A jogger recorded video when he was stopped by federal agents in an unusual encounter in Boston.
Bena Apreala says he started recording after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents stopped him while he was jogging on VFW Parkway in West Roxbury.
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"The police officer started walking towards me, and he said, 'Hey, stop,' and without identifying himself, he started asking me for identification, asking me where I was from, asking me who I was, what my business was around the area," Apreala told NBC10 Boston.
"Do you have any tattoos on your left or right arm? So we can confirm and we'll be out of here," one of the agents can be heard asking in the recording.
"Am I free to go? Do I have to show you? If I'm free to go, then I'm not showing you anything," Apreala responds. "Thank you. Have a great day, guys."
Apreala says the ICE agents never identified themselves and he didn't realize who they were until he looked at their badges.
"They never introduced themselves, they never identified themselves, they never said I was being detained because of an immigration violation," he said.
The 29-year-old real estate agent and father says the frightening experience left him nervous for what could come next.
"I said, 'What am I being detained for?'" Apreala recalled. "He said, 'Because you fit the description of someone we're investigating."
"As I was watching this thing, I wasn't sure until I got to call him if he had been arrested," said his mother, Patricia Apreala, who explained that she feared for her son after seeing the video. "I have too many videos running in my head about young Black males with law enforcement, and it was not a pretty sight, I can tell you."
Attempts to contact ICE were not immediately successful.
