LA man shot by federal agents during arrest streams law enforcement activity on TikTok

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles man shot by federal officers while he tried to evade arrest Tuesday morning is a popular local TikTok streamer who documents police activity, immigration enforcement and daily neighborhood life.

Carlitos Ricardo Parias, 44, was charged with assaulting a federal officer after authorities say he rammed his vehicle into theirs while they attempted to arrest him on an immigration warrant. He is a Mexican citizen living in the U.S. illegally, federal authorities said. Agents shot him in the elbow during the encounter and he remained in the hospital in stable condition Wednesday morning. An initial court appearance was delayed.

His attorney, Carlos Jurado, said the hospital had not allowed him or family members to see Parias yet. Parias called Jurado briefly Wednesday morning and said guards were watching him.

“What we want is we want to see him in person,” Jurado said. The hospital did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Parias is well-known in the neighborhood of South LA for his Spanish-language videos posted on TikTok on two accounts with more than 340,000 followers combined. Videos on his page dating back to 2024 document police activity, car accidents, and fires, as well as tortilla-making, Mexican landscapes, rainy days in Los Angeles and animals. This year, the footage has also focused on demonstrations against immigration enforcement and arrests by federal deportation authorities.

Parias is one of many social media users that post about immigration raids and arrests across Southern California, often relaying information in real time to alert community members.

Los Angeles City Councilmember Curren Price’s office recently recognized Parias for his reporting. He’s also shared information about city services such as food assistance programs and toy giveaways, said Jose Ugarte, Price’s chief of staff.

“People are afraid to go to certain areas,” Ugarte said. “We realized Richard was giving a lot of news to a lot of our residents.”

Federal agents were surveilling Parias’ neighborhood Tuesday morning because they had an administrative immigration arrest warrant for him, according to a criminal complaint released by acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli’s office. When Parias left his home and got in the car, agents followed him and boxed him in with their vehicles. Parias drove his car forward and back, hitting law enforcement vehicles, the complaint said. An agent attempted to break the driver’s side window of the car, and eventually at least one officer opened fire. A deputy U.S. marshal assisting with the arrest was hit in the hand by a ricochet bullet.

It was federal authorities’ second time attempting to arrest Parias, said Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. She did not immediately respond to requests for comment about whether there was a removal order for Parias or whether he’d previously been deported.

Jurado, his attorney, said he did not have details on any prior interactions between Parias and federal officials.

Ugarte and advocates said Parias had an encounter with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on June 13 when he was documenting their activity. A video posted on a different TikTok account shows a man identified as Parias in a “press” vest sitting on the ground grabbing his leg. Ugarte said Parias told him that he had been pushed and had to go to the hospital.

One video on Parias’ page from September shows a white van partly blocked by two vehicles with a song about migrants by the Guatemalan singer Ricardo Arjona playing in the background. Another video of the scene warns followers to be careful seeing “how border agents pass our people from one car to another.”

Just last week, another video on his page shows police searching a car parked on the side of a road near a graffiti-covered building. The narrator explains authorities found what appears to be a homeless person dead inside. He says he is reporting from Los Angeles, “where luck and death go hand in hand.”

Chris Newman, legal director for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said independent reporting from community members is essential as immigration agents fan out across the region making arrests.

“It’s another example of how the sort of leadership on the street is eclipsing the leadership of people in positions of power, whether in municipal government or in the news media,” Newman said. “They’re serving the public interest incredibly.”

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Taxin reported from Santa Ana, Calif.