A teenager in Pittsburgh was forced to fight a man armed with a knife after he allegedly broke into the teen’s family home and falsely claimed to be an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent before trying to steal some electronics, including a PlayStation console.
As reported by local news network WTAE 4, according to a recently filed criminal complaint, 35-year-old William Gregory allegedly broke into a house in the Beltzhoover neighborhood outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and began shouting that he was an ICE agent and demanded that the reportedly Hispanic family show him identifying paperwork. He was carrying a large pocket knife and threatened a 17-year-old boy living in the home as he tried to steal a PlayStation console and grabbed the boy’s phone. The outlet didn’t specify what kind of PlayStation was nearly stolen by the robber.
Police report that the teenager fought back against the fake ICE agent and eventually punched Gregory in the face hard enough to knock him out cold. Police later arrived on the scene and found the intruder still unconscious.
“I believe that is a Hispanic home, you know, and our neighborhood is very diverse,” Crystal Calloway, who lives next door to the house where the robbery happened, told WTAE 4. She also told the outlet that she was concerned about someone pretending to be part of ICE.
Gregory has been charged with ethnic intimidation and burglary and is currently in jail. He was also wanted for a previous robbery charge.
“It’s a great thing that the young man, his adrenaline went through going and action and went to defend his family, you know, thank goodness for that,” said Calloway.
As ICE continues to send thousands of masked and violent officers into states like Minnesota, we have seen many people injured by their aggressive tactics. On January 7, Renée Good was fatally shot by ICE agent Johnathan Ross. The Department of Homeland Security and federal officials claim Good hit the officer with her car, but many news agencies and experts who have seen the footage dispute this claim.
This incident in Pittsburgh isn’t the first example of a criminal claiming to be an ICE agent to do nefarious activities. ICE agents continuing to act recklessly and dangerously while often hiding their identities has made it easy for some bad actors to pretend to be ICE agents, as seen in Texas earlier this month. Perhaps we shouldn’t have thousands of armed, masked goons tossing teens and innocent people around?