An ICE officer is facing a series of criminal charges after allegedly assaulting a 72-year-old homeowner and the man’s daughter after finding him asleep on their lawn.
The Fresno County District Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday that David Gonzalez III was charged with assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury, elder abuse, vandalism and battery.
If convicted, Gonzalez faces up to four years and eight months in prison, according to the office.
Gonzalez, 32, is from McAllen, Texas. It was not immediately clear why he was in Fresno. But the Central Valley has noticed an increase in apprehensions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in recent weeks. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to questions about the agent and his employment status with ICE.
The incident took place around 3 a.m. on Oct. 9, when the Fresno Police Department received multiple reports of a gunshot fired near East Dudley Avenue and North Broadway Street in the Tower District. Officers arrived and found Gonzalez handcuffed with a gunshot wound to his waist, the department said in a statement last week.
City Councilman Miguel Arias, whose district includes the Tower District, told the Times that the area is the “entertainment corridor of the city.” Bar patrons occasionally park in surrounding residential neighborhoods, he said, and Gonzalez could have been one of them, according to Arias.
According to their statement, an unnamed woman arrived at her home and found Gonzalez sleeping on her lawn. The woman contacted her father, who came out of the house to kick Gonzalez out.
Gonzalez woke up and appeared “drunk and agitated,” according to the release. He allegedly attacked the owner.
“When the homeowner came outside to ask Gonzalez to leave, Gonzalez assaulted him, causing him to fall to the ground and sustain visible injuries,” the district attorney’s office said in a news release. Gonzalez allegedly threw the victim into a neighbor’s parked vehicle, according to the prosecutor, “causing significant damage to the side of the car.”
The vandalism charge related to damage to the car, estimated at more than $400, according to charging documents. The prosecutor’s office wrote that the car, a Hyundai, was damaged “illegally and maliciously” by Gonzalez.
The woman tried to intervene as her father was being attacked, and Gonzalez allegedly attacked her as well, authorities said. Her father, fearing for his and his daughter’s safety, pulled out a gun and fired one shot at Gonzalez, police said.
The woman’s boyfriend, an off-duty police officer, was also present at the time and handcuffed Gonzalez, police said.
Gonzalez was off duty and alone at the time of the incident, according to police.
The prosecutor’s office said Gonzalez remains hospitalized, where he is in custody and receiving medical treatment. The bail amount for the filed charges is $52,000. His arraignment is scheduled for Wednesday morning in Fresno County Superior Court.
It was not immediately clear from court records whether Gonzalez had legal representation. The prosecutor’s office said Tuesday that it did not have this information.
Arias said he believed the charges were “the bare minimum we expected from the prosecutor, who has made a career of supporting law enforcement and getting tough on crime.”
He said he hoped the prosecutor would hold the ICE agent accountable and not accept a deal for a lesser charge.
“We’re hopeful, but we’re not going to hold our breath until we see the conclusion,” he said.
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