Police records confirm federal agents provided false statements during violent October encounter
OXNARD, Calif. (KEYT) – Oxnard Police have released documents about its response to a violent incident involving federal agents in October that reveal federal agents provided multiple accounts of the interaction that do not match videos from the scene and accounts of what happened.
The newly released documents detail the accounts of two officers with the Oxnard Police Department, Officer Wood and Officer Flannery, who responded to the scene and the documents were released in compliance with a request filed by Your News Channel through the California Public Records Request Act.
According to the partially redacted documents listed as "ASSIST OTHER AGENCY DEPARTMENT" type of incident in both accounts, officers were dispatched to the area of Mountain Avenue and Pacific Avenue for a road rage incident around 7:48 a.m. on Oct. 16, 2025.
The response was triggered by an uninvolved person who reported that there was a silver Jeep ramming a black truck and the caller lost sight of the vehicles as they continued westbound on Mountain View shared Officer Wood's account.
The caller did not know who was driving either vehicle added Officer Wood.
At 7:59 a.m., a Ventura County dispatcher received a call from a person who stated they were an agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and that they were pursuing a gray Nissan Frontier after it had collided with their silver Jeep Cherokee in the area of 255 West Fifth Street detailed Officer Wood's account.
The self-identified federal agent stated that the driver of the Nissan was causing an ongoing, "safety incident" and requested local law enforcement respond to the scene.
Officers Flannery and Espinosa with the Oxnard Police Department were working in a two-man unit in a marked patrol car when they were sent to the scene of the reported hit-and-run around 7:59 a.m. noted Officer Flannery's account.
The duo conducted a traffic stop on the involved truck and the driver, later identified as Leo Martinez of Oxnard, pulled over into a dirt parking lot near the intersection of Eighth Street and A Street where he cooperated with investigating police officers explained Officer Wood.
Officer Wood stated that he arrived at the scene to find the stopped truck, spotted his fellow Oxnard Police officers, and saw the involved silver Jeep which was parked adjacent to the responding officer's patrol vehicle.
The arriving officer noted major front end damage to the silver Jeep, asked that the occupants -who identified themselves as federal agents- to move their vehicle away from the other party, and informed all law enforcement personnel that he would be managing the investigation into the incident.
Officers interviewed Martinez and the agents at the scene as they conducted their investigation.
Martinez shared that he was recording the agents when they became aggressive and began to closely follow him as he made a series of U-turns before they agent's vehicle rammed into him.
An unnamed federal agent, who told officers at the scene he was the one driving the silver Jeep, reported to Officer Flannery that agents had attempted to initiate contact with Martinez by positioning their vehicle behind Martinez's truck.
The agent then claimed Martinez had began to drive away before coming to an abrupt stop and reversing into the agent's vehicle stated Officer Flannery.
According to Officer Flannery's account, the agent then claimed that both vehicles began to pull forward and before he could activate the vehicle's emergency lights to conduct a traffic stop, Martinez suddenly made, "a quick sharp turn to the left, directly in front of the agent's path, and he [the agent driving the Jeep] was unable to stop in time to avoid a collision."
The video below, shared with Your News Channel by VC Defensa -an immigrant rights group in Ventura County- the day of the incident, shows a demonstrably different interaction between the vehicles.
Your News Channel interviewed Martinez after his release and he shared footage from inside his truck that captured elements of the incident that do not match the accounts provided to Ventura County dispatchers and Oxnard Police officers by federal agents.
The footage captured that the initial collision between the vehicles did not involve Martinez reversing into the agent's vehicle and showed the second collision was not caused by an aggressive turn into the path of federal agents, but instead appears to show the opposite.
The images below showed the sequence of the second collision from another angle that directly refutes the accounts from federal agents and match what Martinez said and footage from his truck.
According to Officer Wood, he overheard federal officers speaking with the U.S. Attorney's Office at the scene while they awaited the arrival of a supervisor.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California declined to confirm the call was made as well as the content of the call when reached for comment.
A supervising ICE agent who identified themselves as "Agent Aspirin" arrived at the scene, advised Oxnard Police officers that they would be taking Martinez into custody, and that federal authorities would be taking over the investigation into the incident detailed Officer Wood.
"At this point, we're still trying to sort through right now, we're just assisting them with maintaining peace at the scene," stated the Oxnard Police Department in a statement on Oct. 16, 2025. "The DHS [Department of Homeland Security] officials will be conducting the investigation. We don't have any further information We're not taking an active role in this incident. It's going to be investigated by DHS."
Martinez was eventually taken to Las Robles Medical Center before being taken to a federal detention facility in Los Angeles where he was released around 3 p.m. the same day.
He was told he had pending charges by federal authorities prior to his release.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California -the primary federal prosecutorial authority in the area- confirmed it had not received any recommendations for any charges in connection with the incident on Oct. 16 and stated on Nov. 14 of this year that no criminal charges have been filed against Martinez.
Later the same day, Oxnard's Chief of Police Jason Benites stated, "At about 11 AM, a video surfaced on social media. The video depicts a silver Jeep Grand Cherokee, driven by ICE agents, broadsiding a grey Nissan Frontier. The person who was arrested by the agents is driving the Nissan. Though the video does not tell the entire story, such as what may have preceded the video, it calls to question what may have transpired. All of what was in the video was prior to the Police Department's involvement, and [Oxnard] PD was not aware of this video until well after the incident on 'A' Street had concluded."
Your News Channel has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for a statement or more information multiple times regarding the Oct. 16 incident and in response, the federal law enforcement agency issued the following statement, "On Oct. 16, 2025, ICE officers were conducting a targeted enforcement operation in Oxnard, California, to locate and apprehend an illegal alien from Mexico who is a registered sex offender. During the operation, officers were confronted an agitator group, who engaged in recording and verbal harassment of the officers on scene. During the confrontation with ICE officers, two vehicles were involved in a collision. No injuries were reported. This is an ongoing investigation."
When asked if the involved agents were facing any type of disciplinary action or internal investigation, Acting Communications Director for ICE, Tanya J. Roman, resent the above statement while highlighting the phrase "registered sex offender".
The agency has provided no further response to Your News Channel's inquiries about the incident.
The broad discrepancies between the accounts provided by federal agents and the video and statements provided by other involved parties, the potential abuse of federal law enforcement authority to shut down a local investigation under the color of law, and the ongoing potential for further violent actions by the involved agents is the subject of an official complaint filed with the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General which was also contacted separately by Your News Channel regarding the allegations.
The complaint is not subject to federal disclosure laws until after it is closed.
"I have received deeply concerning reports about an aggressive ICE activity that escalated into a vehicle collision in an Oxnard neighborhood. This situation raises serious alarm given the troubling pattern of misconduct and abuse by immigration enforcement officials across the country," stated Congresswoman Julia Brownley, whose Congressional District includes Oxnard on Oct. 16, 2025. "The lack of transparency and accountability from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ICE only further undermines public trust and makes our communities unsafe. The public deserves clear answers about what occurred. The continued silence from the responsible agencies only deepens concern and erodes confidence in their ability to operate safely and legally in our communities."
"No agency, including ICE, is above the law and the use of excessive force should never be tolerated," added Congresswoman Brownley.
