According to cellphone footage taken by a Native America man on an Arizona reservation, a border patrol vehicle struck him and knocked him to the ground, and then left the scene without stopping to help him.
The incident was captured on video by Paulo Remes, who is a resident of the Tohono O’odham Nation, and has ramped up tensions between tribe members and immigration authorities after it was shared widely on social media.
The video shows Remes standing on a dirt road as the vehicle drives toward him, knocking him to the ground. The vehicle can then be seen driving away as Remes tries to read the license plate aloud.
Speaking to the Arizona Daily Star, Remes said that was standing in front of his house “looking for a speaker to listen to music” when the incident happened.
“I ran into the dirt road in front of my house, because I know they’ll try and hit me,” Remes said, adding that he was speaking on a landline to a cousin. “I think he saw me on the landline and didn’t think I was recording.”
The group Tohono O’odham Nation posted the video on its Twitter and Facebook accounts Friday, saying that the incident is “an example of the fear O’odham have to face everyday because [Border Patrol] ravage our communities & are careless with our lives.”
U.S Border Patrol ran over an O’odham man today on the Tohono O’odham Nation.
This is an example of the fear O’odham have to face everyday because BP ravage our communities & are careless with our lives. pic.twitter.com/ZEbVlIe5cl— Indivisible Tohono (@Indivisible_TO) June 15, 2018
“The Remes family wishes that exposure of this act will contribute to greater justice for O’odham families and all victims of Border Patrol,” the group said.
According to the Daily Star, border patrol said it’s cooperating with the tribe’s investigation of the incident.
The tribe, who has 2,000 of its 34,000 registered members living in Mexico, has been an outspoken voice against President Trump’s immigration policies.
Featured image via screen grab
