Off-duty ICE agent shot in Fresno after alleged assault on father and daughter

Off-duty Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent David Gonzalez was shot at a home in Fresno, California, early Friday, October 9, after allegedly assaulting a 72-year-old man and his daughter, according to Fresno police accounts reported by The Guardian and ABC30. Gonzalez was taken to hospital and remained in local police custody as officers investigated the shooting. The account of the assaults comes from police; the reviewed reports do not include Gonzalez’s account.

What Fresno police say happened at the home

ABC30 reported that the incident happened before 3:30 a.m. near Dudley and Broadway in central Fresno. Citing police, it said the daughter found Gonzalez, 32, asleep on the front lawn and alerted her father. The woman tried to get Gonzalez to leave the property. When he woke, police said, he appeared intoxicated and agitated. That description is a police observation in the reports, not an independently established finding about his condition.

Police said Gonzalez forced the father to the ground. When the daughter intervened, he physically attacked her too, according to the police account reported by both outlets. Officers said the father feared for their safety and fired one shot, striking Gonzalez in the midsection. The sequence explains why police say the man fired, but the alleged assaults and his state of mind have not been independently verified in the reviewed reporting.

The daughter’s boyfriend, an off-duty police officer, arrived and handcuffed Gonzalez, ABC30 reported. Gonzalez was taken to hospital; ABC30 described his condition as serious. The Guardian reported that he was receiving medical care while in custody. Neither report establishes when he might be released from hospital, and the available accounts do not provide a response from Gonzalez to the allegations.

Charges and the continuing investigation

ABC30 said its crew saw detectives recover a handgun from the home’s porch for processing. Police were also trying to establish why Gonzalez was in that neighborhood. The Guardian reported authorities saying he was off duty and alone. ABC30 identified him as a federal agent from Texas assigned to ICE, while The Guardian said his precise role within the agency was not immediately clear.

Why officials dispute the custody account

A separate dispute concerns whether ICE sought to take custody of Gonzalez after the shooting. ABC30 reported that Fresno City Councilmember Miguel Arias and another local elected official alleged that ICE asked Fresno police to release him into federal custody. Fresno Police Chief Mindy Casto denied that any such request was made, telling ABC30 that Gonzalez would stay in local custody. The two accounts conflict, and the reviewed reporting does not independently resolve that disagreement.

Fresno police later told ABC30 that ICE officials had contacted the department to begin a personnel investigation, while Gonzalez remained in Fresno police custody. Contact about an internal investigation does not, by itself, establish a request for his release. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, referred The Guardian’s questions about Gonzalez to Fresno police. What ICE may determine through its personnel process was not reported.

Local reaction and unanswered questions

Fresno City Councilmember Mike Karbassi called on ICE to suspend operations in the Central Valley, according to ABC30. He said recent enforcement had brought fear and violence. His call was a political response to the incident, not a police finding about why Gonzalez was at the home. Neighbor Kimberly Lindsay told ABC30 that the family had lived there for more than 20 years and described them as nice people.

For the father and daughter, the immediate police account is that they were injured in the confrontation but were not booked. For Gonzalez, the immediate consequences were hospital treatment and local custody on the reported allegations. Investigators have yet to explain why he was on the lawn, and the reviewed reports do not include his account. Fresno police say the shooting investigation is continuing; their findings and the outcome of the allegations remain open.