Federal officials announced that a gunman had been arrested for firing at U.S. Border Patrol agents amid chaotic protests in Little Village earlier this month, as the agency’s aggressive Chicago area campaign was drawing to a close.
So far, no charges have been announced in the alleged shooting in the nearly two weeks since officials claimed gunfire erupted in the 2500 block of South Kedzie Avenue.
But on Thursday, a federal gun possession case was unsealed against a man matching the description the U.S. Department of Homeland Security had provided for the suspected shooter.
Hector Gomez, 45, faces a single count of possessing a firearm as an undocumented immigrant, piling on the charges he already faces in Cook County in relation to his arrest Nov. 8 in the 3100 block of West 26th Street.
Gomez was taken into custody hours after the alleged shooting, not far from where Chicago police had found shell casings. Local police found him with a handgun in his lap as he sat in a black Jeep Wrangler, according to an arrest report. A woman told officers that he had walked toward her while aiming the gun and “laughing profusely.”
Gomez, who is originally from Mexico, remains held at Cook County Jail on felony charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and being a felon in possession of a firearm, records show.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security initially reported on social media that “an unknown male driving a black Jeep fired shots at agents and fled the scene.” The agency later said that an undocumented man from Mexico had been arrested in relation to the shooting, referencing criminal charges that match Gomez’s background.
Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol boss who led “Operation Midway Blitz,” appeared on Fox News and took a victory lap. “Within 48 hours, the already have a suspect,” Bovino said.
Before Bovino and his Border Patrol “green machine” left for Charlotte, North Carolina, they posed for a photo in front of the Cloud Gate sculpture in Millennium Park, a tourist attraction commonly known as “the Bean.”
“Everyone say, ‘Little Village!’” one agent said, two days after the enforcement operation.
Calls for evidence
Questions about the shooting continue to be raised in a highly publicized lawsuit in front of U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis, who this month handed down a sweeping order restricting the feds’ use of force during the immigration campaign.
That order has since been put on hold by the federal appeals court in Chicago.
The case was brought by media organizations, such as the Chicago Headline Club, Block Club Chicago and the Chicago Newspaper Guild, which represents journalists at the Chicago Sun-Times.
Last week, the plaintiffs’ lawyers told Ellis they’d asked “repeatedly” for the Justice Department to hand over footage from the shooting. Then, on Thursday, they raised the issue again. Plaintiffs’ lawyer Steve Art noted the feds have not yet handed over body-worn camera footage from Bovino.
“We have asked repeatedly, in the context of the Nov. 8 incident in Little Village, where federal agents say that they were shot at, for the camera footage of that happening and the reports about it happening,” Art said. “And we do not have any yet.”
Ellis told Justice Department lawyers to hand it over by Tuesday.
Neither the reporters nor editors who worked on this story — including some represented by the Newspaper Guild — have been involved in the lawsuit before Judge Ellis described in this article.
A criminal background
Gomez, the man charged in the gun case, has been removed from the United States at least four times, according to his federal criminal complaint.
After his arrest, he told the feds that he had illegally entered the country roughly 30 times since he was 17, the complaint holds. He also acknowledged that his criminal history barred him from possessing a gun.
Gomez previously faced drug charges that were dismissed, Cook County Court records show. He pleaded guilty in a gun case in January and was sentenced to one-year in prison and six months of supervised release.
Coincidentally, Gomez was featured on the same DHS social media account that later tied him to the alleged shooting in Little Village.
“ICE lodged an arrest detainer with the Illinois Department of Corrections,” DHS said on X in September. “He was released despite the ICE arrest detainer.”
Gomez’s attorney, Michael Monaco, said a Sun-Times reporter informed him of the federal case. He’s expected to appear in Cook County court on Dec. 2.
Federal authorities could still charge Gomez with additional counts as his gun case proceeds. But the charging document unsealed Thursday doesn’t mention gunfire — or the Border Patrol.