A Venezuelan man was accused of trying to murder an ICE officer. Then bystander video surfaced

Cellphone Footage Transforms Narrative in Venezuelan Man’s Federal Case

From Terrorist Accusations to Downgraded Charges

A Venezuelan man was accused of trying – Government officials initially characterized Gabriel Hurtado-Cariaco with harsh terminology following his apprehension by federal authorities in Nebraska during the summer of 2025. The Venezuelan delivery driver faced accusations ranging from being a “criminal illegal alien” to a “known Tren de Aragua terrorist.” Some reports even claimed he forcefully slammed a federal agent’s head against pavement and applied a chokehold during the encounter.

However, this official version of events began to crumble when ordinary citizens captured cellphone videos that contradicted the government’s portrayal. Rather than depicting an immigrant as a dangerous aggressor and officers as innocent victims, the footage told a different story entirely.

Then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche had previously described Hurtado-Cariaco as a “vicious Tren de Aragua gang member” in a Justice Department statement issued in June 2025. “Violent attacks from terrorists against those who serve our communities will be met with swift and decisive justice,” Blanche declared at the time.

The attorney general serving then, Pamela Bondi, also weighed into the matter by announcing that Hurtado-Cariaco faced an attempted murder charge.

The Role of Video Evidence in Immigration Cases

To Hurtado-Cariaco’s public defender, Richard McWilliams, this situation represents a recurring theme in immigration enforcement. “It certainly seems like a pattern to me,” McWilliams explained to CNN, noting that recent arrests have shown DHS narratives frequently conflicting with available evidence or being undermined by video documentation.

“If no one had recorded it, we’d be going to trial,” McWilliams observed regarding his client’s situation, highlighting how essential such recordings prove in high-stakes legal matters where official accounts remain flexible.

Hurtado-Cariaco, who entered the United States through parole as an asylum seeker in 2024 after leaving the Venezuelan military, received an indictment last summer containing attempted murder and additional charges, according to court records. The original complaint, submitted on the day of his capture, asserted that he forcibly resisted arrest.

An amended complaint filed the following day featured a Homeland Security Investigations special agent writing that the defendant “violently threw himself” toward the officer, causing her head to “smack harshly against the ground.” The agent further stated that Hurtado-Cariaco later placed the officer in a “chokehold” and maintained it “rather than simply flee the scene.”

Charges Evolve as Evidence Emerges

As in previous cases, Hurtado-Cariaco avoided a full trial. He accepted a plea bargain and submitted himself to the court’s discretion during sentencing proceedings. Court documents and his attorney confirmed that he possessed no criminal history prior to entering his guilty plea.

The critical difference in this particular case involved cellphone recordings. McWilliams noted in a pre-sentencing filing that HSI agents viewed the videos through social media platforms in mid-July, several weeks following the initial arrest.

Amy Donato, spokesperson for the Nebraska US Attorney’s Office, informed CNN via email that the office lacked these videos when first filing charges. A federal agent subsequently acquired the footage after the indictment and provided it to federal prosecutors. “Once we reviewed the videos … the charges were appropriately downgraded to assault,” Donato explained.

Four months after the videos surfaced, in November, federal prosecutors substituted the attempted murder count with what McWilliams described as an “equally fantastic” charge of providing material support to a terrorist organization. Hurtado-Cariaco has consistently denied any connection to Tren de Aragua, which the United States officially designated as a foreign terrorist organization in February 2025. This terrorism-related charge carries a potential maximum sentence of twenty years in prison.

Uncertain Future Despite Sentence

On July 2, following his guilty plea to a felony charge of forcibly resisting arrest while causing bodily injury to a federal officer, Hurtado-Cariaco received a fourteen-month prison sentence. The presiding judge recommended that he receive credit for time already served.

Nevertheless, questions remain about his ultimate fate. “No one knows what will happen to Gabriel next,” McWilliams wrote in a pre-sentencing court filing. His client currently has an immigration detainer requesting that the Bureau of Prisons transfer him directly into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.

“Before he could even appear before a judge, he was called … a ‘criminal illegal alien,’ a member of a prison gang, a terrorist, and violent killer. That message – pushed by the most powerful government on earth – traveled halfway around the world,” McWilliams noted in the filing, adding that the accusations even reached Hurtado-Cariaco’s mother in Venezuela.

According to his attorney, Hurtado-Cariaco was driving on the day of his arrest, heading to register his vehicle. The cellphone videos that emerged afterward fundamentally altered the trajectory of his case, transforming what appeared to be a straightforward criminal matter into a complex legal situation where official narratives clashed with documented reality.