Shortly after 9AM on Monday, May 12, a blue minivan and a gray sedan – both unmarked but with red-and-blue flashing lights – stopped and surrounded a white panel van as the three vehicles traveled south on Lexington Street in Newton, 200 feet south of crossing Rumford Avenue and River Street.
Eyewitness Susan Cassidy noted men “with police jackets and wearing balaclavas and ball caps … like the police/ICE agents I’ve seen in the media … putting a handcuffed man into the car.” A video indicates that there were three such men involved in the apparent arrest. Eyewitness Ted Chapman confirmed the account and said, “They were masked, and I didn’t realize how intimidating that was, until you see it up front. …It’s just so disturbing that this is happening.” Cassidy added, “It’s so chilling to see people in balaclavas and ball caps, obviously hiding their identity. It’s really scary.”
Unlike the ICE arrest on the Watertown/Newton line on May 5, this incident lasted just a few minutes, video of it did not indicate signs of a struggle, and the stopped vehicle was removed within a couple of hours.
The sign on the white panel van from which the man was taken was for a remodeling company registered with an address in Waltham.
The Newton Police Department did not have a statement on the incident, except to say that the department was not notified beforehand of a potential arrest.