Several masked agents appeared to arrest a man on Calumet Avenue in Hammond around 1:30 p.m. Thursday, while blocking off two lanes of southbound traffic, witnesses said.
The man’s identity is not immediately known. Pictures show a red Toyota car appeared to be abandoned in a nearby lot.
One man said he was driving home from work, saw flashing lights and assumed it was a car crash near Calumet and Erie avenues, about two blocks south of city hall and Hammond Central High School.
“A bunch of masked men” in “tactical uniforms” arrested an “older gentleman,” said Matthew Nodal, 26, Hammond. He estimated there were at least a half-dozen agents.
There was “sadness” and the arrested man looked like a “defeated person,” he said.
Another woman said she was headed south to a doctor’s appointment.
It wasn’t “average cop lights,” said Felicia Simpson, 46, of Hammond. The man’s car appeared to be “blocked in,” while a woman in the car looked scared, she added.
A video circulating on social media Thursday appeared to show a man in a blue shirt and black baseball cap being handcuffed with at least five agents in view, all wearing black masks.
Nodal said Hammond Police appeared to arrive after the agents left.
Hammond was not notified, Mayor Tom McDermott said by text Thursday night.
“I heard from employees of the city that there were ICE agents that stopped a resident on (Calumet) Avenue about a block from city hall, but I didn’t observe this myself, so I can’t comment on whether or not the entire southbound lanes were blocked off.”
A Hammond Police spokesman was not immediately available.
An ICE media representative replied to a reporter’s request for comment, but did not answer questions by press time.
mcolias@post-trib.com