The Chicago Police Department on Friday released 13 heavily redacted body camera videos depicting the initial response to a crash and shooting in Brighton Park involving federal immigration agents that ended in tear gas.
The videos also captured an order relayed to rank-and-file officers from CPD’s chief of patrol to “clear out from there, we’re not sending anybody over to that location.” That order remains the subject of a CPD internal affairs investigation.
With a siren in the background and a helicopter above, the videos show Chicago police officers trying to clear Kedzie Avenue of vehicles involved in the Oct. 4 crash and secure an ambulance for a person taken into custody by immigration agents.
Minutes earlier, a federal agent shot a woman who allegedly “boxed in” and rammed a car carrying federal agents. The woman, Marimar Martinez, 30, survived the shooting, and she and Anthony Ian Santos Ruiz, 21, both of Chicago, have since been charged in connection with the crash.
Soon after CPD officers arrived at the scene, Brighton Park residents began to gather in the 3900 block of South Kedzie. The videos show a woman approach a group of CPD officers and tell them that a man held by agents “needs a f—— ambulance!”
“They got into a car accident, that’s not a crime scene,” she said.
Five minutes later, a dispatcher relayed a message from CPD Chief of Patrol Jon Hein.
“Per 999 (the captain of the CPD district where the crash and shooting occurred), chief of patrol said all units clear out from there,” the dispatcher said. “We’re not sending anybody over there.”
An officer soon responded, “We’re gonna clear out as soon as we can, squad. We’re, like, blocked in over here, so we’re gonna do the best we can.”
In a statement to the Tribune, a CPD spokesperson said an internal investigation into that order remains open.
Chicago police officers arrive on the scene where a protester was shot by a federal immigration agent in the 3900 block of South Kedzie Avenue in Chicago’s Brighton Park neighborhood on Oct. 4, 2025. (Peter Tsai/Chicago Tribune)
The 13 videos were so heavily redacted, CPD added, because “the time it would take to review and redact each video, it would be unduly burdensome to conduct the standard redaction process on each video. As a result, CPD has placed a generic redaction blur throughout the entirety of the videos released.”
Federal authorities allege the officers were acting as a “security detail” and were “followed by a convoy of civilian vehicles,” including a silver Nissan Rogue driven by Martinez and a black GMC Envoy driven by Ruiz.
“The convoy of civilian vehicles followed the agents closely and pursued the (border patrol agents) aggressively,” a federal complaint alleges, including “disobeying traffic laws, including running red lights and stop signs, driving in the wrong lane, and driving the wrong way down one-way streets.”
Martinez drove off after the shooting, but paramedics discovered her and her vehicle at a repair shop about a mile away, according to the complaint. Ruiz also drove away after the collisions, but law enforcement located him and his vehicle at a gas station about a half block away, the complaint stated.
All three agents were equipped with body cameras but only one was on at the time of the incident, according to the complaint. Authorities said a gun was recovered.
Last month, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from the Tribune, CPD released additional body camera footage showing officers’ response to a raid at a South Shore apartment complex.
