A man who was fatally shot by federal immigration agents Friday in suburban Franklin Park has been identified.
Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez, 38, was shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer after he allegedly attempted to flee a traffic stop and struck an officer with his car.
ICE agents were conducting “targeted law enforcement activity” in Franklin Park when they stopped Villegas-Gonzalez’s vehicle, according to a statement from the agency.
During the stop, Villegas-Gonzalez allegedly resisted arrest and attempted to drive his car into officers, dragging one officer, ICE officials said. Social media videos and eyewitnesses have only confirmed the aftermath of the incident. The Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ have not independently verified ICE’s account of the traffic stop.
The officer opened fire and shot Villegas-Gonzalez, according to ICE. He was taken to an area hospital, where he was pronounced dead, authorities said.
Villegas-Gonzalez was identified by the Cook County medical examiner’s office Saturday afternoon. An autopsy declared he died of multiple gunshot wounds and that his death was the result of homicide.
The Department of Homeland Security said Saturday the injured ICE officer was released from the hospital.
The Mexican consulate said Villegas-Gonzalez was from Michoacán, Mexico, and worked as a cook. Its officials contacted his family and were requesting more information from ICE about the circumstances of the shooting.
Villegas-Gonzalez’s girlfriend, Blanca Mora, told CBS News she believes ICE is lying about the incident and that she just wants the truth to come out.
U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez said at a news conference Saturday outside ICE’s processing facility in Broadview that Villegas-Gonzalez had dropped off his child at school minutes before he was shot.
Ramirez said she and other elected officials will demand an investigation into the shooting.
“It is important for people to understand that, yes, we are living in times that perhaps feel unprecedented, but we have seen these attacks before. We will rise from these attacks,” Ramirez said.
Cook County court records show Villegas-Gonzalez was involved in four traffic violations dating back to 2010. The most recent was in 2019 for operating an uninsured vehicle; the case was thrown out within a month. The other three citations are for speeding, driving with an expired license and again operating an uninsured vehicle.
Chicago-area attorney Manuel Cardenas once represented Villegas-Gonzalez in a traffic violation case. He says his former client was not a violent criminal. Cardenas said he was in shock when he heard the news about Villegas-Gonzalez’s death.
“They are vilifying him, they’re making him look up to be like some monster, which he wasn’t. He was just a working man. Probably got startled,” Cardenas said. “There was no indication from when I met with him that he was a violent man, or that he was interested in hurting anybody.”
Cardenas said that given the aggressive tactics used by federal immigration agents, it was only a matter of time before an incident like this happened.
“When people come at your car, probably in masks yelling at you, you’re gonna probably react in a way which can cause harm,” Cardenas said.