US EditionClaim: Federal agents in plain clothes aimed guns, handcuffed humanitarian-aid volunteers
ARIZONA, JUL 14 – Volunteers seek $543,750 each for alleged assault and false arrest by plainclothes Homeland Security Investigations agents on a public border road during humanitarian aid delivery.
- On March 12, 2025, Tucson Samaritans volunteers Gail Kocourek, Evan Spry, and another were detained and handcuffed by plainclothes Homeland Security Investigations agents near Sásabe, Arizona.
- The encounter followed the volunteers traveling lawfully along a public border road, where agents unexpectedly blocked and confronted them with assault-style rifles in unmarked vehicles.
- The volunteers, all unarmed, initially believed the armed men were vigilantes linked to recent vandalism, and a video shows agents aiming weapons and using threatening tactics.
- Each volunteer seeks $543,750, including attorneys' fees, for pain and suffering, alleging assault, false arrest, and intentional infliction of emotional distress in claims filed July 11.
- Attorney Paul Gattone calls the agents' conduct outrageous and unjustified, noting the incident reflects a troubling trend of excessive force by federal agents in the region.
21 Articles
21 Articles
Claim: Federal agents in plain clothes aimed guns, handcuffed Tucson Samaritans
Federal agents who were not in uniform and in an unmarked vehicle pointed guns, chased and handcuffed two Tucson Samaritans in a tense confrontation along the US-Mexico border, a court
Two Arizona Samaritans Who Help Asylum Seekers at Border Seek Damages for Mistreatment by DHS
In Arizona, two Tucson-area volunteer aid workers are seeking damages after Homeland Security agents dressed in plain clothes pointed assault-style rifles at them, handcuffed and detained them along a border wall road in March. Seventy-four-year-old Gail Kocourek, who regularly assists asylum seekers at the border with water, food and medical supplies, is well known and friendly with the regular border agents in the area. She was driving a vehic…
The Times of Northwest Indiana
Claim: Federal agents in plain clothes aimed guns, handcuffed humanitarian-aid volunteers
Federal agents who were not in uniform and in an unmarked vehicle pointed guns, chased and handcuffed two Arizona Samaritans in a tense confrontation along the US-Mexico border, a court claim says.
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