Officers from the neighboring Brunswick Police Department responded to the bar for a disturbance, but when they arrived, they found the man on the ground being held by the two agents. The man identified himself as a truck driver from Texas and an Ethiopian immigrant.
Brunswick officers ran the truck driver's identification, which came back with no issues. The trucker told police that he's been in America for 14 years and is a U.S. citizen. The driver added that he was just having a drink when the federal agents approached him and accused him of being in the country illegally.
"These guys have all been drinking, and they're like, 'Oh, this guy's on some terrorist watch list' or something like that," Brunswick police Sgt. Joseph Ceccaci is heard saying to a fellow officer on police body camera video.
"And the guy's {trucker's] got a valid CDL (Commercial Driver's License) all through Texas, and they [the agents] didn't want to let him go, so they put his hands behind his back, dragged him out of here, and held him on the ground." Sgt. Ceccaci added. He also questioned the agents' claim that they checked the trucker's identification with a law enforcement database.
"These guys are drunk," declared Sgt. Ceccaci.