Off-duty ICE agent found sleeping on Fresno lawn is shot after assaulting man, authorities say

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An off-duty ICE agent was shot in Fresno after he was found sleeping on a lawn, then allegedly assaulted a 72-year-old man, authorities said.

The Fresno Police Department said it received several reports at 3:19 a.m. Friday of a gunshot being fired near East Dudley Avenue and North Broadway Street.

When officers arrived, they found David Gonzalez, 32, in handcuffs, with a gunshot wound to his midsection, according to a Fresno Police statement.

Fresno Police declined an interview request from The Times.

According to their statement, an unnamed woman arrived home to find Gonzalez — an agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — sleeping on her front lawn. The woman contacted her 72-year-old father, who came outside the house to remove Gonzalez.

Gonzalez woke up and appeared “intoxicated and agitated,” according to the statement. He allegedly attacked the man, causing several visible injuries.

When the woman tried to intervene, Gonzalez also allegedly attacked her, authorities said. Her father, fearing for the safety of himself and his daughter, took out a gun and fired one shot at Gonzalez, according to the statement.

The woman’s boyfriend, an off-duty police officer, then placed Gonzalez in handcuffs, according to the statement.

Gonzalez is from Texas, authorities said, and it was not immediately clear why he was in Fresno. At the time of the incident, he was off-duty and alone.

Police did not provide further information about the 72-year-old’s identity. He was described as a “victim” who was in legal possession of the firearm he used, and is not facing criminal charges.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security declined to comment Friday evening, and directed questions to Fresno Police.

Fresno officials and residents had this week raised concerns about a reported surge in ICE arrests in the area. About 70 people were detained in Fresno and Madera this week, the local news site Fresnoland reported.

In a Facebook post Friday after the shooting, Fresno City Councilmember Miguel Arias said “communities deserve safety, dignity, and respect not intimidation, fear, and reckless behavior from federal ICE agents.”

“As many of us have warned, the terrorizing tactics of [President] Trump’s ICE were bound to lead to someone getting hurt. The danger these aggressive enforcement tactics pose to our communities should come as no surprise,” he said. “There are serious questions about the screening, qualifications, psychological fitness, and accountability of the out-of-state ICE officers being deployed into our neighborhoods.”

On Thursday, Arias said at a City Council meeting that the timing of the arrests was “not a coincidence” because it is harvest season in Fresno, a major agricultural hub.

He went on to refer to the ICE activity as “basic voter suppression and intimidation of the Latino voter base.”

“This is trying to convince those of us in our community to stay home and not participate and engage in a civic responsibility and constitutional right,” Arias said.

Gonzalez, who is receiving treatment, is in custody on suspicion of felony assault, according to the police statement. It was not immediately clear from Fresno law enforcement databases whether he has an attorney.

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Iris Kwok is a breaking news reporter at the Los Angeles Times. She was a 2025-26 reporting fellow at The Times and previously covered the environment at Berkeleyside. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley, where she studied political science and music. A lifelong cellist, she has written about classical music for the San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Classical Voice. She grew up in the Bay Area and the Sacramento region.

Brittny Mejia is a Metro reporter covering federal courts and immigration for the Los Angeles Times. She was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2021 for her investigation with colleague Jack Dolan that exposed failures in Los Angeles County’s safety-net healthcare system. She joined The Times in 2014.

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