ICE Officer Fired at Fleeing SUV in Harrisburg — Video Contradicts Agency Account

In the early morning of July 1, 2026, federal immigration officers in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, pulled over a white SUV. An unmarked Immigration and Customs Enforcement car stopped in front of the SUV to block its path, while other law enforcement vehicles parked behind it, according to surveillance video obtained by PennLive.

“Get out of the car now,” one officer said after he approached the driver's side. When the driver did not emerge after officers repeatedly ordered him out of the SUV, an officer shattered the window. The SUV then drove away, appearing to clip the ICE vehicle stopped in front of it before turning the wrong way down a one-way street. One ICE officer fired his gun as the SUV drove away from the officers and hit a parked car.

In a statement, an ICE spokesperson said the driver — identified as Clemente Lara-Hernandez, a Mexican national with a criminal history of assault, hit-and-run, and a domestic incident — had “weaponized his car and rammed an ICE law enforcement vehicle.” An ICE officer discharged his weapon, and the driver escaped, the statement said.

It's the latest example of how surveillance footage can undermine the government's public statements, and a law enforcement expert told CNN it clearly demonstrates some of the poor tactics being used by ICE officers.

What the Video Shows

“The vehicle pulls in front to stop the car from fleeing, but isn't even effective at doing that. It's not even properly positioned to do that because the guy's pretty easily able to get around him,” said Kenneth Corey, former chief of department for the New York Police Department. “He takes a little sideswipe damage, but he doesn't ram his way out of that, by any means.”

The officers missed multiple opportunities to conduct the car stop more safely, he said, likely due to their inexperience handling such situations — which could be contributing to similar confrontations across the country.

The incident in Harrisburg occurred days before an ICE agent fatally shot a 52-year-old man during a car stop in Houston. Less than a week later, another ICE agent killed a 25-year-old man during a vehicle stop in Maine. Neither victim was the intended target of the immigration enforcement operations. The killings prompted community vigils for the victims and renewed outcry over the Trump administration's aggressive tactics.

Corey noted the officer in Harrisburg fired his weapon as the car was already driving away from the federal officers. “If you're saying that the officers are firing because the car was trying to run them over, then they'd be firing at the car as it was heading towards them, not speeding away from them,” he said, although he added it was unclear what people inside the vehicle were doing at the time.

Following the shooting in Maine, the agency issued a pause on most vehicle stops conducted by ICE agents, which was swiftly overturned by President Donald Trump, who has made mass deportations a cornerstone of his second term.

What You'll Learn in This Article

• What happened during the ICE vehicle stop in Harrisburg on July 1, 2026
• Why policing experts say the tactics were flawed
• The broader pattern of ICE vehicle stop shootings in Houston and Maine
• How ICE training has changed under the Trump administration
• What the future holds for immigration enforcement tactics

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