In the early hours of Friday morning, a 72-year-old Fresno, California resident shot a man once in the midsection after the man allegedly attacked him and his adult daughter on their front lawn. The shooting took place around 3:30 a.m. Police later identified the wounded man as 32-year-old David Gonzalez from Texas and confirmed he is an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who was off duty.
According to Mediaite, the chain of events began when a woman spotted an unfamiliar man lying on the grass outside her home. She went back inside and woke her father to tell him what she had seen. Her father stepped outside and ordered the man to get off the property.
According to Fresno police, Gonzalez “appeared intoxicated and agitated” during the exchange. He assaulted the older man. The daughter came outside to help her father, and Gonzalez turned on her as well.
Authorities recount how the lawn confrontation turned into a shooting
Police described what happened next in a public statement. “When the victim’s daughter tried to intervene on her father’s behalf, Gonzalez physically attacked her, at which time she went to the ground,” they said.
Believing he and his daughter were in danger, the father pulled out a firearm and fired a single shot that struck Gonzalez in the midsection. The daughter immediately called her boyfriend, an off-duty police officer, and asked him to come to the house.
The boyfriend arrived, took Gonzalez into custody, and handcuffed him on the scene. Paramedics then transported Gonzalez to a local hospital, where he is listed in serious condition.
After the shooting, investigators determined that Gonzalez is employed by ICE. In their statement, Fresno police noted, “It is unknown at this time why Gonzalez was in the area at the time of the incident, but it has been confirmed he was off-duty and alone at the time of the incident.”
No charges have been filed against the 72-year-old man. Gonzalez, however, is being held on a felony assault charge. The scrutiny of ICE agents’ conduct extends beyond this case, as agents in Evanston, Illinois, allegedly pinned a U.S. citizen to the ground after mistaking him for someone else.
City officials said they are still trying to determine why he was in the residential area and have already spoken with ICE about the case.
Separately, ICE agents were involved in another shooting on Thursday in New York City. Agents there fired into a vehicle occupied by a man and a five-year-old boy. The man was hit by the gunfire and survived, while the child was not injured. The incidents add to a pattern of federal agents using force in the field, as when an ICE officer fired seven shots into a car in New York, hitting a man in the neck while his five-year-old son sat in the back seat.
Published: Oct 11, 2026 08:45 am