(The Hill) – Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin on Wednesday defended an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who shot a pastor with a pepper ball from a rooftop after video of the incident went viral this week.

Videos of the Sept. 19 incident, which circulated widely Wednesday on social media, showed the Rev. David Black of the First Presbyterian Church being struck in the head by an officer outside an ICE processing facility in a Chicago suburb. The stoked anger toward federal officers who have been deployed to the city by President Trump.

“What this clipped video doesn’t show is that these agitators were blocking an ICE vehicle from leaving the federal facility — impeding operations,” McLaughlin wrote in a lengthy statement on social platform

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