On Nov. 3, DHS sent a statement to The TRiiBE that did not address follow-up questions sent to them by a reporter. It’s also identical to a statement that the agency sent on Oct. 2, the day after the car crash.
The Chicago Police Department (CPD) stated the car-crash victim sustained injuries to her shoulder, neck, and hip and was transported to Mount Sinai in good condition, while the unidentified driver of the other vehicle fled the scene. Eyewitnesses reported seeing an ambulance arrive, but they didn’t see anyone receiving medical aid inside it.
The TRiiBE interviewed the car-crash victim’s sister, Davina Jeans, at the scene just before 3:30 p.m. on the day of the crash. Jeans said her sister called her around 2:00 p.m. to let her know she’d been in a car accident and asked that she go to the scene to pack up her things. Her sister’s black Infiniti SUV was left at the intersection of Congress Parkway and California Avenue. While The TRiiBE was interviewing her, there were multiple Chicago police officers at the scene directing traffic and helping Jeans transfer bags to her car.
The Border Patrol agent called 911 at 1:56 p.m. He said the crash victim was a woman. Dispatch asked the race of the victim; the agent responded, “Uh, she’s, uh, African.”
Initially, the agent appeared confused about the robbery. Dispatch asked the agent how many people robbed the woman. The agent said one. Dispatch also asked the gender of the robber, to which the agent said, “It’s a female.”
After more questions from dispatch, the agent eventually clarified what happened. “No, no, no, no. Two males. Two males robbed, like, a little work site.” The agent didn’t mention the work site’s location on the call.
During the 911 call, the agent described the men as Black and skinny, and reported that they took off running. “Some of my partners went after ’em, after two of them.”
The dispatcher reiterated that help is on the way. She also asked the agent if he saw any weapons on “the guys that robbed her,” despite it being established minutes earlier in the call that the crash victim was not robbed.
“No, we did not see any weapons,” the agent said. Dispatch asked what the men were wearing.
“I just know one of them was wearing a white T-shirt, and I believe they’re walking with at least one of them in custody,” the agent said.
An account from the security guard at a nearby BP gas station corroborates this part of the story. The security guard told The TRiiBE that he saw a Black man in a white T-shirt running through the back door of the gas station.
When the two agents apprehended the man, the security guard said, they walked out the front door of the gas station, passed the gas pumps, and walked down an adjacent alley.
Witness video shows agents walking down an alley alongside the BP gas station with a Black man whose hands are behind his back. Another witness video shows federal agents apparently placing him in a chokehold at the intersection of California Avenue and Congress Parkway; a bystander can be heard on the video growing emotional while asking why the agents are choking the man.
“Alright, so we do have help on the way,” the 911 operator said. She then asked the agent if he had an operator identification or badge number he could give her, and he declined. “Border Patrol, we don’t, ma’am, I’m sorry,” he said. An event report, The TRiiBE obtained from OEMC, identifies the caller as “Border Patrol Agent EZ16,” however. It’s unclear what that means.
On Oct. 9, in a sweeping temporary restraining order, a federal judge ordered CBP agents to add individual identification to their uniforms while they operate in Chicago. Since then, agents have repeatedly been observed failing to comply with that order.
