Video shows federal agents pin car, arrest man wanted for assault at anti-ICE protest in LA
A man was arrested after federal immigration officials rammed into his car Wednesday morning in Los Angeles, video shows. Homeland Security officials said the agents were targeting a man who allegedly punched a Border Patrol officer. NBCLA reported he had a warrant for his arrest for his involvement in a protest Saturday in Paramount. A security camera caught the moment the agents trapped the driver in a white Mercedes on Whittier Boulevard in Boyle Heights.Witnesses said the agents, with weapons drawn, then used tear gas.Moments later, the driver came out with his hands up, the video showed. "They had been following them since Long Beach," witness Verita Topete said. "He started to drive very suspiciously over here because he felt like he was being followed. That's when they got to this intersection. They supposedly had a warrant for his arrest because he was a protester at the Paramount protest."Topete said she spoke to a woman who was in the same car."She was in distress, she couldn't move her vehicle, so the ICE agent got in her car and moved it to the side," Topete said. Another witness, Steve Silva, said two children were in the car as well. "As soon as I got here, the gal that was in the car was out here with her two babies," Silva said. "Literally one in a crib and the other one maybe a year and a half years old. They grabbed the driver, which was her partner, threw him into the truck and took off."The Department of Homeland Security posted a statement on X that identified the driver as Christian Damian Cerno-Camacho and said he was a "violent rioter" who was wanted for assault for punching a CBP officer. NBCLA, which spoke to the man's partner, identified him as 27-year-old Christian Cerna, a U.S. citizen. The woman said Cerna had yelled at CBP agents at the weekend demonstration. Topete said she helped the woman in the car call paramedics after the incident. "They were proud for what they did, which is not OK," she said. "They're out here terrorizing this poor woman and her children. I helped her call the paramedics to get her babies checked out and 911 to make a police report because who's going to pay for this?" No serious injuries were immediately reported, but the woman was treated by paramedics before being transported to a hospital. The crash is under investigation.--KCRA's Daniel Macht contributed to this report.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel
