Illinois State Police on Tuesday said they are investigating the shooting death of a man by Immigration and Customs Enforcement last summer in Chicago.
The shooting of the man, Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez, who is from Mexico, happened during the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration in the Chicago area, which angered local residents and officials.
Government officials say Mr. Villegas-Gonzalez, who they say was in the country illegally, drove a Subaru toward police and pulled over an officer as he fled a traffic stop in Franklin Park, Ill., near O’Hare International Airport. The agency said one police officer was seriously injured.
But the video of the shooting, which took place on September 12, raised questions about the nature of that account.
Pictures reviewed by the New York Times showed Mr. Villegas-Gonzalez trying to escape from the officers. But it did not show Mr. Villegas-Gonzalez, 38, hit the officer with his car, and the officer was heard in one of the videos saying that his injuries were “no big deal.”
Officials with the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday night about the Illinois State Police investigation. State officials also did not immediately respond to questions about the shooting officer’s condition or any internal investigation into the shooting.
The investigation of the death of Mr. Villegas-Gonzalez, and any attempt to open criminal charges, may face many obstacles.
Law enforcement officers have broad discretion to use lethal force in situations where they reasonably fear that they or another person is in danger of death or serious injury. And the Supremacy Clause of the US Constitution prevents federal prosecution of government officials in a wide variety of circumstances.
State Police spokeswoman Melanie Arnold said in an emailed statement Tuesday night that the Franklin Park Police Department has requested a state investigation. Once completed, he said, the findings will be forwarded to the district attorney’s office. He declined to comment further.
The police chief in Franklin Park, a Chicago suburb of about 18,000 residents, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The shooting of Mr. Villegas-Gonzalez was one of several incidents during an immigration raid in the Chicago area that raised questions about how federal agents used force and interacted with residents.
While the Trump administration has described the operation, known as Operation Midway Blitz, as vital to public safety, state and local officials have dismissed it as politically punitive and constitutionally questionable.
As masked agents deployed tear gas and arrested hundreds of people, federal judges expressed concern about their tactics, their use of force, their reasons for detaining immigrants and the conditions under which the immigrants were held. The courts have also blocked President Trump’s attempt to deploy National Guard troops on the streets of Chicago.
In addition to the shooting of Mr. Villegas-Gonzalez, federal agents shot and wounded a woman, Marimar Martinez, during the operation. Federal charges against Ms. Martinez were later dropped.
Last week, a federal commission in Illinois released a report that described Operation Midway Blitz as “a government-wide strategy to suppress dissent and pressure Illinois for its pro-immigrant policies, under the guise of achieving mass deportations.”
Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat who is expected to run for president, Mr. Villegas-Gonzalez and Mrs. Martinez in a statement after the release of that report. He expressed his hope that “law enforcement will review this evidence and take whatever steps are in their power to bring justice to the people of Illinois.”
In Minnesota, where federal agents shot three people during an immigration crackdown, state officials refused to share with their state counterparts basic information such as the names of the agents who shot.
