for the camera is dangerous, especially when it interferes with a federal law enforcement operation.” Woodland police responded: “We believe our community deserves accurate, factual information about this incident, particularly given the concerns it has raised.” One angle of the footage came from a home Ring camera, and CBS News Sacramento, which obtained and reviewed the footage, said it corroborates what Woodland police said.

Source: KION Central Coast / CBS News Sacramento — Woodland police dispute DHS account

The collision itself was reported earlier by Awaaz Punjab, when Woodland police first confirmed that a federal immigration vehicle had struck a pedestrian shortly after 9:30 a.m. near Locust and Clover streets and that the man was treated at the scene and taken to a hospital with minor injuries. Read the earlier report on the Woodland collision

Moreida, a Woodland Community College student and a volunteer with the immigrant advocacy organisation NorCal Resist, told CBS News Sacramento he went to the neighbourhood after hearing reports of an ICE operation to document it and alert residents, and that he began recording people he believed were federal immigration officers. “I took the corner of the car to the chest,” he told the station. “When I first hit the ground, I had the wind knocked out of me.” KCRA 3, whose videos also captured the incident, reported Moreida was a 37-year-old man who sustained minor injuries and was evaluated at the scene before being taken to hospital, and that the vehicle was a Chevrolet Tahoe operated by ICE agents conducting an operation in the area.

Source: KCRA 3 — Immigration officer hits man in Woodland, videos show

Democratic U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, whose district includes Woodland, sharply criticised the DHS statement as a lie. “It's just nonsense,” Thompson said. “You know it, and I know it. The local police know it. Our community knows it, and they're not going to get away with lying to our community.” Moreida said the DHS statement does not describe what happened “whatsoever,” KION reported. Woodland Mayor Tom Stallard also told the station that, after Moreida came home from hospital, an ICE vehicle was photographed across the street from his home, and asked, “what does that sound like to you?” CBS News Sacramento said it had asked DHS for a response to those claims and had not heard back.

Source: KION Central Coast / CBS News Sacramento — Woodland police dispute DHS account

Woodland police said they are conducting an active criminal investigation into the collision and will forward it to the Yolo County District Attorney's Office once complete, Particle News summarised. Police had earlier said the ICE driver alerted local authorities and remained cooperative, that the federal agency had been notified, and that ICE's full cooperation had been requested. Police Chief Kinnan had called the video “very troubling” and promised a thorough and impartial investigation. No finding on fault or any charge had been announced by any authority in the sources cited as of Wednesday night.

Source: Particle News — ICE Vehicle Strikes Pedestrian in Woodland as Police Review Video