UPDATE, FEB. 20, 2:30 P.M.: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Ezequiel Garcia was asking for a transfer to be closer to his Murrieta home before Thursday evening's shootings that left Garcia dead and his supervisor Kevin Kozak wounded, the deceased's widow tells KCAL/Channel 9 News.
Garcia's wife also claims her husband was acting in self-defense.
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UPDATE, FEB. 20, 1:11 P.M.: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations revealed the
identities of two of three agents involved in shootings in their
downtown Long Beach offices that left one dead and another wounded
Thursday evening.
Ezequiel Garcia was discussing his job performance with Kevin Kozak, ICE's second-in-command for Los Angeles, when Garcia shot Kozak six times in the hand, knee and torso, according to ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice.
A third agent who heard the gunfire rushed in to stop Garcia, and in the struggle for the gun Garcia was fatally shot, said Kice, who did not name the third, unharmed agent.
Kozak is listed in stable condition at a local hospital, where he is alert and talking, according to ICE.
The Associated Press reports a federal official with knowledge of the investigation–but who only spoke on the condition of anonymity–says Kozak had denied a request for an internal transfer request by Garcia, a lower-ranking supervisor agent.
ORIGINAL POST, FEB. 17, 8:59 A.M.: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials announced two agents
were shot inside their federal building in downtown Long Beach Thursday
evening, when one was killed and another was taken to a hospital and
listed in stable condition.
Long Beach Fire officials separately disclosed three agents were involved in the incident, with one shooting the other two, but by this morning authorities were saying an agent who may have been in the process of being disciplined whipped out a gun and shot and wounded his boss. Another agent then stepped in andc took out the original gunman.
No identities have been released. The wounded agent was being treated for multiple injuries at St. Mary's Medical Center.
The ICE office at the Glenn M. Anderson Federal Building at 501 W. Ocean Blvd. also houses the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Probation and Parole Office. Downtown office workers were naturally freaked out when discussing with local reporters hearing multiple gunshots from a law enforcement facility. The offices reopened this morning, according to the FBI, which is investigating the shooting along with Long Beach Police and ICE's Office of Professional Responsibility.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.