The Colorado Bureau of Investigation said Thursday it is launching an investigation after a federal agent threw a 57-year-old woman to the ground during a protest in Durango following the detention of a father and his two children.
(Warning: This video contains violence and strong language.)
Durango Police Chief Brice Current requested the investigation, CBI said in a statement.
CBI will investigate whether the agent violated state criminal law during the Tuesday incident during a protest over the arrest of a Colombian man, Fernando Jaramillo-Solano, and his 12-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son while on their way to school.
The family’s active asylum case is pending. Jaramillo-Solano has lived in Colorado for 18 months and has no criminal history, advocates with Compañeros Four Corners Immigrant Resource Center said.
Once the probe is completed, CBI’s findings will be presented to the 6th Judicial District Attorney’s Office.
The district attorney will decide whether to file criminal charges.
The woman the agent confronted, Franci Stagi, told The Colorado Sun on Thursday she is “incredibly sore” with pain in her upper back, neck and head.
Stagi was protesting outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office early Tuesday when she saw an unmarked car pull up about 6:15 a.m.
She began recording on her phone and asked an officer, “You’re a good Christian, aren’t you?”
“Boy, did that piss him off,” Stagi told The Sun on Tuesday, shortly after it happened. The officer, who was wearing a black vest with “police” printed on it, knocked her phone out of her hands and she tried to grab it back.
Stagi said the officer then yelled, “She’s assaulting me!” before grabbing Stagi by her hair. He put her in a chokehold and pushed her to the ground over a grassy embankment, where she landed on her head, according to a video of the interaction.
It was not clear through the video which federal agency the officer worked for. The agent did not attempt to place Stagi under arrest and let her leave after the encounter.
Because the incident happened on federal property, the FBI is also looking into the incident, Durango city officials said Wednesday. An email to an FBI spokesperson in Denver was not immediately answered Wednesday.
“During the current lapse in appropriations, FBI operations are directed toward national security, violations of federal law, and essential public safety functions,” the agency said in an automated email.
ICE’s arrests of Jaramillo-Solano and his children Monday have drawn backlash from the local community and state officials.
Gov. Jared Polis said his office was not informed of the operation, nor was it provided any information about whether Jaramillo-Solano and his children were suspected of any crimes.
“The federal government’s lack of transparency about its immigration actions in Durango and in the free state of Colorado remains extremely maddening,” he said Wednesday in a post on social media. “The federal government should prioritize apprehending and prosecuting dangerous criminals, no matter where they come from, and keep our communities safe instead of snatching up children and breaking up families.”
Durango officials call special meeting
About two dozen Durango residents spoke at a community meeting Thursday, many saying that they felt police did not adequately protect or support injured protesters, as agents used pepper-spray and fired rubber bullets at close range.
“They sat and watched as their citizens were brutalized and then they left,” a 16-year-old girl who attended the protest said. “I called 911 and dispatch five times, begging for ambulances and medical assistance.”
At about 11:45 a.m. Tuesday, ICE and the agency’s partners started to engage with about 100 protesters, Current, the police chief, said. About 20 demonstrators were blocking the entrance of the federal facility by creating a human chain, while dozens of others blocked access while holding signs and chanting. A fence was also bolted shut with a chain.
About 10 threw full plastic water bottles and milk jugs at agents and Colorado State Patrol troopers, he said. Other demonstrators were trying to help those who were injured by pouring milk and saline to relieve the stinging from the pepper spray.
Two tickets were issued during the protests on Monday and Tuesday, Current said. One was issued to a man who threw a rock against the facility’s glass door and kicked the fence and another to a protester who dangerously sped through the crowd.
“While we recognize the emotions are high, we are disappointed by the behaviors displayed by agents and several protesters alike. Such actions from either side distract from the important message of peaceful advocacy and make our shared goal of safety harder to achieve,” Current said. “We continue to support and protect the right to protest, but we ask it be done peacefully.”
He said Durango police do not collaborate with ICE to assist immigration enforcement, because state law bans the practice. Rather, officers were on the scene to “protect everyone’s safety,” Current said.
Local police don’t have any authority to control or direct federal agencies, he added.
The chief condemned violence, “especially against individuals exercising their constitutional rights in assembling peacefully.”
“If anyone believes unlawful force was used, we encourage you to provide us with the video and the report. We took reports all day today,” he said.
Courts will ultimately decide whether the use of force used by the federal agents were constitutional, he said.
La Plata County Commissioner Marsha Porter-Norton said the county board urged federal and state officials to “urgently review the actions of their employees and to take immediate steps to address instances where they may have acted beyond the law.”
Sen. Michael Bennet’s office has been in touch with the detained family’s lawyer, local leaders and immigrant advocates and is coordinating with Rep. Jeff Hurd’s and Sen. John Hickenlooper’s office, Wyatt Bair, a representative for Sen. Bennet said.
“We’ve also reached out to the ICE office in D.C. asking for information as to what transpired during the detainment, why the family was picked up on their Monday morning drive to school given the pending asylum case and no prior criminal record and whether the appropriate protocols for minors were taken,” Bair said.
Lisa Poole, representing Hickenlooper’s office, said every government agency needs to operate with accountability and oversight.
“ICE is no exception.”
“In general, we are deeply concerned about reports of ICE agents taking families out of communities across the state without identifying themselves and with little regard to public safety,” she said.
Hickenlooper, alongside other senators, introduced in June the Immigration Enforcement Identification Act. The bill would prohibit law enforcement officers from obscuring their faces and it requires that they clearly display their agency and name.
“Although we are all distraught about what’s happening, we are proceeding as fast as we can to get answers to these serious problems that we have,” Amy Huff, the southwest regional director for Hurd, said.