David Gonzalez in custody on felony charges after midsection shooting
A 72-year-old man shot an off-duty Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official in California early Friday morning after the official, who authorities said appeared intoxicated and agitated, allegedly assaulted the man and his daughter on their property. Fresno police said the official, identified as David Gonzalez, was receiving medical care after being shot in the midsection and was in custody facing felony charges.
According to Fresno police, at about 3 a.m. a woman found Gonzalez sleeping on her and her father’s front lawn. She told her 72-year-old father, who was inside, and then attempted to shoo Gonzalez off the property. When Gonzalez was awakened, police said, “he appeared intoxicated and agitated” and physically assaulted the father, forcing him to the ground. When the daughter tried to intervene, police said, Gonzalez physically attacked her and took her to the ground as well.
The father feared for his and his daughter’s physical safety and shot Gonzalez once, police said. Shortly thereafter, the daughter’s boyfriend, an off-duty police officer, arrived and placed handcuffs on Gonzalez. “It is unknown at this time why Gonzalez was in the area at the time of the [shooting], but it has been confirmed he was off-duty and alone,” local authorities said.
Fresno police said Friday that the investigation into the shooting was continuing while Gonzalez was in custody and receiving medical treatment. He was booked with battery likely to cause great bodily injury, felony vandalism and battery. The father and daughter were not booked with any crimes as they recovered from injuries of their own, police said.
It was not immediately clear how long Gonzalez had been with ICE or what exactly he did for the agency. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, referred all questions about Gonzalez to Fresno police.
The confrontation that led to the shooting is among the latest cases in which federal ICE officials have come under scrutiny for alleged criminal behavior. ICE has also been met with nationwide criticism throughout Donald Trump’s second term for the agency’s aggressive arrest, detention and deportation tactics.
Lawmakers have criticized ICE’s hiring practices amid the agency’s rush to bring on more officials to carry out the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda. In August 2025, an ICE supervisor filed a whistleblower complaint to the DHS office of inspector general alleging that the agency was skirting basic vetting and violating federal rules during its hiring spree.
In July, an ICE officer shot and killed a Colombian immigrant in Biddeford, Maine; that officer had reportedly been a recent hire by the agency despite an alleged history of violence and mental health problems. In April, a longtime ICE officer in Cincinnati was arrested after allegedly lying to DHS about domestic violence allegations against him; local news reports said police had been called more than 20 times in past years to the home he shared with his girlfriend.
The Ohio Immigrant Alliance, a pro-immigrant group, released a report in August documenting more than 150 federal immigration officials accused of abuse and crimes. One of the latest entries in the report cited allegations that an ICE official reportedly broke into an ex-girlfriend’s apartment in south-east Louisiana.