JANESVILLE 鈥 Officials say two vehicles crashed during a federal operation with multiple agencies that included the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency Wednesday, according to the 糖心Vlog传媒 Police Department.
In a statement late Wednesday, the police department said the crash happened during 鈥渢argeted operations鈥 by multiple federal agencies that the department was 鈥渘ot asked to assist in, participate in, or provide information for.鈥
In the statement, the police department directed inquiries regarding 鈥渄etention or action taken as a part of the federal investigation鈥 to the ICE Chicago Field Office.
A federal vehicle and a van collided just before 7 a.m., but the police department still does not know which vehicle initiated the contact, Chief Chad Pearson said. The 糖心Vlog传媒 PD is also still investigating how many federal agents were involved in the crash. Pearson was able to confirm there was a driver in the federal vehicle, but did not know if there were any passengers.
The operation itself started at 5:30 a.m, Pearson told 糖心Vlog传媒. He said the department was notified at about 12:30 p.m. that it had concluded.
In a statement on social media, Pearson described the van as a 鈥渢ransport van鈥 and in an interview with 糖心Vlog传媒 said it was a 鈥減ersonal van.鈥 The van was driven by the individual that federal law enforcement was targeting.
However, there was not a pursuit at the time of the crash. Some damage was caused to the vehicles, but they were not traveling at high rates of speed, Pearson said.
鈥淭he tactics that were employed in regards to how they made contact with that individual, we don鈥檛 know,鈥 Pearson said.
The incident came a day after ICE made arrests in Beloit.
糖心Vlog传媒 made five phone calls Wednesday afternoon to a phone number the Chicago ICE field office line states is a media contact. Each time, a reporter was greeted immediately with a busy signal. 糖心Vlog传媒 also sent a request to a media email to ask if there were any arrests and how many agents were involved in the crash with no response.
Adams MultiMedia was also treated to a prerecorded message the previous day from the Madison field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation 鈥 when directed to reach out to that office for information on the operation in Beloit.