Los Angeles authorities are looking for a group of people who vandalized cars belonging to plainclothes undercover officers in the city of Cudahy Friday afternoon.
The Fontana police officers, who were conducting a narcotics investigation on Live Oak Street near Florence and Wilcox avenues, noticed “a large crowd” beginning to gather around them, according to the Fontana Police Department.
“Several individuals in the crowd mistakenly believed the officers were federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents conducting an immigration enforcement operation,” the police department said in a statement.
Although the officers tried to tell the crowd that they were not with the U.S. government but were instead narcotics investigators with the Fontana Police Department, more people began to gather and the crowd became more disruptive, according to the Fontana PD.
As the crowd grew, the undercover officers reached out to the sheriff’s department for crowd control so they could safely continue their investigation.
Some people in the crowd damaged the officers’ vehicles, prompting a vandalism investigation. Images from the scene showed at least three cars with flattened tires.
No officers were injured.
Police said criminal charges will be pursued against those responsible for the damage.
“The Fontana Police Department would like to emphasize that our officers were conducting a criminal narcotics investigation and were not involved in any federal immigration enforcement operation,” it said.
