An ICE agent opened fire after being struck by a fleeing vehicle in Stafford, in New Jersey's Ocean County, in an incident that drew a heavy law-enforcement response and unsettled a normally quiet corner of the community. According to local police, the agent had been trying to apprehend someone in a vehicle when the driver hit the agent while speeding away from the scene.
Police said the agent fired shots at the vehicle as it fled. It was not known whether the driver had been struck, and the suspect got away, having not been located as the response unfolded. Authorities also did not say how badly the ICE agent had been hurt in the encounter, leaving his condition unclear in the immediate aftermath.
In the immediate aftermath, the agent was on the ground, leaning up against a gray vehicle, before being moved onto a stretcher and taken from the scene. Several hours later, two vehicles were towed away, a gray Hyundai and a white Jeep with damage to its rear end.
Much of the incident unfolded near the Stafford Diner, which sits right at the corner, and customers rushed inside immediately after the shots rang out. The diner's owners said their corner cameras had recorded part of the incident and that they turned the footage over to authorities, describing it as capturing the van and the moment someone was struck.
The scene left neighbors shaken. Residents described an overwhelming and unfamiliar police presence filling nearby parking lots, with one saying her children attend school about a mile away and that it was hard to imagine something like this happening so close to home. The sudden arrival of so many officers left people in the area searching for answers about what had just taken place.
Many questions remained unanswered. It was not clear why authorities had been trying to arrest the person in the vehicle, or whether that person had since been apprehended. Local police referred questions to the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office and the FBI, while inquiries directed to the Department of Homeland Security and ICE had not been answered.