Video obtained by the Los Angeles Times appears to show a masked federal immigration agent draw a handgun and point it close to the face of a bystander during an apparent operation in North Hollywood on Friday morning.

The confrontation occurred shortly before 8:30 a.m. near Vineland Place and Otsego Street, according to Damari Butler, a nearby resident who said he recorded the incident from his balcony. Butler said he first saw two masked men, whom he believed appeared to be U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, tackle a pedestrian on the sidewalk.

Butler said there was no apparent warning before the pedestrian was forced into nearby bushes. “There was no asking what his name was, no ID, nothing,” Butler said. “They just grabbed him.”

In the footage, a masked agent appears to take the pedestrian into custody as a separate man, accompanied by two dogs on leashes, stands nearby. A second masked person wearing tactical clothing marked “ICE Police” then approaches and tells the man with the dogs to move back while holding what witnesses said was a pepper-spray canister.

The bystander steps back while the two agents handcuff the person on the sidewalk. Someone can be heard shouting “ICE!” in the background.

As agents carry the detained man by his arms, one appears to drop the canister. The man with the dogs then moves toward it and throws it toward the street. Butler said the bystander appeared to be moving the pepper spray away.

“The guy with the dog, I guess he moved the pepper spray out of the way, and then the other ICE agent ran over,” Butler said.

The video shows a brief confrontation after the canister is thrown, with the bystander stepping back. Behind the agent who approached him, another masked agent, who had been involved in detaining the pedestrian, appears to draw a firearm. The agent walks toward the bystander, pushes him into bushes with an outstretched left arm and holds the gun near his face before stepping away, reholstering the weapon and returning toward an SUV.

The agent can be heard yelling at the unidentified bystander, who was not detained or taken into custody, according to the report. Another agent later retrieves the canister from the street.

Whistles can be heard in the area, a tool some activists use to alert others to ICE activity. The detained man is seen lying in the street and calling for help in Spanish. Additional agents later arrive and place him in the back of an SUV.

As the man with the dogs and another witness watch, an agent approaches and sprays the bystander, according to the video. He is then seen running away.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment. ICE and DHS officials also did not respond to questions about the identity of the detained man or the reason for his detention.

The incident took place one day after a federal judge barred agents in Southern California from making stops based on racial stereotypes. The judge found that immigration officials had stopped and detained people in the area because they appeared Latino, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Butler said the episode had unsettled people in the neighborhood. “It just shows you how powerless we are,” he said. “I thought that man was going to die. If someone is throwing out a gun and putting a gun to his face that close, you just expect the worst to happen at that moment.”

The footage has since circulated on social media. Ron Gochez, a leader of Union del Barrio, a community group monitoring ICE activity in the area, said the group had received several videos of the North Hollywood incident.

Source: Los Angeles Times