Hunted down and shot dead on September 12, 2025 in Chicago by federal agents. His name is Silverio Villegas González and he mattered. His life mattered.
Villegas González was the father of two sons, aged 7 and 3 at the time of his death. The 38-year-old was working as a line cook, living with his girlfriend and her 13-year-old daughter and his sons. He had been living in Chicago for 20 years.
Federal immigration agents said that they were tracking Villegas González because he had a history of reckless driving. According to police records, González had four traffic violations on his record, but all were routine traffic citations - no DUIs or reckless driving charges.
On that day in September in the Franklin Park suburb of Chicago, it was warm. After Villegas González dropped off the kids at school, it must been around 70 degrees with a mix of sun and clouds. ICE agents pulled up Villegas González attempting to detain him. It’s unclear from reports if the ICE agents identified themselves, but Villegas González tried to evade being detained by driving away.
Video shows ICE agents breaking the driver’s side window of Villegas’s vehicle and Villegas being pulled from and away from the vehicle already wounded. Villegas was shot at close range, with the bullet traveling through the back of his neck and stopping in his chest, with graze wounds found on two fingers.
The stated reason for murdering this unarmed man is that while trying to flee being detained, one agent was seriously injured, prompting another agent to execute Villegas González on the spot. That’s what Department of Homeland Security says happened, however, body cam footage captured the “injured” agent talking about his injuries and saying it was “nothing major.”
His family is calling for justice. The Chicago mayor condemned the killing. Politicians, including the president of Mexico where Villegas González was born and raised have called for an investigation into this killing.
There have been no new reports of an investigation.
Just a few months after Villegas González’s murder, in January, Renée Nicole Good would also be gunned down in cold blood after dropping her children off at school. The ICE agents and Department of Homeland Security accused Good of dragging an ICE agent, which didn’t happen and there’s video proof that it didn’t happen, just like in this case.