BY NBC NEWS
Shots were fired while teenage employees at a Texas Roadhouse north of Detroit accepted orders for customers to go while standing in the parking lot during a busy Friday night rush in 2020. People ducked for cover as bullets flew above, according to witnesses. According to pictures, stray bullets struck a wall, a restaurant window, and parked cars.
FBI agents had made the decision earlier in the day to detain outside the restaurant a guy suspected of being associated with a domestic terrorist organization on federal firearms charges.
According to local police accounts and footage, when the gunshots ceased, the guy had bled out a few steps from the restaurant’s door, and an agent had been hit in the hip.
When the gunfire started, one of the staff members was inside making food. She remembered seeing a bullet go inches from her head. She said, “It was the most terrifying experience of my life.”
During an operation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 2021, shots were fired outside a 7-Eleven. In the same year, an Amtrak passenger train in Tucson, Arizona, had a battle during a Drug Enforcement Administration search, and U.S. marshals opened fire inside a barbecue restaurant in the Chicago region.
The four encounters resulted in the deaths of three suspects and one federal police. Three cops and an additional suspect were hurt. Thankfully, no onlookers were hit.
If the shootings had included local police, there may have been calls from the public for the release of body camera footage and use-of-force inquiry reports. However, they were federal operations carried out by agents and task groups affiliated with four federal law enforcement agencies: the FBI, ATF, DEA, and U.S. Marshals Service. As such, the use of force in these operations is mostly opaque and not subject to public review.
For over thirty years, federal law enforcement has been under pressure from Congress and a succession of presidents to reform and increase transparency. However, the four Justice Department-mandated agencies—among the most esteemed in the nation—have been sluggish to implement changes that big-city police departments have long supported, such the deployment of body cameras and the disclosure of extensive use-of-force data.
By examining five years’ worth of public records, news releases, lawsuits, and news reports, NBC News created a database of shootings involving officers employed by or affiliated with the ATF, the DEA, the FBI, and the Marshals Service in order to determine how frequently federal officers and their task forces use lethal force.FBI
According to an NBC News study, 223 individuals were shot between 2018 and 2022 by federal officers who were on duty, federal task force members, or local officers who were working with federal agents. There were 151 fatalities in all, or 30 each year on average.
Analysis of the events showed that law enforcement organizations under the Justice Department are still using methods that many large-city police departments have stopped using. In the moments after confrontations, they have shot individuals and fired at moving automobiles without attempting to defuse the situation.FBI
Civil rights activists and local police chiefs have disagreed over some federal law enforcement procedures, raising concerns about why federal personnel aren’t held to the same standards as state and local law enforcement officials.
While the Justice Department has compelled reforms in local law enforcement, such as the police departments in Baltimore and Los Angeles, its own agencies are constitutionally shielded from comparable scrutiny. The Justice Department departments disclose so little use-of-force statistics that it is difficult to ascertain who was shot, why, when, and by whom.FBI
The Justice Department has revised its use-of-force policy for the first time in over 20 years under President Joe Biden’s leadership, in line with his persistent calls for revisions. In addition to restricting the use of so-called no-knock warrants and other contentious procedures, the department also mandates that its officers step in when they see the use of excessive force.
A representative for the agency, Peter Carr, said in a statement that “the Department of Justice recognizes the importance of transparency and accountability in its law enforcement operations.”FBI
He continued by saying that the Justice Department is dedicated to “full implementation” of body cameras for its agents and that the use-of-force policy was revised to “ensure it parallels the best practices of federal, state, and local law enforcement.”
However, a number of the department’s most vocal detractors are still its past heads, who argue that Biden’s changes fall short. Former section head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division Jonathan M. Smith said that federal law enforcement is “the most opaque” of all law enforcement in the United States.
Smith, a human rights attorney who has sued federal police for alleged abusive tactics, stated that it might be challenging to hold federal officers responsible or to change how the agencies function due to a “inability to actually get basic information.”
“These federal agencies are not subject to any consequences,” he said. “We frequently discover that they are acting in ways that are either against the principles of a democratic society or that are against the Constitution.”FBI
From little villages to large cities
Every day, over 24,000 federal law enforcement agents under the direction of the Justice Department are on the job conducting surveillance, carrying out search warrants, and locating individuals who are sought for both violent and nonviolent offenses around the country. Once state and local cops that are part of their task forces are included, their numbers increase to at least 40,000. These officers are normal police who are certified with federal authorities and protections when they work for the ATF, DEA, FBI, or Marshals Service.
NBC News’ analysis revealed that shootings by law enforcement personnel employed by or affiliated with such organizations occurred in large cities and rural areas, shopping malls, outside well-known eateries, and within local businesses. They often happened while federal agents were attempting to make an arrest or carry out a warrant, sometimes for minor offenses. Local prosecutors looked into more than 100 shootings, but just two of them resulted in charges against the cops.
Approximately 14% of the individuals who were shot were sought for minor offenses like probation violations. A minimum of 44% were sought for in relation to violent crimes of great consequence, such as rape, murder, and armed robbery. Many others had warrants for possession of a firearm by a felon and narcotics offenses. When police arrived, several of them were armed and opened fire first. Twenty-two were spectators, while a lesser number assaulted cops; they were not the original objectives of the operations. Of the 223 persons cops shot, about 70% of them perished. Additionally, 49 cops were shot, six of whom died.FBI
Multiple cops used their guns in almost half of the shootings, while at least one federal officer used their weaponry in 47% of them, according to NBC News. Thirty-three percent of shootings had local cops participating in federal task forces, while fourteen percent involved police without having federal authority. The sorts of cops who shot in a tiny percentage of situations were not confirmed by NBC News.
The vast majority of fatalities occurred via gunfire during operations by US marshals. According to authorities, the reason for the high number of shootings at the Marshals Service is because it is the main federal agency responsible for apprehending fugitives.
Only the Justice Department’s law enforcement divisions were included in the evaluation; the Bureau of Prisons was not included. The biggest federal law enforcement department in the nation, Customs and Border Protection, is housed inside the Department of Homeland Security, which was not examined.
According to a study by NBC News, there were 23 incidents in which cops opened fire in busy public areas throughout the day.
Because it was less probable that Jason Owens would be carrying a weapon, officers of the US Marshals Mountain State Fugitive Task Force decided in August 2022 that it would be safer to take him into custody at his father’s burial.FBI
Owens had ceased communicating with his parole officer after being sentenced to jail for strangling a sheriff’s deputy. The task group requested that the local police help apprehend him.
Officers at the site said in interviews with investigators that they saw Owens depart the funeral home as a pallbearer and then went to arrest him after he assisted in getting his father’s coffin into a hearse. According to the cops, Owens grabbed for his 9 mm weapon.
Grievers scrambled as a local police supporting the marshals-led task group seized Owens’ wrist and shot him dead.
His family continues to wonder why he was shot by police at a funeral, when over two dozen loved ones, including kids, had gathered.
“Why did you ruin a good man’s funeral on that day, put all these babies through that, and us?” questioned aunt Sabrina Owens.
Several family members contest that Owens made a grab for his firearm. Another aunt, Evelyn O’Dell, said that only seconds after she released him from an embrace, he was shot by police.
She replied, “I felt the bullets.” “I truly believed I had been shot.”
The chief prosecutor for Grant County said that the shooting was appropriate eight months later. Attempts to reach his office for comment were not answered.
In public spaces like restaurants and shopping centers, federal agents often plotted drug purchases and arrests. Undercover purchases in mall parking lots resulted in at least three DEA shootings, one of which took place outside a Florida Bass Pro Shop.
While all planned operations include some danger, according to law enforcement experts, it is often preferable for cops to seize someone in the open where they can set up many points of monitoring and have more control over the situation. Officers are at a greater risk of mishap when they approach a private residence or structure as they have no idea what is beyond the door.
The National Tactical police Association’s executive director, Thor Eells, advised police to do a risk assessment when preparing to make an arrest so that everyone’s safety, including the suspect’s, is taken into account. Furthermore, compared to local police, there may be greater danger involved in the activities carried out by those federal services.
Eells, however, and a number of local law enforcement chiefs argued that there is still insufficient tactical training at the federal level. According to Eells, “you have these people who aren’t making the best field operational decisions.” “They lack the necessary experience and training to be properly assessing risk.”
NBC News requested an explanation of the arrest strategies used by each Justice Department agency. The US marshals said that they are attempting to enhance their methods for capturing runaways. Nothing was said by the DEA. Public safety is the first concern for the ATF and the FBI, according to their spokespeople, who also said that they carry out considerable preparation prior to making any arrests.
“DOJ policies for enhanced clarity of law enforcement activities during operations” are what the FBI said in a statement.
“Conducting thorough and transparent inquiries are key to holding ATF and our partners to the highest standards,” an ATF official said.
Experts in law enforcement have also questioned the practice of federal police firing at moving cars. The police forces of New York and other major cities have long prohibited the approach. When their lives are in danger, Justice Department federal police are still permitted to fire at moving cars.
Another common method used by federal agents, especially U.S. marshals, is allowing a suspect to enter a vehicle before attempting to surround it, usually using unmarked police cars. Officers said that in many instances that NBC News was able to identify, they fired while trying to box in cars, sometimes killing the drivers out of concern that they may strike them or other spectators.
Federal authorities’ continued employment of the strategy has been questioned by both current and past big-city police officials. According to former New York police head of department Kenneth Corey, boxing in automobiles is not only risky but also takes a lot of skill to master. “It would be far more straightforward to simply move aside and attempt to capture the culprit on a different day,” he said.
According to a Marshall Project analysis from 2021, shooting at automobiles was a factor in 25% of marshal shootings. According to NBC News, police firing at automobiles occurred in 44% of shooting incidents. When the marshals issued their first public shooting assessment in November, they discovered that officers had fired at automobiles in almost half of the shootings.
In a statement, Marshals Service Director Ronald Davis said that the organization is enhancing its strategies to lessen dangers to both its officers and the communities they serve. He said, “A major priority is reducing deadly encounters for the safety of law enforcement and the communities we serve.”
cameras on the body
Over the last ten years, local law enforcement officials have accepted body cameras as essential instruments for openness and accountability, especially when it comes to alerting the public when anything goes wrong. According to a recent Justice Department investigation, the devices are used by more than 60% of local police agencies. However, the Justice Department did not permit their use until 2021, and its own police seldom ever use them.
Chiefs of police in large cities and the department have clashed over this disparity.
The 6,000-strong police department in Houston was a pioneer in this regard. When FBI agents shot and killed a kidnapping victim in the city in January 2018, then-Police Chief Art Acevedo was applauding their usage. It was a botched rescue attempt.
There is still mystery surrounding the man’s death. The identity of the agent who murdered 47-year-old Ulises Valladares, a father kidnapped due to an outstanding debt owed to a relative, is still unknown to the family.
Fidel Valladares, one of the victim’s brothers, stated, “He’s still free, like if nothing happened.”
What transpired that night may have been seen on body camera footage. Nevertheless, none of the federal agents present at the incident wore one.
After locating Valladares, an FBI SWAT squad made an attempt to save him at a residence. One agent broke a window with the butt of his gun. Fearing that his weapon might be seized from him and used against other agents entering the residence, the agent fired two bullets when he felt someone else grasp it, according to local police.
According to the local authorities, Valladares was discovered dead on a sofa, his wrists tied with duct tape.
A shell casing was discovered outside the home, away from the window, by the Houston Police Department during its own investigation. The autopsy report revealed no indication of “close range firing” on Valladares’ skin.
“The physical evidence did not support the agent’s account of what happened,” Acevedo said. “There hasn’t been any new evidence that refutes our investigative findings as of yet.”
A local grand jury refused to prosecute the agent, and federal prosecutors declined to press charges. The Valladares family said that after the incident, they had no communication from the FBI or the Justice Department. Both refused to comment on Valladares’ death.
According to Juan Carlos Garcia, another brother, “by their silence, they are admitting they are guilty.”
An unarmed Black guy was fatally shot by an Atlanta police officer on an FBI task team a year later. Neither federal officials nor their local colleagues wore cameras, despite the fact that the shooting officer was a local police officer assigned to collaborate with the FBI. The federal regulations that governed the use of body cameras at the time still applied to local police serving on task forces.
Erika Shields, the chief of police in Atlanta, responded by unusually removing her personnel from several federal task groups.
Her action infuriated Acevedo, who was leading Major City Chiefs, a group of national police chiefs, and was already enraged about the Valladares incident. In response to the Justice Department’s persistent prohibition on body cameras, Acevedo with other major-city chiefs threatened to resign from task committees.FBI
In 2020, the Justice Department gave in and said that local law enforcement officials participating in federal task groups might use the gadgets. It started letting its own cops use them after Biden assumed office in 2021, but only for scheduled arrests or for carrying out search warrants.
According to Acevedo, “openness and transparency are not at the top of the philosophical repertoire” in the federal mindset. (When Acevedo was Houston’s chief of police, he was criticized for openness.)FBI
With an executive order pertaining to police reform last year, Biden attempted to further address the matter by directing agencies to “issue policies”—that is, provide federal personnel with body cameras—within ninety days. However, he refrained from mandating their prompt use.FBI
None of the law enforcement organizations under investigation by NBC News on behalf of the Justice Department have completely adopted the use of body cameras as of this autumn. Each agency said that it is implementing them in significant cities or areas, and the Marshals Service has released a map showing where they are now being used.FBI
According to a spokesman, the FBI’s new agent curriculum at Quantico, Virginia, now includes body-worn camera training. According to an ATF spokesman, implementation is “dependent on funding.” The cost of the gadgets is high; according to government filings, since 2021, the four agencies have requested more than $206 million from Congress for their body camera initiatives. They have been given little over $84 million.
Federal authorities and local police chiefs continue to have disagreements in the meantime. Even if their officers are the ones recording, local agencies that take part in Justice Department task forces are not allowed to disseminate footage from these operations without the Justice Department’s approval since it is deemed a federal record.
Sheriff Michael Chitwood of Volusia County, Florida, which includes Daytona Beach, doesn’t trust that permission to come quickly. “You are going to tell me when something goes down and the camera is running that you have no right to that footage?” he questioned. “F— you.”FBI
Chitwood pulled his deputies off a U.S. marshals task force over the issue this year. “My community has a right to see what happens,” he said.
The FBI and the ATF said they release video when the media asks “as soon as practicable” after having reviewed it for redactions. The ATF added that under “exigent circumstances,” it releases video within 72 hours. The marshals and the DEA didn’t respond to questions about body camera video.FBI
Little supervision Limited monitoring has helped federal law enforcement agencies oppose change. It wasn’t intended to be that way.
In the aftermath of the police beating of motorist Rodney King Jr. in Los Angeles in 1991, Congress ordered the Justice Department to collect and publish annual counts of use of excessive force by law enforcement officers, without specifying whether the requirement applied to local or federal agencies, as part of the landmark 1994 crime bill.
Since then, several big-city police agencies have began posting extensive information regarding officer-involved shootings. The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division has also required certain agencies to build searchable computerized databases containing use-of-force records and publicize the outcomes of misbehavior inquiries.FBI
But for years, the Justice Department paid little heed to the mandate that it collect and disseminate excessive force statistics. The government did initiate a number of national data gathering programs over the decades, from household surveys on police encounters to use-of-force frequency, but many of them faced bureaucratic roadblocks, compliance difficulties and delays. None satisfied the criterion of the 1994 statute, according to a 2021 Government Accountability Office assessment.FBI
“The same government that’s holding state and local agencies accountable isn’t holding their own agencies accountable,” said Acevedo, now the temporary police chief in Aurora, Colorado. “That smacks of being disingenuous and a double standard.”FBI
Michael Bromwich, the Justice Department’s inspector general during the late 1990s, said he was never aware that the requirement existed and wasn’t surprised there were minimal penalties for it’s not being completed. “It’s the product of historical forces where nobody has really said ‘do this or else,’ and it’s not clear what the ‘or else’ is,” Bromwich added.
The 2021 GAO assessment determined that the agency didn’t have preparations to satisfy the 1994 requirement. Presidents Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Biden have all either signed bills or issued executive orders calling on government authorities to gather and disclose more specific use-of-force or misbehavior statistics, to little success.FBI
The FBI, which recently launched a long-planned national use-of-force data collection program, told the GAO it wasn’t aware its data was supposed to fulfill the 1994 requirement, and FBI documentation showed it probably couldn’t comply because it doesn’t differentiate between excessive and acceptable use of force.FBI
“Where is the responsibility?” In an interview, Gretta L. Goodwin, the head of the GAO’s Homeland Security and Justice division, questioned. “How do you make sure that the officers working under your direction are not infringing upon the rights of individuals?”
Relatively little information on shootings by the ATF, DEA, FBI, and marshals is made public by the Justice Department. It started releasing statistics on arrest-related fatalities in fiscal year 2016, however the method of death per agency is not broken out in its annual report.
The four departments provide data to the FBI’s nationwide use-of-force database, which was established in 2019. However, the public data only displays the number of Justice Department agencies that had “at least one” incident every month.FBI
More information was provided in the marshals’ public shooting study, which examined 147 shootings over the course of three years, although it omitted information on the number of fatalities.FBI
All federal law enforcement agencies were directed to begin recording a number of particular data points under Biden’s executive order from the previous year, including instances in which police use force and commit misconduct.
A year later, a report from the national civil rights organization Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights indicated that although work on that had started, just two of the 19 orders in Biden’s order had been completed in full.
Regarding the executive order, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department refused to comment.FBI
Ulises Valladares’ family is waiting for a federal court to order the FBI to disclose the manner of his death. They want to know how a victim of a bound abduction might be killed by police officers sent to rescue him.FBI
Ulises’ brother Fidel Valladares once stated, “The FBI has two faces.” “When they do something good, they are heroes, and when they do something bad, they hide things.”
He said, “They’re not transparent.” They lack clarity. They are deceitful.FBI
Reports from West Virginia were provided by Alexandra Chaidez and Hannah Rappleye. Reporting from New York were Simone Weichselbaum, Adiel Kaplan, and Jean Lee.
