Officer assaulted during protest after feds search Peoria home

PEORIA, AZ (AZFamily) — An officer was assaulted during a brief altercation that broke out between police and protestors after federal agents served a search warrant in a Peoria neighborhood on Tuesday that resulted in drugs being found, one person in custody and another sent over to immigration.

Agents with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) converged on a home in a Peoria neighborhood on Tuesday morning, as police closed 69th Avenue between Peoria Avenue and North Lane. According to Peoria police, their officers were assisting with traffic control as HSI agents served a warrant regarding drug-related offenses.

HSI later said on Tuesday evening that the warrant was linked to narcotics and a human smuggling case. Agents arrested one person on federal charges and another person was turned over to immigration officials, HSI said. Federal investigators said agents seized drugs and an unknown powder.

The information goes against what Peoria police had said, which was that this was only a drug-related case and not “an immigration-related case.”

“We had someone who called in and said we think there might be ICE over here at this location and our people came out really quickly, they were here within a few minutes of the call,” said Ricardo Reyes, who came to the protest as a member of Common Defense, a grassroots veterans organization.

As agents left the area around noon, dozens of people showed up, thinking it was an ICE deportation raid, including Maricopa County Supervisor Steve Gallardo, a democrat who represents District 5.

“The plan is to go directly to city of Peoria and the elected officials, you know why, why are they doing this without working with the community and with the advocacy groups. This is a tragedy,” Gallardo said.

Peoria police said the situation escalated as two protesters blocked a police sergeant’s path as he tried to walk away. Police say another protester blocked the sergeant’s path, then assaulted him.

Additional officers arrived and pushed protesters back as they escorted the assault suspect to the back of a patrol cruiser and drove away. The police sergeant was not seriously hurt.

Peoria police later posted an update on social media and said HSI’s search warrant had no connection to ICE or immigration activity.

“During the incident, misinformation circulated online, drawing protesters to the scene under the false belief that it involved immigration enforcement,” Peoria police said in a social media post. “Unfortunately, the situation escalated when a suspect assaulted a police officer, and the crowd’s behavior became increasingly disruptive.”

“Peoria Police continues to support the public’s right to peaceful assembly, but we also recognize the importance of safety for all involved – our community and our officers,” a department spokesperson said.

“An attack on a police officer is never appropriate. These men and women risk their own lives and safety to do the job we’ve asked them to do,” said Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell. “While their assumption that he was that he was involved in an immigration enforcement was wrong, let me be clear: assaulting a police officer, or hurting another person, or damaging property for any reason is not acceptable and those who do so will be held accountable for their unlawful actions.”

Kevin Boontjer is a retired Tempe Police Sergeant, who looked over the videos from the protest. He says there wasn’t many things different he thought officers on scene could have done.

“You saw how quickly disinformation spread and then it just put everybody in a bad, bad place,” he said.

Boontjer says with this being a drug-related investigation, according to police, unexpected protestors in the area created a danger for everyone.

“You staff those events, those instances according to what is reasonably expected to possibly occur,” he said.

Gov. Katie Hobbs also posted a statement regarding the incident:

None of the suspects have been identified.

See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it.

Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.