New body camera footage shows aftermath of ICE officer allegedly attacking activist near Chicago

An off-duty immigration enforcement officer admitted to shoving a 68-year-old protester to the ground to stop him from filming him at a suburban gas station, according to newly released body camera footage obtained by the Sun-Times.

In the words of a local law enforcement officer who responded to the scene: “Don’t look good … [expletive] grabbed at him, [expletive] gets him on the [expletive] ground.”

Robert Held told Brookfield police he followed ICE officer Adam Saracco from the Broadview ICE facility and was recording him as he stopped for gas. He said Saracco then threw him to the ground.

“Yeah, I was trying to grab his phone from out of his hand,” Saracco tells Brookfield police when asked about the allegations.

“He get physical with you at all?” the Brookfield officer asks in response.

“I mean he was actively resisting,” Saracco said. “He wouldn’t let me take his phone out of his hands.”

Video footage obtained by the Sun-Times only shows the police response to the incident.

One witness told officers she saw an “old man” being “tackled and pulled around” by Saracco. Another witness said he pulled over when he saw Saracco throw Held to the ground.

Saracco now faces one misdemeanor count of battery in connection with the Dec. 27 attack at a gas station in the 9200 block of East 31st Street, according to Brookfield police and Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke’s office.

Saracco’s first court appearance is set for early March.

• This report was published in partnership with the Chicago Sun-Times. For more, visit chicago.suntimes.com.