The video is tough to watch, but is receiving attention throughout the Lower Keys, where it is circulating on social media.
When an onlooker begins filming, U.S. Border Patrol agent Bruno Cabral is straddling an unarmed teenager who is facedown on the ground in the area of Staples Avenue, behind the Conch Tour Train depot and Advance Auto.
It was around noon on Feb. 14, when Cabral encountered the 19-year-old Key West resident, who works at a downtown restaurant, when he was stopped on his e-bike.
Cabral yanks the teen’s arms behind his back and pins his shoulders to handcuff him while yelling, “You’re gonna get Tazed.” Cabral tosses the young man’s phone to the ground, breaking it, the video shows, and then hefts the handcuffed teen to his feet and shoves him into the backseat of an unmarked, maroon Ford SUV. In the video, onlookers can be heard shouting at Cabral, calling him names and videoing the episode that was posted on the Key West Immigrant Support Network’s social media pages.
At one point, Cabral points to the onlookers and says, “Get out of here, or I’m gonna arrest you as well.” The onlookers remind Cabral they are permitted to video and watch his actions as long as they stay 25 feet away without interfering.
“Posting this video is not a decision we made lightly,” network co-founder Lucy Hawk writes next to the footage. “We opted to post only after speaking with the family, who felt the public deserved to see the violent tactics employed against a teenager. What you see in this video is brutal enough, but eyewitnesses give testimony that the teen was ripped from his bicycle and slammed to the ground prior to the start of this video. They state clearly that the teen did nothing to provoke the attack. ‘Battered’ is a word one eyewitness used.
“We ask you to watch the video to bear witness to the reality of the world we live in today. It doesn’t really matter what this teen’s background is. No human deserves to be treated like this. And today has been one of those days where it feels like nothing will ever be enough to stop this from happening.
“Our hearts are broken for this family, for this young man who is now facing the unknown alone, and for our island where this is quietly happening on a daily basis.”
A feared figure in law enforcement
Cabral has become a feared figure within the Key West and Stock Island immigrant communities, having arrested an estimated 300 immigrants, Hawk said.
His maroon SUV is infamous and is now widely reported when seen in communities.
Cabral testified earlier this month in a federal case against an immigrant, Luis Ocampo Martinez, who Cabral charged with felony assault on a federal officer when the immigrant allegedly pushed Cabral on Stock Island, causing him to lose his balance, and ran away during an immigration encounter.
Martinez is significantly smaller and older than Cabral, as his attorney, federal public defender Ian McDonald, pointed out at trial earlier this month. McDonald, in court filings, also called the charges against his client “troubling,” as well as the government’s attempt to have the judge block any discussion of “other incidents of alleged misconduct, unjustified force, or other improper actions” involving Cabral.
“Moreover, as no body or dashboard camera footage of Mr. Ocampo Martinez’s arrest appears to exist, other incidents involving the officer comprise arguably the most probative evidence of what happened that day,” defense attorney McDonald writes in a court filing.
A federal jury found Martinez not guilty on all charges, and U.S. Judge David Leibowitz issued a judgement of acquittal.
In the two weeks since the Feb. 6 trial and verdict, Cabral’s aggressive pursuit of undocumented immigrants, most without a criminal history, has increased, according to anecdotal reports.
(Immigration violations are civil, not criminal, matters, according to U.S. law.)
The U.S. Border Patrol has not returned multiple phone calls and emails seeking comment about immigration enforcement in the Florida Keys and about potential complaints that have been filed against Cabral, who states that he has worked for the U.S. Border Patrol since 2018 and is stationed at the Marathon Border Patrol office.
