The Department of Homeland Security has revised its description of an immigration enforcement-related shooting in a Baltimore suburb on Christmas Eve, after local police disputed key parts of the agency’s initial account.
On December 24, DHS said Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers “defensively fired” at a van carrying two undocumented immigrants during an operation in Glen Burnie, Maryland. The agency initially alleged the driver tried to escape by ramming ICE vehicles and then drove directly at officers in an attempt to run them over.
In that first version, DHS said the driver was shot and wounded, and the passenger was hurt when the van crashed seconds later.
DHS now says the injured man was not in the van. Instead, he “was a passenger in one of the ICE vehicles that was rammed,” according to a statement to CNN from DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.
The revision arrives as DHS is under heightened scrutiny following the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis woman by an ICE agent last week, and amid broader questions about how the department describes confrontations involving federal officers during President Donald Trump’s nationwide immigration crackdown.
Local police first disclosed the updated detail on Thursday. The Anne Arundel County Police Department, which is investigating the incident, said that one injured detainee was already in custody inside an ICE vehicle, while the other injured person was hit by gunfire while driving a separate vehicle.
Police said the investigation remains ongoing and emphasized that county officers do not enforce immigration law or take part in ICE operations.
McLaughlin said ICE officers were carrying out “a targeted immigration enforcement operation” when they confronted the van. Authorities identified the driver as Tiago Alexandre Sousa-Martins, a Portuguese national. The second man, Salvadoran national Solomon Antonio Serrano-Esquivel, is the person DHS now says was inside an ICE vehicle.
According to McLaughlin, officers approached the van and told Sousa-Martins to turn off the engine, but he refused, attempted to leave, rammed ICE vehicles, and then drove toward ICE officers. She said officers, “fearing for their lives and public safety,” fired their service weapons, striking the driver.
McLaughlin said Sousa-Martins then crashed the van between two buildings. Photos posted by DHS on X on the day of the incident show a white van crashed into a tree. DHS has not responded to CNN’s request for clarification about that discrepancy.
McLaughlin said officers provided medical assistance at the scene and transported both men to the hospital, adding that no ICE agents were injured.
Sousa-Martins is being held at a detention center in Bowling Green, Virginia, according to ICE detainee records. DHS said Serrano-Esquivel was treated for whiplash on the day of the incident and is now in ICE custody.
The Christmas Eve shooting is part of a series of violent encounters involving federal officers since immigration enforcement escalated during Trump’s second term.
Last week, the fatal shooting of Renee Good — a 37-year-old mother of three who was in her car when she was shot — prompted widespread outrage and large protests in Minneapolis and elsewhere. The following day, a Border Patrol agent in Portland, Oregon, shot and injured two people authorities said were associated with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
In both the Minneapolis and Portland cases, DHS officials alleged the suspects “weaponized” their vehicles and targeted law enforcement.
