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The Colorado Bureau of Investigation announced on Thursday, October 30, that it will look into an incident where a masked, unidentified officer grabbed a 57-year-old woman by the hair and throat and threw her down a hill during a protest outside of an ICE field office in Durango.
The violent altercation occurred early Tuesday, October 28, and was caught on camera and witnessed by a small crowd of protesters. The Durango ICE facility has been surrounded by hundreds of protesters since Monday, when agents arrested Colombian father Fernando Jaramillo Solano and his two teenage children. ICE said on Wednesday that Jaramillo Solano will be held in federal custody at the Dilley ICE Processing Center in Dilley, Texas, pending his immigration proceedings.
In the protest video, a masked officer with “police” written across his tactical vest is shown grabbing a phone away from a woman, 57-year-old Franci Stagi, as she recorded him. After Stagi reached to get her phone back, the officer pulled her by the hair, put her in a chokehold as she tried to escape and then threw her to the ground as other unidentified officers tried to stop him.
“Video of the incident has been circulated, which appears to show a federal agent use force on a woman during the demonstration,” the CBI says in a press release. “The CBI will investigate whether there were state criminal law violations during the incident. CBI will provide the investigation to the 6th Judicial District Attorney’s Office upon its completion.”
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There was confusion as to which law enforcement agency the masked officer was working for during the protest. According to the City of Durango, the officer works for a federal department.
According to the CBI, the investigation was initiated at the request of Durango Police Department Chief Brice Current. A statement from the City of Durango on Tuesday, October 28, also indicated that the FBI is involved in the investigation.
“A video taken at the event showed an elderly woman being shoved to the ground by a federal agent,” the city’s statement reads. “The city has asked the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for assistance investigating the incident. Because the event occurred on federal property, the FBI is also looking into the incident.”
According to the city, Durango police also “requested to facilitate the release of the children to their mother, but were unsuccessful.”
The decision whether to file charges against the unidentified officer will be up to Sean Murray, the district attorney for the 6th Judicial District, who was appointed by Governor Jared Polis early last year.
In response to an inquiry from Westword, ICE says that it “does not comment on another agency’s investigations.”
Federal agents started using pepper balls and rubber bullets on protesters outside the Durango ICE facility on Tuesday. The City of Durango said in a statement that its police have only been dispatched to the scene to make sure emergency vehicles can pass and that protesters weren’t double-parked.
