Thread: 2 ICE officers killed, 1 wounded at federal office building in Long Beach, CA.

Los Angeles County still holds the record for total number of deportations from a county.(By Secure Communities.)

2011 ICE Report
Alien Removals and Returns

LOS ANGELES - 7/22/2008 to Sept. 30, 2011 - 18,206

http://www.ice.gov/doclib/foia/sc-st...11-to-date.pdf

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-253769.html
(Comment)

The shooting was in LONG BEACH, not L.A.
2 different cities.

ICE agent shot Thursday in Long Beach awake, talking

By Tracy Manzer, Staff Writerpresstelegram.com
Posted: 02/17/2012 06:57:39 PM PST
February 18, 2012 5:2 AM GMT Updated: 02/17/2012 09:02:54 PM PST

LONG BEACH — An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who was shot six times by a subordinate at the downtown Long Beach federal building was awake, alert and talking to friends and family on Friday, authorities said.

Colleagues of Deputy Special Agent-in-Charge Kevin Kozak, who was shot by Supervising Special Agent Ezequiel Garcia during a discussion over Garcia's job performance, described the 51-year-old Kozak as a fighter with a strong will to survive.

"While Agent Kozak suffered multiple gunshot wounds all over his body, he is alert, he is stable and he is focused on his recovery," ICE Director John Morton, who flew into Long Beach from Washington, D.C. on Friday, said during a press conference.

"That he is alive is due in no small part to his own quick reaction and his iron will to survive."

Garcia, who was 45, was shot by a third intervening agent and was pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said.

The intervening agent wasn't identified, though Morton and others said he was doing well in spite of the turmoil and he has been placed on administrative leave per department policy.

"Agent Kozak is alive today because of the heroic actions of a third ICE agent," said Claude Arnold, special agent in charge for ICE Homeland Security Investigations in Los Angeles.

"While that agent's quick thinking saved Kozak's life, it also meant one of his colleagues died," Arnold said.

FBI Assistant Director in Charge Steven Martinez said the shooting occurred at about 5:30 p.m. Thursday as Kozak and Garcia were talking about Garcia's work.

"Agent Kozak was counseling Agent Garcia in relation to his performance, and the discussion escalated," with Garcia "firing several rounds from his service weapon."

Kozak was struck six times, with rounds slamming into his legs and upper body, Martinez said.

The

Special Agent Claude Arnold of ICE and Homeland Security, left, talks to the media with Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster, and Long Beach Deputy Police Chief Robert Luna, during a press conference in front of the Glenn Anderson Federal Building in Long Beach on Feb. 17, 2012. An ICE officer was shot by a fellow officer last night after opening fire on a third officer inside the building. (Jeff Gritchen/Long Beach Press-Telegram) nearly 30-year veteran of the force was rushed to St. Mary Medical Center, where he underwent surgery late Thursday and where he was listed in stable condition Friday and was surrounded by friends and family, authorities said.

Evidence collected at the scene included numerous shell casings and weapons believed to be used in the incident, as well as other undisclosed items, Martinez said.

He said he didn't yet know how far Garcia was from Kozak when he opened fire, or if Kozak was able to dive for cover.

He also didn't divulge any information about how the third officer came to open fire on Garcia, who started his federal law enforcement career in 1988 with what was then known as the Immigration and Naturalization Service, or INS.

"Until we complete our analysis and reach our findings, I think it would be imprudent to provide any more information," Martinez said.

Sources close to the investigation, however, said there were rumors Garcia had filed numerous complaints of job discrimination and was known to have problems with Kozak.

Arnold said he was unaware of any problems that existed between the two, noting that he was Kozak's direct supervisor and he had fewer dealings with Garcia.

He said reports that the shooting occurred during a disciplinary meeting or hearing were incorrect.

"They were having a discussion, it was not a disciplinary meeting," Arnold stressed at a press conference held in front of the Glenn M. Anderson Federal Building Friday afternoon.

Though he was calm throughout most of the press conference, his voice filled with emotion when he spoke of Kozak, who he said he has known for several years.

"He is a fighter, and I believe that's why he is alive today," Arnold said. "He refused to succumb to the injuries."

Morton said he was extremely proud of both Kozak and the intervening agent.

"Both of these men came to work yesterday, never imagining they would be fighting for their lives, but that is exactly they did," Morton said. "They were tested in a very dangerous way and showed incredible fortitude."

As Morton spoke, the streets surrounding the federal building were chock-a-block with news trucks. It was a noticeable contrast to the night before, when the building was closed to the public and enveloped by emergency vehicles with flashing lights.

Long Beach police officers and firefighters were among the first on scene when the call went out at about 5:30 p.m. that shots had been fired on the seventh floor.

Los Angeles Police Department officers who were in the federal building also responded and rendered aid to Kozak as he was rushed to the St. Mary Medical Center, Morton said.

Those who were in the area Thursday said the initial calls that came in were chaotic as authorities rushed to shut down access to the offices in the federal building and several surrounding buildings. Once it was confirmed the shooter was a federal agent, and that he had been shot and killed by another agent, a pall descended over many of the first-responders, they said.

"It was chilling," said one officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing investigation. "You have all these scenarios running through your head of a gunman somehow getting in there and then you find out it's one of us."

Hundreds of officers and agents descended on the building in the following hours, locking down traffic on Magnolia Avenue and parts of Ocean Boulevard and closing off access to several nearby properties, including the Long Beach Superior Court.

A command post was erected on Magnolia, between Broadway and Ocean, and yellow crime scene tape and orange traffic cones dotted the area as agents and officers worked through the night and into early Friday morning. One FBI spokesman estimated there were 100 federal agents at the scene Friday night.

A deputy district attorney, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said she had to wait until after 8 p.m. to get her car out of the court parking lot and she was struck by the might of the response.

As she drove away from the containment area, she said, she saw a patrol police officer a few blocks away giving a motorist a ticket.

"I thought, 'He must be the only officer left in the city,'" she said.

During the two press conferences held Friday, local authorities also addressed the media.

Mayor Bob Foster thanked firefighters and police officers for their professionalism in handling the call, "that was, at first, a very uncertain situation and a very fluid situation."

Deputy Police Chief Robert Luna said he was extremely proud of the response by LBPD officers and all of the other agencies that worked together in the wake of the shooting, which hit many members of the law enforcement community hard.

"You see that law enforcement is not immune to incidents of this nature," he said.

Long Beach police were on scene within two minutes of the call for help, he said.

"The officers didn't hesitate, they ran into this building knowing shots had been fired, they knew there were people in here who needed help," Luna said.

tracy.manzer@presstelegram.com, 562-714-2150, twitter.com/tmanzer

ICE agent shot Thursday in Long Beach awake, talking - Press-Telegram

January 26, 2012, - 12:26 pm

Immigration Agents: We Rated ICE Near Bottom of 240 Agencies b/c
Obama F’d It Up, Caters to Left


By Debbie
Schlussel

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents rated their agency 222nd out of 240 agencies, saying their agency is in the bottom 8% of all federal agencies.

In the 2011 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey. Gee, I wonder why. After Barack Obama and his administration constantly attacking ICE agents and stopping them from doing their jobs; after Obama hiring a La Raza activist as his immigration policy point person (and then appointing her his top policy person on all issues); after the agency creates forms and hotline numbers encouraging illegal aliens–the few that ICE is allowed to detain under Obama–to report agents as “civil rights violators,” I’m actually surprised the agency was as high as 222nd and not dead last.

But not John Moron Morton, the Obama chief of ICE who is busy using 9/11 for government-funded booty calls to see his girlfriend in New York and using your tax dollars to stay at froofy Kimpton Hotels and eat at fancy Asian-Fusion restaurants. T

The reason ICE agents hate their agency is that morale is at an all time low, and much of that is because of Barack Hussein Obama and the people he picked to run Homeland Security and ICE. They are incompetent cronyist bureaucrats with ZERO law enforcement experience. NONE.

Partners in Crime

Yesterday, Morton sent ICE agents a silly e-mail relaying his “concern” that his agents think he and the agency are a joke and that morale is bad. It’s something he apparently doesn’t see because he’s too busy pretending to be important and letting Janet Napolitano’s pointchick, Suzie “Stripper Pole” Barr run the agency . . . into the ground. To address the low morale, instead of resigning, he and his boss, Janet Napolitano a/k/a “-itano” are spending your
money to create a bureaucratic “steering committee.” I hear it will be
headed by Captain Francesco Schettino.

I’m, frankly, not sure why ICE even still exists since it lost its mission to
investigate terrorism money-laundering, agents aren’t allowed to arrest most illegal aliens anymore, and the few things left–like stopping kiddie-porn–are duplicative efforts done by local police. Oh, and we don’t need a special government agency to take away trinkets that divers and traders obtained and gift it to some current ruling Islamic regime, another ICE “mission.” Usually, when your employees rank you in the bottom 7.5% of your industry, it’s grounds for immediate dismissal and a radical change of game plan. But this is the gubmint . . . and they’re here to help you. Below is Moron’s laughable missive (I’ve cut out a good deal of his BS for the sake of brevity), followed by a spot-on ICE agent’s smackdown–a MUST-READ:

From: ICE-Broadcast
Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2012 1:19 PM
Subject:
A Message from Director Morton
Importance: High

A Message from Director Morton

To all ICE employees

January 25, 2012

The Partnership for Public Service recently ranked the best places to work in the Federal Government. The rankings were based on three of 70 questions in the 2011 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey. Those three questions asked whether you would recommend ICE as a good place to work, how satisfied you are with your job and how satisfied you are with ICE.

Like several components in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), ICE did not fare particularly well. ICE ranked 222 of 240. This concerns me and ICE leadership. Recently, Secretary Napolitano created a DHS Employee Engagement
Executive Steering Committee (ESC) to address the survey results.

Debbie Schlussel.com

ICE Long Beach shootout: As immigration cauldron boils, ICE agents buckle

The Long Beach, Calif., shooting that left one Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent dead and another wounded comes as the Obama administration has moved to improve morale among embattled ICE agents.

By Patrik Jonsson,


ATLANTA - The internecine shootout that ended with one Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent dead and another critically wounded in Long Beach, Calif., on Thursday comes on the heels of an Obama administration effort to relieve dysfunction and morale problems within a frontline agency tasked with enforcing the nation's border laws.

The shootings came during an apparent counseling session between ICE supervisor Kevin Kozak and a lower-ranking supervisor, Agent Esequiel “Zeke” Garcia, where a third agent was in the room as a witness. During the hearing, Mr. Garcia allegedly drew his service weapon and shot Mr. Kozak six times. The third agent drew his weapon and killed Garcia.
ICE Director John Morton flew to Long Beach Friday to meet with the wounded ICE supervisor and the agent who killed Garcia.

"Both of these men came to work yesterday never imagining if they would literally be fighting for their lives, but that is exactly what in fact happened, and they were tested in a very dangerous way and showed incredible fortitude," Mr. Morton said.

Morton's response to the deadly, puzzling drama is the latest attempt to confront problems rooted in the agency's creation in 2003, when it was formed as a merger between U.S. Customs and Border Enforcement and the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

As early as 2005, the Office of the Inspector General began noting troubling operational dysfunction within the nation's immigration enforcement ranks.

“Where collegial interactions should characterize relations between employees of the two organizations, we have been told of competition and, sometimes, interference. These organizational conditions have led to the articulation of mismatched priorities, competition and, at times, operational inflexibility," the OIG wrote.

More troubling, the OIG found at the time that agents reported seeing little action from the top to deal with the problems. “We encountered concerns that institutional rivalries, duplication of functions and insularity of view were tending in a negative direction," according to the report.

Experts say that tensions within ICE remain high on a number of fronts. According to published reports, the Long Beach office, under Mr. Kozak, had become a hotbed of discontent, some of it linked to the INS-Customs rivalry. Kozak came from the Customs bureaucracy while Garcia began his career under the INS.

“While you might believe the mainstream media narrative that this was just a workplace rage incident, it’s actually far deeper than that,” conservative talk show host and workplace attorney Debbie Schlussel writes on her blog. “It’s a direct result of how bad things have gotten under the Obama administration and John Morton.”

The shootings came after a year when the agency scored some of its biggest immigration busts on record, with over 2,000 immigration scofflaws, including some violent ex-convicts, rounded up in a series of national sweeps last summer.

The agency has also been at the forefront of a White House administration effort to force ICE employees to use prosecutorial discretion to stop prosecution of undocumented immigrants who have deep ties to the US, an effort that has been widely criticized, even vilified, by agents in the field.

Meanwhile, there are other signs of an agency in turmoil. Aside from Thursday's shooting, there were three other incidents in 2011 where ICE agents were caught up in illicit activities.

Last fall, a supervisor in the agency's South Florida office was arrested on child pornography charges. Also last fall, an ICE agent was arrested for drug smuggling following a car chase. In May, an ICE agent in New York was arrested and charged with stealing government property and selling it on eBay.

Last month, Morton addressed a Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey where ICE was ranked 222^nd on a list of 240 federal agencies, proposing a new initiative to tackle “morale” problems.

“Although ICE, as a relatively young agency, has faced challenges that other more mature, long-established agencies have not faced, these challenges do not diminish our concern about the rankings,” Morton wrote. “We want to improve the satisfaction of our employees who work every day to carry out our critical mission.”

Morton promised a series of “town halls” to gauge the situation and propose initiatives to improve morale.

The Christian Science Monitor

New details released in shooting of Calif. ICE agent

Updated 26m ago

LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) – A federal agent accused of shooting a supervisor engaged in a serious struggle for his gun with another colleague who subsequently shot and killed him, an official said.

The shooting occurred after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Ezequiel Garcia discussed his job performance with the agency's second-in-command in the Los Angeles region, ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice said Saturday.

Another agent who attended the discussion and had just left the office rushed back and burst in to disarm Garcia after the shots rang out.

"There was a very, very intense struggle," Kice said. "They were physically struggling over the gun."

The agent eventually drew his own gun and shot Garcia, Kice said. ICE is not releasing the agent's name.

The supervisor, Kevin Kozak, continued his recovery Saturday from at least six bullet wounds, including to the hand, knee and torso, Kice said. Kozak, 51, is the agency's deputy special agent in charge of investigations in the Los Angeles region.

Los Angeles police officers who work in the building on a joint task force for Internet crimes responded to a call for help and aided the bleeding Kozak, Kice said.

"The fact that they were literally right there probably was another thing that was instrumental in his survival," she said.

Garcia joined the former Immigration and Naturalization Service in 1988 and was named criminal investigator three years later. Shortly after the Department of Homeland Security was created in 2003, he was promoted to supervisor for a documents and benefits fraud task force.

He had told his wife of problems at work but, when she called him at the office Thursday, everything seemed normal, according to the Los Angeles Times. They talked about having Korean barbecue for dinner, but he said he first had to meet with a high-ranking supervisor about his performance.

"He never made it home," said Garcia's wife, Balbina. She told the Times the couple were going through a divorce but trying to work things out.

Former neighbors in Murrieta, southeast of Los Angeles, said Saturday that Garcia worked long hours and mostly kept to himself.

"He was friendly enough to wave and say hi, but he didn't have too much time for conversation," said Tim Shepard, 49, who lived across the street.

Neighbors said Garcia moved to the quiet, residential street with his wife and two young boys about eight years ago. About four years ago, he began visiting only on weekends. The family moved about two years ago, though Garcia's wife still regularly returns to visit a friend.

"He worked a lot," said Andrea Tjaden, 45, who lived next door. "He would come home late at night and be gone for days."

Garcia was a plaintiff in a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department after he and another immigration agent claimed they were roughed up by officers while doing undercover work. A federal jury found in the police officers' favor in 2005, saying they did not use excessive force.

The lawsuit alleges that officers handcuffed and threatened to shoot the other agent, and put Garcia in a headlock, handcuffed him and forced him into the back of a police car, despite his cries of agony because of an old shoulder injury. Garcia was hospitalized for cuts, bruises and treatment of his shoulder.

"If this could happen to me, then ordinary citizens have even more reason to fear for their own safety," Garcia told the Times when the lawsuit was filed in 2000. "The situation within the LAPD is clearly out of control."

Doug Walters, an attorney who represented Garcia, said he was shocked by his death.

"During the time I worked with Zeke, his supervisors were very supportive of him and the case," Walters said. "Some of his supervisors traveled some distances to testify."

Kice said she didn't know what job performance issues Garcia was counseled about before the shooting, and couldn't disclose them if she did.

A federal official with knowledge of the investigation has told the Associated Press that Kozak denied Garcia's request for an internal transfer. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly.

ICE routinely reallocates resources in line with priorities, but does not disclose details for security reasons, Kice has said.

New details released in shooting of Calif. ICE agent by colleague

ICE agent who allegedly opened fire was mulling divorce, wife says

February 19, 2012 | 8:18am

A federal immigration agent who allegedly opened fire on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement supervisor on Thursday was considering divorce after 14 years of marriage, his wife said.

Ezequiel Garcia told his wife he was having trouble at work shortly before the shooting. They had planned to have a dinner of Korean BBQ that night, but he told her he had to first talk to a supervisor about his job performance.

"He never made it home," his wife, Balbina, said.

Authorities say Garcia, 45, who supervised a document and benefit fraud task force, shot Deputy Special Agent in Charge Kevin Kozak, 51, in his upper torso, legs and hands before being fatally shot by another immigration official. Kozak, a 30-year veteran agent who previously served as acting head of ICE's Los Angeles operations, remains hospitalized but is in stable condition, and is alert and talking, federal officials said at a news conference Friday. Officials did not identify the third ICE agent, who has been placed on leave, citing "concern for his privacy."

One police source who was present at the scene said a group of Los Angeles Police Department detectives and officers who happened to be in the building rushed over to the office, responding to a call for medical help over the speaker system.

Amid thick smoke and the smell of gunpowder, they saw Garcia lying on his side, apparently dead, recalled the source, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case. The ICE agent who shot Garcia stood stunned, and the supervisor lay on the floor cursing in anger and saying that his stomach felt like it was burning, he said.

"This guy's a fighter," the source said of the wounded agent. "He was awake and lucid."

"Kozak is alive today because of the heroic action of another ICE supervisor," Special Agent in Charge Claude Arnold said at a news conference. "This is the first time anything of this nature has occurred within ICE. And we're doing everything humanly possible to make sure it doesn't happen again."

The shooting occurred as Kozak was having a meeting with Garcia over his job performance.

ICE agent who allegedly opened fire was mulling divorce, wife says - latimes.com