Church Leaders Shaken After a Man Was Detained in Their Parking Lot
A group of armed men in face coverings detained a Latino man outside a church in the Los Angeles suburb of Downey and took him away on Wednesday, in what pastors believed was a federal immigration raid.
The Rev. Tanya Lopez, senior pastor of Downey Memorial Christian Church, said she was in her office on Wednesday when three SUVs with tinted windows pulled up to her church. Then, Ms. Lopez said, five men, some wearing badges and tan bulletproof vests that said 'POLICE,' rushed out of the vehicles and detained a man in the parking lot.
The men, Ms. Lopez said, refused to identify which agency they worked for, and they did not share their names or badge numbers when asked. Their vehicles had out-of-state license plates. They also did not provide a warrant, she said.
They took the man into a black SUV. And, Ms. Lopez said that as she shouted instructions in Spanish to the man inside the vehicle, an agent drew a rifle at her.
'It came across as essentially a final warning, to step back,' Ms. Lopez said, adding that the men then laughed at her and 'started cracking up.'
She said she did not know the man and believed him to be someone just passing by the church at the time.
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