The last time the agents ripped through Little Village, fireworks, flash bangs and blaring car horns sounded up and down 26th Street for hours.
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But for a minute, on a grassy hill outside a Sam’s Club, everything was quiet.
Rafael Veraza was bent over, scrubbing at his head and face as a woman spoke to him in Spanish, telling him to let her rinse his head off.
They stood next to a car parked haphazardly at the curb. Evelin Herrera sat in the front passenger seat, holding her 1-year-old daughter. Arianna Veraza’s face was damp. Her eyes were open and bloodshot. She was silent.
Later, cellphone footage showed a masked agent lean out a car window as the caravan passed the Verazas’ car and deploy pepper spray. It showed Arianna crying after they’d pulled over.
After that footage exploded across the internet, at a news conference the Verazas would say they’d had nothing to do with Midway Blitz but had heard advice to film in the event of an encounter with federal agents. They had been headed to pick up diapers and eggs and milk when they heard the helicopters and saw the agents’ convoy.
But right then, as Veraza stood shirtless on the hill and Herrera bounced Arianna, another wave of horns and screams and whistles sounded. The agents’ caravan rolled past again and stopped, seemingly at random, at the intersection of 26th Street and Ogden Avenue. This time, they got out of their cars. Within seconds, protesters swarmed among the agents, screaming and holding their cellphones aloft.
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The Veraza family got into a New Life Centers van. Instead of going for groceries, they headed to the hospital.