SEEKING JUSTICE

Unarmed Man Shot in Face During ICE Deportation Order Sues Agent

Erick Diaz Cruz, a Mexican national visiting his mother in Brooklyn earlier this month, intervened when ICE agents were arresting his mother’s boyfriend.

An unarmed man shot in the face by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent during a deportation order in Brooklyn reportedly still has the bullet lodged in his head and has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the officer. Erick Diaz Cruz, from Vera Cruz in Mexico, was visiting his mother and younger brother in Gravesend, Brooklyn earlier this month on a tourist visa. The 26-year-old approached two ICE agents who were “engaged in confrontation” with his mother’s boyfriend, Gaspar Avendano-Hernandez, whom they were trying to arrest, according to the lawsuit. When one of the agents allegedly pulled out his gun, Diaz Cruz covered his face, but the bullet pierced his hand and went through his left cheek. The bullet, which lodged in his neck, fractured multiple bones in his face and hand, the suit says. “This is not just an attack against me, but also an attack against the entire Latino community in the United States,” Diaz Cruz, a municipal worker in Vera Cruz, wrote in a statement. “This is the right time for our community to come together to protest against and protect ourselves from ICE’s violence.”