Authorities have arrested a man they say was a passenger in a vehicle that allegedly tried to ram into law enforcement officials in Black Forest on Thursday, but they are still looking for the driver, a spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Friday.
The spokesperson said Francisco Zapata-Pacheco was arrested around 2 p.m. Thursday and is cooperating with investigators while in ICE custody pending immigration and criminal proceedings.
Information on Zapata-Pacheco’s immigration status or any criminal charges has not yet been released.
Still at large is Jose Mendez-Chavez, who ICE alleges is a Mexican immigrant in the country illegally. According to a news release, Mendez-Chavez has prior convictions on child abuse and domestic violence charges.
“He knows he’s not supposed to be here, since we’ve removed him (from the country) six times previously,” read the release.
The spokesperson said Mendez-Chavez was wanted on suspicion of assault on a federal officer.
Here’s what we know so far about the incident Thursday:
The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office received a request for assistance from Homeland Security and ICE after an agent fired shots into the vehicle, which managed to escape and was later found abandoned.
The incident prompted authorities to issue a shelter-in-place order for a quarter-mile radius in the 9900 block of Burgess Road between Windmill and Greentree roads that lasted for several hours.
A law enforcement scanner reported a call for shots fired in the area at 9:42 a.m., according to a transcript from real-time event and risk detection software Dataminr.
Sheriff’s deputies responded to the call and set up a containment area of the crime scene to preserve its integrity and ensure a thorough investigation, according to a Friday news release from the Sheriff’s Office.
The FBI’s Denver field office has launched an investigation into the incident, according to a spokesperson for the bureau.
An ICE spokesperson said Thursday that no injuries were reported.
Kurt Smith, a sheriff’s spokesperson, told The Gazette Thursday that there was a second scene near Vollmer and Poco roads that was connected to the ICE investigation — about 3 miles from where the confrontation with the suspects occurred.
The second scene appeared to be at a housing development called Timber Ridge, where authorities were reportedly questioning construction workers.
“The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office deployed numerous resources to ensure the safety of our community, including deputies assigned to the Patrol Division, Civil Unit, School Resource Officers, Reserves, Tactical Enforcement Unit (including the deployment of drones), and our Community Service Specialists,” according to the Friday news release from the Sheriff’s Office.
