The Worcester metropolis councilor charged with assaulting a police officer whereas making an attempt to dam the arrest of a felony unlawful immigrant says she believes she did the “humane thing” in the course of the chaotic showdown.
“I am a mother, an immigrant and elected leader who attempted, along with other Worcester residents, to protect a traumatized young person, two mothers and an infant,” Metropolis Councilor Etel Haxhiaj said in a submit on BlueSky. “I did the humane thing to do in this situation, nothing more, nothing less.”
Haxhiaj’s assertion got here hours after a Worcester District Court docket clerk Justice of the Peace on Wednesday discovered possible trigger to cost the councilor with one rely every of assault and battery on a police officer and interfering with police.
The Worcester Police Division had sought three expenses towards Haxhiaj in connection together with her conduct within the Might 8 altercation with federal immigration brokers in a residential neighborhood she represents.
Haxhiaj joined roughly 25 activist neighbors in trying to defend a felony unlawful immigrant and her relations from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the course of the operation.
ICE focused Rosane Ferreira De Oliveira, 40, initially of Brazil, who’s accused of hitting her pregnant daughter with a telephone charger cable in an incident this previous February.
Haxhiaj’s expenses stem from the councilor allegedly pushing a police officer, recognized as Shauna McGuirk, within the chest and pulling the officer’s arm as she was making an arrest, in accordance with an announcement of info filed by Worcester police Lt. John Bossolt, per the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.
She is scheduled to be arraigned on July 23.
“My life’s calling has been to help others,” Haxhiaj wrote in her assertion. “I am a former refugee who fled and escaped violence. I, like too many others in our city, have previously lived through the nightly terrors of whisper campaigns, street round-ups and disappeared neighbors, which I experienced when I lived in Albania and Greece. It is frightening that the same type of conduct is now a reality in this country.”
Physique digital camera footage that the Worcester Police Division launched every week after the conflict exhibits Haxhiaj grabbing at ICE officers and mouthing, “Don’t touch me!” She’s heard shouting, “Do not take her!” “You do not show any warrants, get out of our neighborhood.”
A day after the incident, the Worcester Police Patrol Officers’ Union demanded that town carry out an investigation into Haxhiaj’s conduct, saying that it believes the councilor “broke her oath … and ethical laws.”
Massachusetts U.S. Lawyer Leah Foley additionally not directly reacted to the incident, sending a warning lower than every week later that her workplace would examine anybody who makes an attempt to intrude with ICE operations.
“Protecting the most vulnerable should not lead to being targeted and vilified,” Haxhiaj wrote in her assertion. “And working to improve policing in our city by calling for oversight and accountability should not provoke political grandstanding and attacks. I look forward to responding to these charges in court.”
