(NewsNation) — The pregnant Illinois woman heard in a viral video yelling at a federal agent pointing a gun at her says she thought her life was over.
“This is it. This is where I pretty much die,” Lesly Guevara thought to herself, she told “NewsNation Prime” on Saturday.
The video was recorded earlier this month in the Chicago suburb of Berwyn. Guevara said she was driving her fiancé and 10-month-old son to pick up groceries when she saw two men running. As she continued to drive, she said a Jeep tried to block her in, “so I’m blaring my horn at him to move.”
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When several other people she thought to be Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers came onto the scene, Guevara said she continued honking to alert others in the area. She said the ICE officer in the video ran across the street toward her and said, “You’re impeding,” while pointing his weapon at her.
Guevara is heard shouting at him, “You gonna shoot a pregnant woman? … Do you feel good about yourself?”
The officer lowers his gun as the woman pulls away, in the video.
Guevara said she did nothing wrong. She said she could not proceed because the agents were “blocking the road.”
“I was driving slow, I wasn’t even going fast,” she said when asked if the authorities could have perceived her as a threat.
The Department of Homeland Security disagrees.
“The user’s video clearly shows she is aggressively barreling toward law enforcement while speeding and honking her horn — a clearly threatening and aggressive act toward law enforcement,” a DHS spokesperson countered in a statement to Newsweek.
Confrontation could have ended badly, Chicago Ald. Lopez says
Chicago Ald. Raymond Lopez said the situation could have ended badly. He said he understands why the woman is upset but adds Guevara put herself and her family in danger by speeding through the scene.
“Law enforcement is trained to believe that if you’re being boxed in, your life is in danger; if individuals are following you through the neighborhoods at high speeds, your life is in danger,” he told “NewsNation Prime.”
Lopez said he assigns the most blame to Democratic politicians who amp up the emotions of people who oppose the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
“What we just witnessed is what happens when our politicians escalate the rhetoric and ratchet up the pressure in our neighborhoods to have people feel that it is their job to try to impede law enforcement,” he said.
Lopez has supported the Chicago surge of federal agents to round up undocumented individuals who pose a public safety risk. He said he hopes the president will consider some sort of “pathway toward citizenship” for millions of migrants who have been in the U.S. for several years without breaking the law.
