BLACK FOREST, Colo. — Three months have passed since immigration officials swept through Black Forest in search of a man suspected of trying to ram a vehicle into federal agents during a raid in the area.
According to our news partners at The Gazette, Jose Mendez-Chavez, a man federal authorities believe was living in the U.S. illegally, is considered a fugitive by Immigration and Customs Enforcement following the July 31 incident.
Authorities have yet to announce charges, and court records do not show that prosecutors have filed charges.
A call for shots fired in the 8300 block of David Rudabaugh Drive in the Timber Ridge housing development was reported around 9:42 a.m., prompting a shelter-in-place order issued by the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office about an hour later.
ICE officials issued a statement that day, saying two suspects were hiding in the area after Mendez-Chavez allegedly tried to ram a dark green Dodge Ram into a federal agent. A law enforcement official fired three shots into the bed of the truck while it drove off.
Authorities arrested a man they say was sitting in the passenger seat, Francisco Zapata-Pacheco, hours after the shooting, immigration officials confirmed a day later. An ICE spokesperson said Zapata-Pacheco was granted a voluntary removal to Mexico since his arrest.
Officials have yet to release charges for either suspect. The ICE spokesperson declined to comment on whether prosecutors have filed charges.
The Gazette reached out to the Department of Justice to ask about charges.
“During the current lapse in appropriations, DOJ operations are directed toward national security, violations of federal law and essential public safety functions. Inquiries outside of these functions will be considered when the lapse in appropriations ends,” a spokesperson said.
Mendez-Chavez does have a criminal history for a misdemeanor-level child abuse case. In September 2019, he pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment in El Paso County and was sentenced to 12 months of unsupervised probation, court records show.
Since the shooting, an investigation has been underway to determine whether the federal agent involved lawfully fired the weapon.
A spokesperson from FBI Denver told The Gazette in early August that the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General is leading the investigation.
The DHS Office of Inspector General has not responded to any attempts made by The Gazette over the course of several weeks to confirm its involvement in the investigation and what agency the involved officer was from.
The ICE spokesperson declined to comment on the investigation because it is ongoing.
What happened before the shooting and why immigration officers were there in the first place is still unclear. Witnesses told The Gazette that authorities arrested other people at the housing development, but no one has seen them since.
ICE has not confirmed if there were other arrests made during the Black Forest operation, despite being asked on multiple occasions.
Sgt. Kurt Smith with the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office said deputies have not assisted ICE in its efforts to find Mendez-Chavez.
Since January, issues of transparency within ICE have continued to pop up, according to Colorado Springs immigration attorney Stephanie Izaguirre of Izaguirre Law Firm.
“It’s very difficult to work with ICE,” she said. “There used to be ICE agents who, if I had a client that was set to be deported, then I could reach out to them, and I know they would treat my client well. I could predict what’s going to happen. Now, I feel like that doesn’t exist anymore.”
Izaguirre said the Department of Homeland Security has been “borderline lawless” in a lot of areas since President Donald Trump took office.
“One of the hallmarks of this administration has been, ‘We don’t owe you an explanation. We’re going to just do it,'” she said.
ICE encounters across Colorado
The incident in Black Forest is one of many in Colorado that have involved ICE in some capacity.
In April, federal agents descended on an illegal nightclub in Colorado Springs and recovered firearms along with cocaine, pink cocaine and meth. As part of the drug bust, authorities arrested 104 people suspected of being in the country illegally and placed them on buses for processing.
ICE told The Gazette in May that 18 of those people were deported. Officials have yet to announce what happened to the remaining 86.
In August, the Drug Enforcement Administration executed two search warrants at an apartment complex in eastern Colorado Springs that was allegedly being used to distribute drugs by Mexican cartel members, the agency said.
Five were arrested on suspicion of “immigration violations” and have been transferred to ICE to an unknown location.
Later that month, DEA agents raided two Colorado Springs Mexican restaurants suspected of profiting from illegal drug trafficking. The business owners denied the allegations.
Reporters saw federal agents take four employees into unmarked cars during the operation.
The business owners told The Gazette that their cook, Jose Luis Aguilar, was taken to an ICE facility in Aurora. A butcher was also arrested, and the owners hadn’t heard from him since. The other two were reportedly let go.
On Monday, ICE agents arrested a father, Fernando Jaramillo-Solano, and his two children in Durango and then transferred them to facilities in Texas. The incident sparked a protest at the ICE office in the small city, where a federal agent allegedly shoved a protester to the ground.
The encounter prompted the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to launch an investigation into the incident.
The Gazette's Nick Smith contributed to this web story.
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