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Baby Pepper-Sprayed by DHS Thugs During Family Grocery Trip

Parents say an agent fired an irritant from a moving car.

A baby girl was pepper-sprayed in the face by Department of Homeland Security agents as her parents drove her home from a weekend family shopping trip.

Footage shows a federal officer in a black vehicle launch the irritant out of their window and into the car of Rafael Veraza, 25, and Evelin Herrera, 24, striking Veraza and their 1-year-old daughter, Arianna Sofia.

“She couldn’t open her eyes and struggled to breathe,” Veraza told CBS Chicago. “Us, as adults, we can handle it, but as kids? Shouldn’t be targeting kids.”

The family had been leaving a Sam’s Club store on Saturday, after buying diapers, milk, and eggs, when they saw a carload of federal agents heading towards them. Following the advice of her mother and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Herrera decided to film,

Afterwards, bystanders flushed their faces with water as more black vehicles, which had been attending a nearby protest in Cicero, Illinois, sped through the lot.

At a hospital, doctors called poison control for Arianna Sofia, and washed Veraza’s face with saline solution as the spray had triggered a severe asthmatic reaction. “When I got there, my heartbeat was at 263 per minute,” he told the Chicago Tribune.

Since the incident, Arianna has become clingy towards her parents, who say they were not part of any protests. “(Neighbors) might be protesting, but they’re not doing anything,” Veraza said.

The Sam’s Club gassing happened close to where agents used chemical agents up and down 26th Street during tense standoffs with residents.

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Footage of that incident appears to show Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino—who was last week branded a liar by a judge over his previous use of tear gas during “Operation Midway Blitz”—unpinning a CS gas canister and moving toward protesters, minutes before the Sam’s Club encounter.

While the exact timings of the two incidents have not been independently verified by the Beast, they are believed to have been filmed within minutes of each other.

A day earlier, U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis issued a sweeping injunction restricting federal agents’ use of force after finding the government’s evidence “simply not credible” and noting that Bovino “later admitted that he lied” about being hit by a rock before deploying gas.

The court order now requires two clear warnings before chemical agents can be used and mandates body cameras and visible IDs for agents.

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State Sen. Celina Villanueva and other Southwest Side officials blasted the weekend operation. One alderman said a flash-bang detonated near a 6-year-old during a separate arrest.

The Daily Beast contacted DHS to ask why its agents pepper-sprayed a car with a baby in it that had nothing to do with protests, and whether it was investigating or planned to investigate who had been responsible.

It replied saying the standoff came after agents were “stalked” into the lot, and one federal vehicle was rammed. The department said nine arrests were made, eight of them U.S. citizens.

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DHS said its agents had come under fire earlier that morning, though Chicago police said no one was reported shot. A responding officer was struck by a pickup and treated for minor injuries, according to local outlets including ABC7 Chicago.

The department did not address the Veraza family’s allegation in its statement.

The Latin Kings gang was said in an unverified “officer safety alert” to have authorized a “shoot on sight” directive against agents tied to the blitz, per NewsNation reporter Ali Bradley.

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Tom LatchemLead Global Correspondent

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