Venezuelan illegal immigrant tackled by federal agents at New Hampshire courthouse after attempt to flee
A Venezuelan man in the United States illegally was tackled at a New Hampshire courthouse by federal agents earlier this year after he fled from their attempt to detain him quietly in an elevator.
Arnuel Marquez Colmenarez, 33, was taken into custody while he was heading to a court arraignment on charges for drunken driving, driving without a license and failing to provide information after an accident, according to The Associated Press via the Nashua Police Department.
Video from Feb. 20 that was released by the Nashua Circuit Court on Monday showed Colmenarez going through security at the courthouse and getting into an elevator with the federal agents and a few other people.
As others left the elevator, an agent can be seen touching Colmenarez lightly on the shoulder, then talking to him. The video does not include audio, but Colmenarez can be seen running out of the elevator after a few seconds.
Florida's Largest Venezuelan Stronghold Poised To Join Forces With Ice: Report
Two agents chased him out of the elevator and threw him to the ground a few feet away, knocking down an older man who was walking with a cane in the process.
Read On The Fox News App
Court liaison officer for the Hudson Police Department, Jared Neff, said he was in the prosecutor's office when he heard something going on near the elevators and decided to go check it out.
"There were voices yelling 'Stop!' and then a loud 'bang' which sounded like people had fallen on the ground and were actively fighting and struggling," he wrote in an incident report, according to The AP.
Neff helped the agents restrain Colmenarez, who could be seen in the video resisting attempts to be handcuffed.
The older man who was knocked down remained lying on his back during the apprehension, and it took a minute or so for him to receive help, the video showed. It's unclear if he was injured.
The agents allegedly told Neff they had been ordered to detain illegal immigrants, and had tried to do so quietly in the elevator.
More Than 900 Illegal Aliens Charged With Immigration-related Crimes During First Week Of April: Doj
A bench warrant was issued for Colmenarez since he failed to show up for arraignment and the prosecutor over the case was not contacted by federal agents beforehand nor was aware of his arrest, according to The AP.
Colmenarez is being held at an ICE facility in Texas as of Monday, The AP reported after viewing an online database.
His arrest at the courthouse comes after President Donald Trump repealed a 2011 policy that had federal agents typically avoid making arrests at courthouses, schools, places of worship and hospitals.
Current policy allows for immigration arrests "in or near courthouses when they have credible information that leads them to believe the targeted alien(s) is or will be present," as long as state and local law doesn't prohibit it.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.Original article source: Venezuelan illegal immigrant tackled by federal agents at New Hampshire courthouse after attempt to flee

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

Business of Fashion
2 hours ago
- Business of Fashion
Attorney for Deported Makeup Artist: If ‘It Could Happen to Him … It Could Happen to You.'
In a defiant speech, Lindsay Toczylowski, president and co-founder of social justice legal firm Immigrant Defenders Law Center, called the deportation of undocumented immigrants without due process a direct attack on democracy. Her client, Andry José Hernández Romero, a 31-year-old Venezuelan makeup artist seeking asylum in the US, was in March deported to El Salvador, where he was taken to the country's notorious CECOT prison along with over 200 other Venezuelan and Salvadoran deportees. The American Civil Liberties Union, which is suing the Trump administration over its use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport undocumented immigrants without due process, said in court filings that the government relied solely on Romero's tattoos to incorrectly label him a violent gang member. Family and supporters say they fear for the safety of Romero, who is gay and was seeking asylum after being persecuted for his sexual orientation in Venezuela. He has not been seen or heard from since his arrival in El Salvador, including by his legal representation. 'The only fight that we lose is the one we give up on… It's about the future of our democracy and the country we want to live in,' she said, speaking at The Business of Beauty Global Forum in Napa Valley, California. 'His story is the embodiment of it could happen to him, it could happen to me, it could happen to you, it could happen to any one of us. It's why the rule of law is so important. It's why due process is so important.' Toczylowski also addressed escalating tensions in Los Angeles, where President Donald Trump has sent thousands of National Guard and Marines to quell protests against ICE deportation roundups in the city. Opponents of the move, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass, say the decision to send troops was disproportionate to the small number of violent incidents associated with the protests, and will only inflame the situation. On Monday, protests spread to other cities around the country. 'There are more than 200 residents of Los Angeles that have been picked up off the streets,' said Toczylowski. 'I have watched masked agents in plain clothes push people into service elevators in the middle of federal buildings in downtown LA in the last two weeks. This is an all-out assault on the values that we hold as Angelenos, as Californians, as Americans.' She said one of the most important methods of pushing back against the Trump administration's immigration actions, whether in LA or El Salvador, is to speak out against them as often, and as forcefully as possible. 'The moment that we stop talking about [Romero], about his story and others like him is the moment that the Trump administration is successful in completing the disappearance of Andry José Hernández Romero,' she said.

2 hours ago
Weinstein jury set to keep deliberating after tensions spill into public
NEW YORK -- Jurors in Harvey Weinsteinn's sex crimes retrial appear to be moving past some interpersonal tensions and focusing on one of his three accusers as deliberations stretch into a fourth day Tuesday. At the end of Monday's session, jurors requested to start off Tuesday with electronic copies of emails and other evidence pertaining to Jessica Mann — the accuser with arguably the most complex history with Weinstein. During days of testimony, Mann said the Oscar-winning movie producer raped her in 2013 amid a consensual relationship that continued for years afterward. Weinstein's lawyers emphasized that she kept seeing him, accepting invitations and sending warm messages to him. Mann said she 'compartmentalized' the pain he caused her. Weinstein, 73, has pleaded not guilty to all the charges in the case. In addition to the rape charge, he's accused of sexually assaulting two other women, Mimi Haley and Kaja Sokola. Weinstein didn't testify during the current trial, but maintained through his attorneys that he had completely consensual encounters with his accusers, who wanted his help building show business careers. Weinstein was one of the movie industry's most powerful figures until a series of sexual misconduct allegations against him became public in 2017, fueling the #MeToo movement and eventually leading to criminal charges. The jury is made up of seven women and five men. Their closed-door discussions began Thursday and apparently have been fractious at times. One juror asked Friday to be excused because he felt one member of the group was being treated unfairly. Monday began with two jurors giving contrasting takes on the atmosphere in the deliberation room. First, the foreperson complained to the judge, prosecutors and defense lawyers that some jurors were 'pushing" others to change their minds, talking about Weinstein's past and going beyond the charges. The foreperson didn't specify what was said. Trial evidence has included some testimony about allegations outside the scope of the current charges, such as mentions of the groundswell of claims against the ex-studio boss in 2017. Another juror soon asked to speak to the court. In her estimation, things were 'going well' and jurors were 'making headway.' By the end of Monday, the jury as a whole said in a note that it was 'making good progress.' Weinstein originally was convicted in New York in 2020 of raping Mann and forcing oral sex on Haley. Sokola's allegation was added last year, after New York state's highest court overturned the 2020 conviction and sent the case back for retrial. Meanwhile, Weinstein is appealing a 2022 rape conviction in Los Angeles. The Associated Press generally does not identify people without their permission if they say they have been sexually assaulted. Sokola, Mann and Haley have agreed to be named.

3 hours ago
Florida set to execute man convicted of raping and killing a woman 3 decades ago
A man convicted of raping and killing a woman three decades ago after kidnapping her from a supermarket parking lot in Florida is scheduled to be executed Tuesday. Anthony Wainwright, 54, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. He was convicted in the April 1994 killing of 23-year-old Carmen Gayheart, a mother of two young children, in Lake City. Wainwright would be the sixth person put to death in Florida this year. The state also executed six people in 2023, but only carried out one execution last year. There are four executions scheduled around the country this week, including another one on Tuesday in Alabama. On Monday an Oklahoma judge granted a temporary stay of execution for a man scheduled to be put to death Thursday. Richard Hamilton, the other man convicted in Gayheart's killing, was also sentenced to death. But he died on death row in January 2023 at the age of 59. Gayheart's sister, who plans to attend the execution, said three decades is too long to wait for justice. 'It's ridiculous how many appeals they get,' Maria David told The Associated Press, adding that each step of the appeals process reopened her family's wounds. 'You have to relive it again because they have to tell the whole story again.' Wainwright and Hamilton escaped from prison in North Carolina, stole a green Cadillac and burglarized a home the next morning, taking guns and money. Then they drove to Florida and when the Cadillac began to have problems in Lake City, they decided to steal another vehicle. They confronted Gayheart, a community college student, on April 27, 1994, as she loaded groceries into her blue Ford Bronco, according to court documents. They forced her into the vehicle at gunpoint and drove off. They raped her in the backseat and then took her out of the vehicle and tried to strangle her before shooting her twice in the back of the head, court filings say. They dragged her body several dozen yards from the road and drove off. The two men were arrested in Mississippi the next day after a shootout with police. A jury in 1995 convicted Wainwright of murder, kidnapping, robbery and rape and unanimously recommended that he be sentenced to death. Wainwright's lawyers have filed multiple unsuccessful appeals over the years based on what they said were problems with his trial and evidence that he suffered from brain damage and intellectual disability. Since his execution was scheduled, his lawyers have argued in state and federal court filings that his execution should be put on hold to allow time for courts to hear additional legal arguments in his case. In a filing with the U.S. Supreme Court, his lawyers argue that his case has been 'marred by critical, systemic failures at virtually every stage and through the signing of his death warrant.' Those failures include flawed DNA evidence that wasn't disclosed to the defense until after opening statements, erroneous jury instructions, inflammatory and inaccurate closing arguments and missteps by court-appointed lawyers, the filing says. The filing also says that a jailhouse informant who testified at Wainwright's trial finally admitted last month that he and another informant had testified in exchange for lighter sentences, a fact that had not been disclosed to the defense. The Supreme Court on Monday denied Wainwright's final appeals without comment. David, Gayheart's sister, said she feels cheated that Hamilton died before the state could execute him. She said she was 'overcome with emotion' when she heard the governor had signed a death warrant for Wainwright. Her parents both died while waiting for justice to be served, she said, but she plans to be there to witness the final chapter of her family's tragedy. 'There's nothing that would keep me from seeing this all the way through,' she said. Her sister loved animals and surprised her by training to become a nurse rather than a veterinarian, David said. Gayheart was two years younger than her sister but became a mother first, and David said she marveled at her sister's patience with her young children. 'She was here, she mattered, she should be remembered, and she was loved,' David said of her sister. Over the years, she has kept a book where she put every court filing, from the initial indictment through the latest appeals. 'I'm looking forward to getting the last pieces of paperwork that say he's been executed to put into the book and never having to think about Anthony Wainwright ever again,' she said.