Body-camera footage capturing a Florida police officer pinning a teenager to the ground because he feared being beaten has become central evidence in a growing international outcry over the death of 19-year-old Mexican migrant Royer Perez-Jimenez in ICE custody two months later.
Perez-Jimenez, who spoke Tzotzil, a Mayan language from the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, was arrested on 21 January 2026 by the Edgewater Police Department in Volusia County, Florida, after officers attempted to stop him for crossing traffic lanes on a scooter. He was charged with misdemeanour impersonation and misdemeanour resisting an officer, according to the arrest report obtained by Miami New Times.
He died on 16 March 2026 at the Glades County Detention Center in Moore Haven, Florida, in what ICE described as a 'presumed suicide,' a determination that Mexico's president has publicly rejected as insufficient without a full investigation.
The Traffic Stop
At approximately 21:30 on 21 January 2026, two Edgewater officers observed Perez-Jimenez travelling west on Roberts Road near South Ridgewood Avenue, allegedly crossing lanes without using a crosswalk.
According to the arrest report reviewed by Miami New Times, Sergeant Vincent Castellano activated his emergency lights but Perez-Jimenez continued moving west for another quarter-mile before stopping. When officers commanded him to step off the scooter, he allegedly refused.
The body-camera footage, published by Miami New Times on 27 March 2026, shows Castellano and another officer tackling Perez-Jimenez onto the sidewalk and kneeling on his back while attempting to handcuff him. The teenager is heard crying out repeatedly. 'Ay, what happened? Ay, no. Ay, please, ay,' he says on camera as officers restrain him. He said in broken English that he did not speak the language, and officers attempted to communicate with him in Spanish, saying 'manos' for hands.
A Spanish-speaking Volusia County Sheriff's deputy, identified in the footage as Deputy Garcia, was called to assist. Through Garcia, Perez-Jimenez explained why he had not complied with initial commands.
'He thought you were going to beat him,' Garcia said. 'This has never happened before. He was scared.' Castellano replied, 'Well, I was close.' Officers later searched his backpack and found a Bible and a bag of Takis chips, with no drugs present, despite Castellano claiming on camera that he smelled marijuana. The arrest report makes no mention of marijuana.
The footage also captures an officer asking whether the case was 'a task force opportunity,' a reference to the ICE task force. 'The media has demonised ICE to the point where we're terrified of them,' one officer says. Perez-Jimenez later admitted to officers that he was not in the United States legally.
ICE was contacted shortly afterward and placed a detainer on him the following day, 22 January. The Edgewater Police Department did not respond to Miami New Times' request for comment on whether the officers are under investigation for their use of force.
Transfer to ICE Custody and Death at Glades County
Perez-Jimenez was booked into Volusia County Jail on the night of 21 January 2026. He remained there until 21 February, when he was transferred into ICE custody.
Five days later, on 26 February, he was moved to the Glades County Detention Center in Moore Haven, about 55 miles north-east of Fort Myers. According to the official ICE press release issued on 19 March 2026, medical staff evaluated him at intake and he denied any behavioural health issues, answering 'no' to all suicide screening questions.
At approximately 02:34 on 16 March 2026, a Glades County detention officer found Perez-Jimenez unconscious and unresponsive. Staff immediately began CPR. Two medical personnel arrived minutes later, determined he had no pulse, and took over resuscitation efforts.
Moore Haven Fire Rescue arrived at approximately 02:42 and initiated life-sustaining interventions. He was pronounced dead at 02:51. ICE described the death as a 'presumed suicide' but confirmed the official cause of death remains under investigation.
ICE's press release described Perez-Jimenez as a 'criminal illegal alien from Mexico' and stated he had been charged with 'felony fraud for impersonation,' a characterisation at odds with the misdemeanour listed in the actual arrest report.
Miami New Times noted that discrepancy explicitly. ICE said it notified the DHS Office of Inspector General, the ICE Office of Professional Responsibility, the Mexican consulate and Perez-Jimenez's next of kin.
Long Record of Abuse
The facility where Perez-Jimenez died carries one of the most extensively documented abuse records of any immigration detention centre in the United States. On 1 February 2022, Debbie Wasserman Schultz led a group of 17 members of Congress in a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas calling for the facility's immediate closure.
The letter cited allegations including racist verbal and physical abuse, sexual voyeurism by guards, a near-fatal carbon monoxide leak, medical neglect and regular exposure to a toxic disinfectant chemical spray linked to long-term reproductive harm.
The ACLU of Florida has documented that at least 77 complaints were filed with DHS oversight bodies between 2017 and 2022 alone. In January 2022, the ACLU of Florida and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed an administrative complaint alleging that the facility routinely deleted surveillance footage every 90 days, despite a contractual obligation to retain it for three years. Advocates with the Shut Down Glades Coalition and Americans for Immigrant Justice have described it as a facility 'beyond reform.'
Under the Biden administration, ICE paused operations at Glades in April 2022 following sustained pressure, emptying the facility and cancelling the guaranteed minimum clause of its contract. The Trump administration later reopened it.
Carly Perez Fernandez, communications director of Detention Watch Network, said in a statement reported by Newsweek, 'Deaths in ICE custody continue to skyrocket past previous record highs amidst the Trump administration's massive expansion of immigration detention and increasing ICE violence.'
Perez-Jimenez's death places him among a surge in ICE detention fatalities during Trump's second term. According to UPI's review of ICE statistics, there were 24 detainee deaths across all four years of the Biden administration, compared with at least 44 deaths in just over 14 months of Trump's second term. Perez-Jimenez is confirmed as the youngest of those deaths.
