‘Are you threatening me?': Video displays Worcester councilor's confrontation with police
On May 8, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested Rosane Ferreira-De Oliveira on Eureka Street. After a crowd of around 25 people surrounded the ICE agents who detained her, one agent called 911 and asked for police assistance.
The footage and audio were uploaded online into a playlist on the city's YouTube channel on Friday.
Officer Patrik Hanlon's body camera captured ICE agents arresting Ferreira-De Oliveira, 40. Surrounded by officers, City Councilor Etel Haxhiaj of District 5 can be seen walking up to the officers and Ferreira-De Oliveira. Haxhiaj grabbed Ferreira-De Oliveira's arm and pleaded with them not to take her before two ICE agents flung her off Ferreira-De Oliveira.
'Do not take her!' Haxhiaj yelled at the officers.
'Stay back,' an ICE agent quietly told her.
As agents took the Ferreira-De Oliveira away, Haxhiaj followed the agents and called them cowards for arresting an 'innocent woman.'
'You do not show any warrants, get out of our neighborhood!' she yelled.
As agents moved to a gold Ford SUV, Haxhiaj reached out for Ferreira-De Oliveira before Hanlon grabbed her hands to pull her back, called out her first name and told her to stop.
'I cannot stop!' she yelled at the officer.
Body camera footage taken by Hanlon and Officer Juan Vallejo showed Ferreira-De Oliveira's 17-year-old daughter run up to the side of the SUV's front passenger door. While police later said she tried to kick the door, the shakiness of the cameras and large police presence makes it difficult to confirm this.
ICE agents and Worcester police, including Vallejo, surrounded the girl. Vallejo told her repeatedly to 'stop,' then yelled, 'You're going to get injured!'
'Don't talk to me!' the girl yelled back as she ran away from the officers.
An ICE agent ran up to her and wrapped his arms around her. Vallejo did the same as the girl started yelling.
'You're under arrest for disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace,' another officer is heard to have said as the girl's screams became louder. The officer yelled again that she was under arrest.
Vallejo and Officer Shauna McGuirk's camera made contact with multiple bodies, including the girl, before she was seen on the ground with several officers behind her. Officers can then be seen handcuffing the girl. McGuirk was one of the officers who took the girl, who can be heard sobbing, away.
A few minutes later, Haxhiaj walked up to Vallejo.
'She's my constituent!' she said.
'People who are under arrest are under arrest,' Vallejo replied.
'She is not, she hasn't done anything,' Haxhiaj replied. 'Let her go, she's traumatized. Why are you holding her? Let her go.'
'Well, you can go to the station when she gets her bail, OK?' Vallejo said.
'She's done nothing, why are you arresting her?' Haxhiaj yelled back.
Vallejo then grabbed Haxhiaj's shoulders and arms to move her back and told her to back away before he turned her around. She asked other officers, 'Are you threatening me?'
'Back away, get your hands off of us,' Vallejo told her before he stepped away, as another officer can be heard saying to Vallejo, 'Jesus, Juan.'
As the scene cleared, with Vallejo, ICE and ATF agents standing in the street, people can be heard yelling expletives and telling them to leave.
McGuirk walked with other officers and the girl to the end of Eureka Street. The girl can be heard pleading to people on the street in Portuguese.
Smashed windows, street abductions: ICE gets attention with Mass. arrests
Worcester releases body cam footage of woman's arrest by ICE agents
Worcester to release body camera footage of police response to ICE arrest
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FBI agents in March worked tirelessly, sometimes in 12-hour shifts, to review documents and evidence against Epstein in order to make redactions on the Justice Departments failed attempt to cull conspiracy theories and accusations that they were continuing to hide imagined crimes against the rich and powerful. Much of which stemmed from Trump's allies, including those in key leadership positions. Agents were ordered to put aside investigations related to threats from China and Iran, as well as cases in order to complete the Epstein redactions, something every division in the bureau was ordered to supply agents for. 'There is no other entity that does that work if the FBI is not doing it,' McCabe said. 'And that is really important stuff that needs to be done every day in this country by a limited resource of FBI agents. And so every time you distract them into doing something like this, you're doing less of that.' Patel and his deputy director, Dan Bongino, often tout the work of the FBI online, recently highlighting the bust of an alleged human trafficking operation in Nebraska, fentanyl seizures, and other FBI successes. The new reassignments to help patrol DC come days after two senior FBI officials, including the acting-director before Patel was appointed by Trump to lead the agency, along with other agents, were summarily fired following perceived opposition to the administration. The firings, including of former acting director Brian Driscoll after he fought the administration's plans to quickly fire more than 100 mid-level and senior employees in the early days of Trump's second administration, has also spread an air of concern among agents over who could be targeted next or what past actions could land them in trouble with Trump-appointed leadership. Law enforcement sources fear this volatile period inside the FBI could lead to a brain drain amid constantly evolving threats as numerous agents, analysts and professional staff consider departing for other agencies, or into the private sector where their national security and investigative skills remain highly sought. 'Morale is the worst I've seen,' said one law enforcement source. 'The bureau is becoming unrecognizable. Lots of people are weighing really difficult decisions right now.'
