Worcester to release body camera footage of police response to ICE arrest
The 'first phase' of body camera footage taken by Worcester police responding to a crowd that surrounded federal agents detaining a Brazilian woman on May 8 will be released on Friday, Worcester City Manager Eric Batista said.
Batista made the announcement during an interview on 'The Talk of the Commonwealth' radio show.
'We are releasing the first phase of body camera footage,' Batista said on the show, shared in a post on X. 'Nothing is redacted in those videos [besides the faces of the minors]'
He added that recordings of the 911 calls will also be released.
Worcester city spokesperson Tom Matthews and Worcester Police spokesperson Lt. Sean Murtha also confirmed that this information would be released Friday afternoon.
Late in the morning of May 8, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detained Rosane Ferreira-De Oliveira, 40, of Brazil.
The day before, ICE agents stopped a car carrying her 21-year-old daughter, Augusta Clara Moura, 21, and her partner, Samarone Alves Ferreira-De Souza, while driving to work. The two have a 3-month-old son.
'His only 'mistake' was honking at a car that had cut him off,' Clara Moura wrote in the description of a GoFundMe campaign, which has raised more than $5,700 as of Friday. 'That vehicle turned out to be an undercover ICE car, and agents decided to arrest him.'
Ferreira-De Souza is currently being held at the Pine Prairie Correctional Facility in Pine Prairie, Louisiana, according to ICE's Online Detainee Locator System (ODLS).
The following day, ICE agents came to Clara Moura's home and told her to sign immigration papers and 'demanding I return my partner's car,' she wrote. Clara Moura, her baby and her 17-year-old sister left the house in a car and ICE agents stopped them and told her she was under arrest.
'Since I was with my baby, I called my mother to come take my son,' Clara Moura wrote.
ICE agents detained Ferreira-De Oliveira and put her inside a car before Clara Moura's 17-year-old sister approached the car. After 11 a.m., a crowd formed and ICE agents called Worcester police to the scene.
Clara Moura's sister, carrying Clara Moura's baby, stood in front of the car and tried to stop it, police said in a previous statement. She handed the baby to another woman before she ran up to the car and kicked the passenger side door as it drove away. Officers pushed her to the ground and arrested her for reckless endangerment of a child, disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
Additionally, Worcester School Committee candidate Ashley Spring was also arrested in connection with the incident. Spring was charged with assault and battery on a police officer, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, disorderly conduct and interfering with police officers. Spring was released on her own personal recognizance and is scheduled to return to court for a pre-trial hearing on June 23.
Andrew George Lattarulo, Clara Moura's lawyer, told MassLive on Thursday that ICE threatened to arrest Clara Moura and her 17-year-old sister, an account that matches exclusive reporting from Rolling Stone Magazine, which reported that Clara Moura and her sister were used as 'bait' for ICE to arrest their mother.
Clara Moura's sister has since been released from custody and is now with family friends, along with Clara Moura, Clara Moura's baby and another sister who is also a child.
Ferreira-De Oliveira, who comes from Brazil, is currently being detained at the Wyatt Detention Center, in Central Falls, R.I., according to ICE's Online Detainee Locator System (ODLS).
The incident has stirred tensions in the city, with protesters standing outside City Hall on three occasions since the day of Ferreira-De Oliveira's arrest. Ahead of a planned protest outside City Hall on Tuesday, the night of a city council meeting, officials announced that the meeting would be held remotely. On the morning of the meeting, Worcester Mayor Joseph Petty said the decision to go remote was out of precaution as elected officials and city employees 'received threats of violence' and 'faced threatening calls and emails.'
ICE must show more integrity in deportation arrests (The Republican Editorials)
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Read the original article on MassLive.
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