Federal officials announced assault charges Thursday against a man they accuse of using a truck to ram into federal agents' vehicles during an immigration stop in Dallas last month.
Jerson Lopez-Sanchez, 28, was charged with three counts of assaulting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, according to a grand jury indictment filed in the Eastern District of Texas. He is not currently in custody and has yet to turn himself in, the indictment said.
Jay Combs, the interim U.S. attorney for the district, told reporters that the ICE agents were clearly identified as law enforcement at the time of the incident.
"When someone runs down an ICE officer — or any federal or local law enforcement officer — those deadly weapons act as battering rams," Combs said. "It is a violent attack and it will not be tolerated."
Lopez-Sanchez did not have any known criminal background or active warrants known to officials as of Thursday, Combs said.
The charges stem from a Dec. 1 incident in which ICE agents on patrol were asked do a "routine check" on a Chevrolet Silverado, the indictment said. Officials said five people were in the truck, but Lopez-Sanchez was the owner and driver of the Silverado.
Agents realized through a check of ICE's "internal systems" that Lopez-Sanchez was a foreign national with no legal entries or applications for lawful status, the indictment continued.
The indictment describes a traffic stop in which three ICE vehicles surround the Silverado, with a Jeep at the rear and a Chrysler van in front of the truck. The indictment alleges Lopez-Sanchez reversed the Silverado and rammed into the Jeep to make room to flee.
The indictment says agents pursued Lopez-Sanchez after he rammed the Jeep, including agents in the Chrysler van who attempted to position their vehicle to block Lopez-Sanchez.
Prosecutors allege the Silverado accelerated into the agents' van and "crossed over opposite lanes of traffic," causing "significant damage" to the van documented in photographs included in the indictment. The photos show a van with its front smashed in and apparent smoke coming from the engine block.
"The ramming was so violent that it deployed all the air bags in the vehicle," Combs said. "911 was called to assist the passenger in that vehicle, an ICE agent."
Officials declined to detail the injuries to agents in the incident, though the indictment describes the passenger as having injuries to his back and neck.
Combs said a third ICE vehicle followed the Silverado for about 10 minutes before Lopez-Sanchez stopped his truck on a median. Three of the people inside the Silverado were detained but Lopez-Sanchez and one other fled on foot, Combs said.
