Illegal Immigrant in Custody Following LA Car-Ramming Incident With Federal Agents

The federal officer and an illegal immigrant were wounded during an immigration enforcement traffic stop.

An area is cordoned off with police tape during an immigration enforcement operation in Los Angeles on Oct. 21, 2025. KCAL/KCBS via CNN Newsource

A Mexican national was arrested Tuesday and faces assault charges, after earlier in the day, allegedly using his car to ram into a federal immigration officer, leading to an incident that resulted in the suspect and a deputy U.S. marshal being shot.

Carlitos Ricardo Parias, 44, an illegal immigrant living in South Los Angeles, is expected to make a court appearance Wednesday, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles. If convicted, he faces up to eight years in federal prison.

Parias is better known as the social media influencer Richard LA, who has nearly 132,000 TikTok followers and regularly posts videos documenting police and fire incidents in South Los Angeles.

The shootings occurred during a targeted enforcement stop by federal immigration officials at about 8:50 a.m. local time.

“An illegal alien—who had previously escaped from custody—attempted to evade arrest yet again,” Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin posted on social media, adding that the suspect had “weaponized his vehicle and began ramming the law enforcement vehicle in an attempt to flee.”

The suspect was hit in the elbow as he was ramming a federal immigration vehicle, and the federal officer was hit in the hand, McLaughlin said.

The federal officers fired defensive shots at the suspect after he began ramming their vehicle with his car, she said.

Los Angeles Police Department officers were providing perimeter traffic control at the scene, according to the department.

“These dangerous attempts to evade arrest come after sanctuary politicians held webinars and provided resources and tips for how to openly defy ICE,” McLaughlin stated, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Gov. Gavin Newsom released guidance advising illegal immigrants on how to block Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) entry and defy arrest, while Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued multilingual flyers and online resources advising them on how to evade arrest, according to McLaughlin.

The FBI was processing the scene in downtown Los Angeles and working with the U.S. Marshals Service and Homeland Security to investigate the shooting, the agency reported Tuesday afternoon.

Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli announced Parias’s arrest Tuesday afternoon.

“A vehicle is a deadly weapon,” Essayli said in a statement. “If it is used against federal agents, not only will you face years in federal prison, but you also face the possibility of deadly force being used against you.”

According to the complaint filed in court, federal agents were surveilling a block in the historic South-Central area of the city. Parias was the subject of an administrative immigration arrest warrant and had avoided capture in the past, according to prosecutors.

Immigration agents said they saw Parias leave a home and enter a gray Toyota Camry and drive down the street.

Prosecutors say federal officers blocked Parias from driving further east. Paraias then quickly reversed the Camry as two other law enforcement vehicles approached it. The three law enforcement units boxed in the Camry, prosecutors reported.

Federal agents approached the Camry and gave Parias orders to exit the car for his arrest. 

Parias ignored those commands and drove the Camry forward and back, hitting two of the blocking vehicles, according to authorities. A federal agent tried to break the Camry’s driver’s side window but the suspect continued to drive back and forth, creating smoke around the car with its spinning tires.

The agents began to fear they would be struck by the erratic driver and be injured. They opened fire, wounding Parias and a deputy marshal, who was hit by a ricocheted bullet, according to prosecutors.

Both are expected to recover from their injuries.

A spokeswoman for Newsom said the government was unfairly targeting community members during immigration enforcement.

“The federal government is unnecessarily endangering our law enforcement officers, who, even in this chaos, are trying to do their jobs lawfully and serve their communities,” spokeswoman Diana Crofts-Pelayo told The Epoch Times in an email. “They are creating fear among hardworking families—our neighbors, colleagues, and friends—who now have a target on their backs because of this administration.”