ICE Shoots Pastor With Pepper Ball, Maces Cemetery Workers Trying To Help Man In River: Reports

FOREST PARK, IL — Cemetery workers say they were maced and arrested by federal agents as they tried to save a man from the Des Plaines River this week in Forest Park, and a video showed a pastor being shot in the head with a pepper ball outside the ICE processing center in Broadview, amid more reports of clashes with ICE in the Chicago area.

Two workers from Concordia Cemetery who are U.S. citizens told WGN they were unlawfully maced and arrested on Tuesday as they tried to help a struggling man in the river. They said they were zip-tied and did not receive medical attention for hours.

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"Once they breached the gate, they pepper-sprayed us immediately, with their guns drawn, and then proceeded to tackle us onto the ground," one cemetery worker told the outlet, which reported that ICE agents were trying to talk the unidentified man in the river to surrender. A video obtained by WGN apparently showed ICE agents ordering workers to open the gate of the cemetery, which is private property, to allow them to pursue the man.

Meanwhile, video surfaced Wednesday showing federal agents firing pepper balls during a clash with protesters in September outside the Broadview ICE facility, hitting a Chicago pastor in the head, according to multiple outlets.

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Video shows Pastor David Black of First Presbyterian Church falling to the ground after being struck, Fox 32 Chicago reported. The church describes itself as "a multiracial, multicultural, and multigenerational family of faith in the heart of Woodlawn."

The clashes aren't the first incidents outside the ICE facility. In late September, witnesses said a protester there was struck by a pickup truck, which then continued into the parking lot without stopping. While surveying the parking lot for a vehicle matching the description provided, police said ICE agents began deploying pepper balls toward protesters.

Days earlier, protesters were tear-gassed and a congressional candidate was thrown to the ground by an agent in an incident that was captured on camera.

"Federal forces just tear gassed myself and the other peaceful protesters here at the Broadview ICE facility. This is a terrifying escalation, but we will not back down," Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss posted on X after the incident.

In early October, federal agents shot a woman they said "boxed in" authorities outside the Broadview facility.

In a lawsuit, the state of Illinois and city of Chicago allege that federal authorities are using the clashes to justify deploying National Guard troops in the Chicago area.

In a court filing, they say protests at a temporary ICE detention facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview have "never come close to stopping federal immigration enforcement."

"The President is using the Broadview protests as a pretext," the filing said. "The impending federal troop deployment in Illinois is the latest episode in a broader campaign by the President's administration to target jurisdictions the President dislikes."

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