Silverio Villegas González had just dropped his two young sons off at school and daycare and was on his way to work as a line cook when an ICE agent shot him dead on a Franklin Park, Illinois street. More than a year later, his family has filed a federal claim alleging the September 12, 2025 killing was unlawful, unjustified and entirely preventable.
The family filed an administrative complaint under the Federal Tort Claims Act on behalf of Villegas González’s estate, according to WBEZ. The 38-year-old Mexican immigrant had lived in the United States for about 18 years, the station reports. His attorneys argue two ICE agents created a dangerous confrontation and shot him when they could have simply stepped away from his car, and their complaint calls the shooting “unlawful and wholly preventable,” according to WTTW News.
According to the Connecticut Post, ICE stopped Villegas González’s car during what the agency called Operation Midway Blitz. Agents pulled their jeep in front of his vehicle, and he reversed roughly 50 feet before driving into an open traffic lane, per the claim cited by the outlet. One agent chased his car on foot as it crashed into a parked delivery truck, and the truck driver called 911. Villegas González was pronounced dead at a hospital about an hour later.
Conflicting Accounts of the Confrontation
The Department of Homeland Security has said the agent was dragged by Villegas González’s vehicle while trying to flee and opened fire because he feared for his life, a claim the station’s report also details. DHS said the agent was seriously injured in the encounter and that Villegas González was in the country illegally, and the agency has not identified the agent involved.
But the account from the family’s attorneys tells a different story. They wrote that the ICE officer was alongside the driver’s side of the car when he fired the fatal shot, per the Connecticut Post’s report. And police body-camera footage reviewed by WBEZ shows the agent himself describing his injuries as “nothing major,” while his partner reported only a knee injury and cuts to his hands. The ICE agents were not wearing body-worn cameras at the moment Villegas González was shot, the same outlet notes.
The physical evidence has added further weight to the family’s version. The Cook County medical examiner’s office determined Villegas González died from multiple gunshot wounds and ruled his death a homicide, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The autopsy found he was shot at close range from behind, with a bullet entering the back of his neck, traveling downward through his body and coming to rest in his chest, the paper reported. Villegas González had no criminal record, only a few minor traffic violations, according to the Connecticut Post.
Six Months, Then Possibly a Lawsuit
Under the Federal Tort Claims Act, the government now has six months to respond to the family’s claim, after which they can file a lawsuit since federal law does not allow suits against individual agents directly. Jonathan Manes, an attorney for the family, said he expects the government to answer in federal court within that window and that the family plans to seek a very large amount of damages at trial, per the Connecticut Post’s report. The Illinois State Police investigation into the shooting, announced in May, remains open, according to WBEZ.
DHS did not respond to a request for comment from WBEZ, which also noted that the agency has broadly characterized shootings by federal agents as self-defense against people using vehicles as weapons. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has said officials have seen vehicles weaponized against law enforcement officers more than 100 times in recent months, according to Stateline.
Part of a Wider Pattern of Vehicle Shootings
Villegas González’s case is not isolated. At least 24 people have been shot at by federal immigration agents since President Trump took office in January 2025, and six people, including three U.S. citizens, have been killed, according to the New York Times. Nearly all of those shootings involved agents firing at people inside vehicles, the paper reports.
Among the other cases is that of Marimar Martinez, who survived being shot five times in her car by a Customs and Border Protection agent in Chicago and has since filed her own federal lawsuit under the same tort claims law, according to NBC News. An independent analysis commissioned in her case found the agent fired at her from behind, contradicting his statements to the FBI that he feared she would drive into him, the network reported. Martinez and Villegas González are among several people shot in their vehicles by federal agents across the country, per the Times.
The Times also reported that Villegas González was killed in Chicago last October, a detail that differs from the Franklin Park, September 12, 2025 timeline described in the family’s claim and in reporting from WBEZ and the Sun-Times. That discrepancy remains unresolved in the available record.
