(Editor’s note: Some of the videos used in this story contain violent images and offensive language)
The man who was violently arrested by a federal agent on October 31 told law enforcement officers that he needed medical help less than an hour after a car crash and ensuing confrontation between agents and residents on Asbury Avenue north of Oakton Street – but did not receive any aid while in federal custody for several hours.
The man, 27-year-old Marcello Africano, was subdued and punched several times in the face after a car crash and confrontation between U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents and residents on Asbury Avenue.
Africano, of Chicago, was one of three American citizens taken into custody during the confrontation — along with Chicago resident Nancy Polanco and Evanston resident Jennifer Moriarty. He was ultimately charged with one count of assaulting, resisting and impeding federal officers, according to his attorney Steven Weinberg, who also said Africano was not required to post bond. He was released after spending about five hours in federal custody and did not receive medical attention despite asking for it several times, according to witnesses and footage from a police body-worn camera. Polanco and Moriarty were released without charges after spending about five hours in federal custody.
For this story, Africano would only confirm that he did not receive medical attention while in federal custody.
The RoundTable is publishing the names of two U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents involved in the Oct. 31 incident because they have been identified in publicly available police reports, in a statement from Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss and because their names have been published in other media outlets.
A body-worn camera video worn by Evanston Police Sgt. Daniel Keeler, released in a trove of materials after the RoundTable filed a Freedom of Information Act request, shows Africano in the backseat of a parked government vehicle, with CBP officer Timothy Donahue, in the driver’s seat. The video, posted near the top of this story, shows part of a meeting that took place between Evanston police and federal agents about an hour after incident.
Immediately after the three citizens were taken into custody, Donahue drove them through parts of Evanston and the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago before returning about an hour later to meet with Evanston officers in Skokie at the Skokie Northshore Sculpture Park on McCormick Boulevard, south of Dempster Street.
Evanston police Sgt. Keeler approached Donahue’s vehicle, and Africano could be seen and heard talking through an open window, telling him, “I feel like I need medical attention.” Africano added, “I’m swollen and my face–” before being cut off by Donahue.
Donahue then told Keeler, “I’m a paramedic. He’s fine.” Keeler then asked Donahue to repeat himself, which he did. Next, Keeler responded, “Ok, my partner got your info,” and the agent responded, “Yeah.”
At the Sculpture Park meeting, Donahue gave Evanston police his driver’s license, which was issued in Arizona. His full name is Timothy Richard Donahue. A search of the database of the Arizona Department of Health Services found no one with his name being a certified paramedic, emergency medical responder, emergency medical technician, or advanced emergency medical technician. However, a search of the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians database found a paramedic named Timothy R. Donahue with a valid license. That database does not list the state where the licensed paramedic is from so it is not clear if he is the same man that is the CBP agent.
DHS did not respond to several requests for comment on its policies regarding prisoners who request medical attention or who appear to need medical attention.
However, Rick Nigro, a 28-year-veteran of the Chicago Police Department, including 20 as a sergeant, said Donahue did not handle the situation correctly.
“This [federal] officer was as wrong as wrong can be,” said Nigro, who retired in 2021. “At least based on CPD rules, the minute someone says, ‘I need help,’ calling for help should be instantaneous. The minute they say I need medical attention, you call for an ambulance and let them determine it.”
Nigro said even if Donahue is a paramedic as he claimed, he was wrong for not calling an ambulance.
“It doesn’t make any difference [if Donahue is a paramedic]. His primary job on that day was as a law enforcement officer.”
Evanston police agreed with Nigro, saying their policy on getting medical care for someone in custody is more in-line with the Chicago police department’s.
“When someone in Evanston Police custody shows or reports signs of physical distress, visible injury, ongoing pain, or has been rendered unconscious, officers will request medical assistance as soon as it is reasonably safe to do so. This may include any of the following, or a combination of them: a paramedic response and treatment at the scene, a transport to the hospital, or an officer rendering aid themselves,” according to a statement provided by Evanston police spokesman, Cmdr. Ryan Glew.
One expert speculated that Donahue, if he is indeed a paramedic, actually did not deny Africano medical care.
“There’s a medical assessment by a person who represents that he’s a paramedic,” said Ron Martinelli of the Oct. 31 incident.
“If that’s correct, there was a medical assessment done and that’s what is required. If someone says I’m injured or have to go to the hospital, the protocol is to provide a medical assessment,” said Martinelli, a Boerne, Texas-based forensic criminologist and former San Jose, California detective and police academy director who has testified as an expert witness for both defendants and plaintiffs.
In another Evanston police body-worn video, Moriarty asked Keeler, “What are you going to do to help us.” She was told that the responding officers were only there to identify them and notify their family and friends.
While Africano’s contention that he might need medical attention was apparently heard by Evanston Sgt. Keeler based on his reaction in the video, Nigro said it was not Evanston’s responsibility to call for help because Africano was in the custody of CBP.
“I wouldn’t fault that officer for not calling because it was not his arrest and it wasn’t overtly obvious that he [Africano] needed help,” Nigro said.“As a law enforcement officer, you try to give respect to each agency because they are law enforcement.”
Moriarty, who was arrested at the crash scene and put in the back seat next to Africano, told the Roundtable that he made several requests for medical attention, both before the video was recorded and after.
“From the moment they pushed him into the vehicle, he was in need of medical attention. He was requesting to be taken to a hospital. He was asking for medical attention,” Moriarty said.
She also said Africano had injuries from being punched that were clearly visible.
“You could see that he had some significant injury to his face,” Moriarty said, adding that his temple “was clearly bruised and swelling rapidly and becoming discolored.”
Despite that, Donahue took no action, Moriarty said. “He didn’t turn around to examine his face or look at his eye or anything.” When Africano first pleaded for help in the car soon after the arrest, Donahue, while driving, told the three prisoners in the backseat that he was a paramedic. Moriarty said she implored him to help Africano to no avail.
“I said to him, ‘If you’re a paramedic, you need to render him some aid.’”
Moriarty, who was in Donahue’s CBP Chevy Tahoe with Africano for more than an hour before she was transferred to another vehicle, said all three prisoners were brought to the Chicago FBI headquarters at 2111 W. Roosevelt Rd. in Chicago.
The impetus for the arrests
At approximately 12:20 p.m. on Oct. 31, a crash between two vehicles occurred near the intersection of Oakton Street and Ashbury Avenue. A red Acura sedan driven by Nancy Polanco rear-ended the Chevy Tahoe driven by Donahue. Shortly after, a skirmish ensured between federal officers and residents — Polanco, Moriarty and Africano among them.
Andrew Wymer, an Evanston/Skokie District 65 school board member who witnessed the confrontation after the crash, told the RoundTable that after seeing “an entourage of five vehicles full of agents” at the ALDI supermarket on Oakton sometime around noon, a group of residents followed a federal vehicle in their cars and honked their horns to alert the neighborhood.
Other witnesses described the federal agents’ driving as “erratic.” As residents followed them, witnesses say the CBP vehicles drove through stop signs and red lights.
DHS released a statement on X (formerly Twitter), claiming that CBP agents “were being aggressively tailgated by a red vehicle. As agents tried to make a U-turn, the red car crashed into Border Patrol.”
Polanco, who was not believed to be part of the group following the agents, rear-ended the federal vehicle. Polanco turned down interview requests for this story.
This week, U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis released a scathing 233-page report on federal agents’ actions in the Chicago area since the start of “Operation Midway Blitz” in early September and mentioned agents slamming their brakes to cause car crashes, among other things. She also said in several incidents, agents’ narrative of events was often contradicted by body-worn camera footage, making it “difficult, if not impossible, to believe” almost any evidence offered by the federal government. The opinion was the written version of her Nov. 6 order limiting agents’ use of force. That order has been put on hold by an appeals court, which has promised a decision in the near future.
After the Oct. 31 crash, CBP agents got out of their vehicle and “extracted” Polanco out of the red sedan, according to Wymer.
“There was a really rough arrest, like it was an extended effort to arrest them, like it probably took five minutes, at least, to get them handcuffed,” Wymer said. “EPD got here, I don’t know the timeline, maybe three or four minutes after. Then the crowd came, and they [the CBP agents] eventually left.”
Moriarty said her own apprehension was violent. She said that she was on her way to pick up her dry cleaning during her lunch hour when she saw the accident scene and decided to walk towards it for a closer look.
“I had my phone in my hand, and I was ready to hit play or hit record, and this guy just turned around and dropped me,” Moriarty said, adding that the “guy” was a federal agent who grabbed her by the neck and tossed her onto the pavement before getting on top of her. The agent who tossed her down ended up with her sitting in the back seat of the Tahoe, she said.
Moriarty also spoke to the RoundTable for a previous story about the Oct. 31 incident, saying that she was not read her rights the entire time in custody and would not characterize her seizure as an arrest.
“They didn’t fingerprint me, they didn’t take any photographs of me, they didn’t read me any rights,” Moriarty said. “There was no arrest.”
During the chaotic scene, federal officers were filmed shoving residents and using pepper spray against several of them, as a chorus of whistles rang out.
During the fray, Donahue was also seen unholstering his handgun and pointing it at the crowd.
Africano, who said he stopped at the accident scene to see if people needed help, was also quickly taken to the ground by agents. Several videos shared on social media and in news outlets show Parsons on top of Africano.
While DHS refused to comment on its rules for DHS officers regarding prisoners who request medical attention or appear to need medical attention, the agency sent the Roundtable a statement.
“During an operation at Oakton Street and Ashbury Avenue in Evanston, agents observed they were being aggressively tailgated by a red vehicle. As agents tried to make a U-turn, the red car crashed into Border Patrol. A hostile crowd surrounded agents and their vehicle, and began verbally abusing them and spitting on them. As Border patrol arrested one individual, who actively resisted arrest, pepper spray was deployed spray to deter the agitator and disperse the crowd. Three U.S. citizens were arrested as a result of their violence against law enforcement,” the statement read.
DHS also previously claimed in a post on X that the CBP agent was “assaulted” by the man [Africano] who “grabbed the agent’s genitals and squeezed them…this is an extremely painful experience for most human beings and justifies certain responses, the agent delivered several defensive strikes to the agitator to free his genitals from the agitator’s vice.”
A review of several videos taken by onlookers and body-worn camera footage from Evanston police officers do not show Africano’s grabbing Parsons, the CBP agent. Several of the videos do appear to show Parsons, punching Africano several times in the face while on top of him and then dragging him across the pavement before shoving him in a vehicle.
Donahue and Parsons have not been charged with any wrongdoing, but Evanston police body-worn camera footage and other materials related to the incident have been sent to the Illinois Attorney General’s Office for review, according to Mayor Daniel Biss. Additionally, an initial public records denial from the city revealed that the FBI is investigating the incident.
City spokesperson Cynthia Vargas declined to comment on behalf of EPD or other city staff on that question. The FBI told the Roundtable that they refuse to comment on or confirm investigations.
Biss issued a statement this week to the RoundTable about the incident.
“The actions taken by Customs and Border Protection agents in Evanston on October 31 were terrifying, dangerous, and utterly unacceptable,” Biss wrote. “These agents caused a car crash assaulted peaceful onlookers and threatened them for hours…We know the names of two of the agents – Timothy Donahue and Thomas Parsons – whose violent actions injured residents and traumatized our community.”
While “Operation Midway Blitz” seems to have scaled back, Democratic Congresswoman Lauren Underwood, after touring the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview on Monday, said she was told that federal immigration activities will continue.
“That money is being spent here,” Underwood said in press conference. “The staff footprint in this facility and downtown, the downtown processing center is slated to probably triple by January. … They are increasing immigration enforcement at that rapid rate.”
As for Africano, he is recovering at home and still awaiting a court date to fight the charges against him, Weinberg said.
Here’s a disturbing video from Evanston of a federal agent hitting a man on the ground as people yell that he can’t breathe.
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— Gregory Pratt (@royalpratt.bsky.social) October 31, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Alex Harrison, Margo Milanowski and Hope Perry contributed to this story.
