MURRAY, Utah — The Unified Police Department said surveillance footage failed to back up recent claims made by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who said a driver had swerved at them last month.
UPD officers were originally sent to assist the ICE agents with a traffic stop in Murray on the morning of Jan. 26. When the officers arrived at the scene, the agents had already stopped a vehicle and claimed the driver had swerved towards them.
The officers said when they asked for clarification on what had occurred, "they were unable to obtain a clear response from ICE agents," according to a release sent Tuesday by the department.
While discussing what happened, the driver was placed in handcuffs by the ICE agents despite the officers voicing concerns and recommending that the restraints be removed.
The driver, "appeared emotional, expressed distress over alleged threats made by the ICE agents," the release said, although the man did admit to yelling and honking at the agents, but denied swerving towards them.
VIDEO BELOW: Bodycam footage shows the interactions between UPD, ICE, and the driver
During the incident, ICE agents asked that the UPD officers cite the driver, but two of the three refused to provide written statements about what had occurred, according to the department. The agents then suggested the man be cited for failure to yield to an emergency vehicle, which the officers did before releasing the driver.
The next day, UPD retrieved surveillance footage from nearby businesses, with footage failing to show the driver swerving toward the ICE agents. Following the discovery, the citation against the man was dismissed and UPD officials contacted ICE to "express concerns regarding the inaccuracies and inconsistencies in their agents' statements."
