Early Wednesday morning, Satima Flaherty, 37, heard a crash through her window and realized her parked car had been hit.
“I came outside, and I saw a guy. He was running,” she said, describing a middle-aged man in his 50s. “He injured himself, but he was running, limping. He didn’t even look back.”
During an apparent targeted immigration operation, residents told El Tecolote they saw federal immigration agents trying to detain a parent who was dropping off their kid at Hoover Elementary School. The Oakland Police Department confirmed in a statement only that an “outside law enforcement agency” was “conducting an investigation” at the time.
According to witnesses, when the parent tried to drive away, agents chased him down with several unmarked cars, leading him to crash his grey Dodge Charger into Flaherty’s black Honda.
“At first I thought it was a hit and run,” said Flaherty. “Until I saw ICE.” Flaherty said agents told her that Oakland police would be responsible for the damage.
Her neighbor, Adolfo Cardes, walked over after hearing a loud boom from the crash. “The car was running, I turned it off,” said Cardes, who found the Charger empty. He and other neighbors started recording nearby agents. In a video clip obtained by El Tecolote, neighbors can be heard blowing whistles and horns echoed to alert the community. After a brief stand-off, one masked agent shouted an insult to the residents as they drove off: “You guys are fucking losers.”
School lockdown leaves parents shaken
Two streets over, Hoover Elementary went on lockdown.
Terry Hemphill, a physical education teacher, was outside with his class when cars began circling the school, honking horns and blowing whistles. He said he ushered his students inside. “I’m trying to assure them as much as I can that everything is going to be ok,” said Hemphill. “[I told them] I’m in charge of you guys. I’m protecting you guys—this is my job.”
Parents received an alert from the Oakland Unified School District (OSUSD) that immigration officials were in the vicinity.
Angie, a Honduran mother of two, said she received the message over text during a dentist appointment with her first-grade son, while her second-grade daughter was in class. “We are immigrants, and the situation worries us,” she said Angie, adding that she plans to stay at home more often amid the federal threats. “The school told us that they [ICE] were close by.”
District officials were shaken as well. Valarie Bachelor, OSUSD vice president and District 6 director, stood outside the school gates in tears.
“Why is this happening in our communities?” said Bachelor, who immigrated from Bolivia. “When this kind of thing happens it really makes our communities and community members fearful to come to places like our schools and churches.”
Bachelor said the incident compounds long-standing inequities and trauma: “More masked gunmen in our communities—fears continuing in our communities around ICE immigration—that does not help those issues that we already have.”
By 1:00pm, parents rushed to pick-up their children. A crowd of about 100 volunteers, educators and neighbors gathered outside the entrance holding picket signs. One read: “ICE OUT OF OUR SCHOOLS.”
Marlon, a mother of a third-grader, said she was told to stay inside the school building during morning drop-off. “They told us we can go back outside once there isn’t more ICE activity,” she said. Eventually, a rapid response volunteer walked her home. But by then, there was another alert that federal agents had again been spotted near 31st and Market.
Marlen’s first reaction was fear. “But more than anything, for the children.”
