David Gonzalez was off duty and alone when police say a confrontation at a Fresno home ended with his shooting and arrest.
FRESNO, Calif. — An off-duty Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent from Texas remained the focus of a Fresno police investigation after authorities said he allegedly attacked a 72-year-old man and the man’s daughter before being shot during the confrontation.
The agent, identified by police as 32-year-old David Gonzalez, was receiving medical treatment while in custody following the early Friday encounter. Police said Gonzalez faces allegations including battery likely to cause great bodily injury, felony vandalism and battery. Authorities have also notified ICE and said the agency was expected to conduct a personnel investigation.
The case has left investigators with a basic unanswered question: why Gonzalez was in the Fresno neighborhood in the first place. Police said he was off duty and alone when a woman arrived home shortly after 3 a.m. and found him sleeping on the front lawn she shares with her 72-year-old father.
The woman alerted her father, who went outside to tell Gonzalez to leave, according to police. Investigators said Gonzalez appeared intoxicated and agitated after waking and allegedly assaulted the older man, knocking him to the ground. When the daughter tried to intervene, police said Gonzalez attacked her as well.
The confrontation moved beyond the initial encounter on the lawn, according to local reporting. A neighbor said police told him the woman was pushed into his parked vehicle during the altercation, leaving damage to the car. Police have listed felony vandalism among the suspected offenses in the case.
Police said the 72-year-old feared for the safety of himself and his daughter and fired one shot at Gonzalez, striking him in the midsection. Authorities determined that the man legally possessed the firearm and said he would not face criminal charges based on evidence gathered in the investigation.
The woman’s boyfriend, an off-duty police officer, arrived and placed Gonzalez in handcuffs before responding Fresno officers reached the scene. Officers had been sent to the area near East Dudley Avenue and North Broadway Street after several 911 calls reporting gunfire. Gonzalez was then transported to a hospital.
Authorities have not publicly explained what brought Gonzalez, a federal agent based in Texas, to the neighborhood. Police also have not said whether his presence in Fresno was connected to federal immigration enforcement activity reported elsewhere in the Central Valley. Investigators have stressed that he was not working at the time of the encounter.
The incident comes as federal immigration enforcement has drawn heightened attention in the Fresno area, where local officials and news organizations have reported increased enforcement activity. Nothing released by investigators so far establishes that Gonzalez was participating in such activity immediately before the confrontation, and police have not publicly identified his specific ICE assignment.
Gonzalez was expected to be booked into the Fresno County Jail after he was medically cleared, according to local authorities. Fresno police said their investigation remains active, while the circumstances of Gonzalez’s presence in the neighborhood and the outcome of any separate ICE personnel review remain unresolved.
Author note: Last updated October 11, 2026.