Man Shot By ICE Charged With 2 Federal Crimes: Report

GLEN BURNIE, MD — An affidavit filed by an FBI agent said the Portuguese immigrant who overstayed his visa and was shot during a confrontation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Glen Burnie said the man now faces two criminal charges.

Tiago Alexandre Sousa-Martins, the man who federal officials overstayed his visa, is accused of: resisting, opposing, impeding, intimidating or interfering with officers; and damaging government property, The Baltimore Banner reported Wednesday.

When ICE agents approached the van driven by Sousa-Martins on Dec. 24 at a Lowe's store in Glen Burnie, federal officials claim he tried to flee, ramming his van into several federal vehicles and attempting to run officers over.

The newly filed criminal affidavit said agents broke a window in Sousa-Martins’ van as he tried to drive between condominiums. The Banner reported that three agents fire shots at Sousa-Martins and his van crashed into a tree.

Sousa-Martins suffered a collapsed lung after being shot in the left thigh and upper back, the website said.

Federal Officials Change Story After Police Pushback

Department of Homeland Security officials changed their account of the shooting involving ICE agents in Glen Burnie on Jan. 9, a day after Anne Arundel County police disagreed with the federal government's original version of events, according to a Baltimore Banner report.

Previously, the federal agency had claimed that two men were inside a van that officials said tried to ram ICE vehicles and run over agents during a Dec. 24 operation in Glen Burnie. Agents opened fire on the van and wounded its driver, identified as Sousa-Martins, an immigrant from Portugal whose U.S. visa expired in 2009. The second man, Salomon Antonio Serrano-Esquivel of El Salvador, was also injured.

However, on Jan. 8, Anne Arundel County police said Serrano-Esquivel was not in the van during the incident. According to police, he was already in custody in an ICE vehicle.

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Following the release of the new details by police, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin walked back the agency's claims that Serrano-Esquivel was in the passenger’s seat of Sousa-Martin’s van, according to a statement obtained by the Banner.

McLaughlin also said that Serrano-Esquivel was in ICE custody and was injured when Sousa-Martins rammed the ICE vehicle he was in.

According to federal authorities, ICE officers were conducting a targeted operation in Glen Burnie on Christmas Eve when they approached the van driven by Sousa-Martins. Federal officials claimed Sousa-Martins was told to turn off the engine; however, officials said he refused and tried to flee, ramming his van into several federal vehicles and attempting to run officers over.

The officers fired their weapons and hit Sousa-Martins, who crashed the van, according to the Department of Homeland Security's statement.

The new version of events provided by both federal and local authorities echoed an account given to The Banner shortly after the shooting by an attorney who visited Serrano-Esquivel at the hospital.

Alex Major told the Banner that Serrano-Esquivel, a landscape worker, was pulled over by federal agents along with a family member in Southern Maryland and taken into custody Wednesday morning, hours before he was accused of riding in the van that rammed ICE officers.

A bystander’s video reviewed by The Banner also showed a white van following a crash. Agents removed one man from the vehicle and took him away on a stretcher. In the video, there was no sign of a second man inside the van.