‘I wonder about their intentions’: Chicago pastor speaks out after ICE agents shoot him in head with pepper balls in Broadview

CHICAGO — A Chicago pastor is speaking out after being shot in the head with pepper-spray projectiles by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during a protest last month.

Reverend David Black is the lead pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Chicago. He’s part of a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) following what’s described as “lethal and brutal suppression of First Amendment rights.”

The incident, that was captured on video, happened on Sept. 19 outside an ICE detention center in Broadview.

Rev. Black said he was praying during the protest when he was struck several times in the head and body by pepper balls.

He joined WGN Morning News Monday to share his story.

“As I was praying audibly to them, they opened fire on me and shot me twice in the head and another five times in the body — at least. Parenthically the manufacture of pepper ball says on Page 4.1 of their safety manuel that pepper balls shot at heads, necks, spines and other sensitive areas, could be deadly. So I wonder about the training of these ICE agents and I wonder about their intentions,” Black told WGN News.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin defended the ICE agents in a statement on X.

“What this clipped video doesn’t show is that these agitators were blocking an ICE vehicle from leaving the federal facility — impeding operations,” McLaughlin wrote.

“Over and over again, law enforcement ordered these agitators to move off of federal property so the vehicle could move. Law enforcement verbally warned these agitators that they would use force if they did not move and stop impeding operations. They did not comply,” she added. 

Rev. Black tells WGN News that when he arrived to the processing center, there was no blocking of ICE vehicles.

“When I arrived that was not happening. You can see in the video where I was standing, I was not blocking any ICE vehicles,” Black told WGN Morning News.

He continued, “I was diabled on the ground being helped my medics. There is a video that shows an ICE truck coming out at that moment, but instead of ordering us to disperse or giving a warning, they shoved us down, slammed protestors into the concrete and maced us with so much chemicals that I was drenched. My denim jacket, my jeans, my long underwear were drenched by the amount of chemical weapons they were deploying against me and others,” the reverand said.

“I just want Chicagons to be thinking if this is what they are doing to pastors, and to journalists, and to teachers, and to mothers and elders who are gathering to sing and pray outside of this facility, what might they be doing to our neighbors who are behind those walls?” Rev. Black told WGN News.

Black is among several plaintiffs who are suing the Trump administration “petitioning a federal court for an emergency order to stop the government’s illegal and brutal suppression of First Amendment rights.”

“I am hoping there will be a perminent boundary with an administration that is notorious for its failure to keep good boundaries,” Black said.