A 72-year-old man shot and killed an off-duty Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in California early Friday morning after the “drunk and agitated” agent attacked him and his daughter on their property, local authorities say.
The Fresno Police Department said the ICE official was receiving medical treatment after being shot in the midsection. The person responsible, identified as David Gonzalez, faces criminal charges for assaulting the father-daughter duo, Fresno police said.
It was not immediately clear how Gonzalez had been with ICE and what exactly he had done for ICE. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, referred all questions regarding Gonzalez to Fresno police.
According to Fresno police, around 3 a.m. a woman found Gonzalez sleeping on top of her and her father’s lawn. She told her 72-year-old father, who was inside, then tried to chase Gonzalez off their property.
But when Gonzalez was awakened, “he appeared drunk and agitated” and physically assaulted the 72-year-old father, forcing him to the ground, police said. When the father’s daughter tried to intervene, Gonzalez physically assaulted her and also threw her to the ground, police said.
The father feared for his and his daughter’s physical safety and shot Gonzalez once, police said. Shortly after, the girl’s boyfriend, an off-duty police officer, arrived and handcuffed Gonzalez.
“It is unknown at this time why Gonzalez was in the area at the time of the shooting, but it has been confirmed that he was off-duty and alone,” local authorities said.
Fresno police said Friday that the investigation into the shooting continues while Gonzalez is in custody and receiving medical treatment. He was convicted of battery likely to cause grievous bodily harm, vandalism and battery.
The father and daughter have not been charged with any crime because they have recovered from their own injuries, police said.
The confrontation that led to Gonzalez’s shooting is one of the latest cases in which federal ICE officials have been investigated for alleged criminal behavior. ICE also faced nationwide criticism throughout Donald Trump’s second term due to the agency’s aggressive arrest, detention and deportation tactics.
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Lawmakers have also criticized ICE’s hiring practices, as the agency races to recruit more officials to implement the Trump administration’s mass deportation program. In August 2025, an ICE supervisor filed a whistleblower complaint with the DHS Office of Inspector General, alleging that the agency was circumventing basic controls and violating federal rules during its hiring spree.
In July, an ICE officer shot and killed a Colombian immigrant in Biddeford, Maine. The ICE officer in question was reportedly recently hired by the agency despite an alleged history of violence and mental health issues.
Meanwhile, in April, a longtime ICE officer in Cincinnati was arrested after allegedly lying to DHS about domestic violence allegations made against him. Local media reports say police were called more than 20 times in recent years to the home he shared with his girlfriend.
The Ohio Immigrant Alliance, a pro-immigration group, released a report in August documenting more than 150 federal immigration agents accused of abuses and crimes. One of the final entries in their report cited allegations that an ICE official broke into an ex-girlfriend’s apartment in southeast Louisiana.
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