00:00We're back now with a major development in a story about allegations that ICE agents violently assaulted an Arlington County
00:06man.
00:06You may remember a video of this ICE encounter from last month.
00:10It was a story Northern Virginia Bureau reporter Drew Wilder broke online this afternoon,
00:15confirming that Arlington County Police have opened a criminal investigation into allegations of aggravated malicious wounding and other alleged crimes.
00:24Drew has more in a story you will see first on News 4.
00:30Several members of Congress are weighing in following the news that Arlington County Police has opened a criminal investigation into
00:36the ICE agents who arrested Jose Mejia Hernandez.
00:39Those agents are accused of aggravated malicious wounding.
00:43Mejia Hernandez says he has brain bleeding and very visible bruising on his face, still there weeks after the encounter.
00:52This is what Mejia Hernandez looked like last Friday, weeks after he was taken into custody by federal immigration agents
00:58in Arlington County.
00:59Mejia Hernandez says on August 11th, he was on his way to work when two men he didn't recognize approach
01:05him.
01:05He says he ran and the men chased him, tackled him and injured him.
01:08He says he can't sleep, that it's hard for him to eat and he feels scared.
01:12He said he was hospitalized after the incident and that he suffered a brain injury.
01:16He says he doesn't remember exactly what happened after he was stopped by federal agents, only that he recalls waking
01:22up in the hospital.
01:24News 4 has not been able to independently confirm or review medical documentation that supports this claim.
01:30The men chasing Mejia Hernandez were ICE agents.
01:33ICE disputes his account, saying Mejia Hernandez tried to evade arrest and that the agents used necessary force to take
01:40him into custody.
01:41Mejia Hernandez is from Mexico and is in the U.S. without documentation.
01:45Following a report about the investigation, Virginia Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine issued a joint statement along with Congressman
01:52Don Beyer, James Walkinshaw and Suha Subramaniam, saying in part,
01:56quote, if this investigation finds that ICE agents' misconduct caused Mr. Mejia Hernandez injuries or impeded his medical treatment, they
02:05must face consequences.
02:07Reporting in Arlington County, Drew Wilder, News 4.
02:10News 4 reached out to ICE for a comment on the investigation.
02:13So far, we have not heard back.
