An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer was captured fumbling and then pointing a gun toward bystanders during an arrest Wednesday morning at a busy Hyattsville intersection.

Two ICE officers chased a man into the intersection of Queens Chapel Road and Hamilton Street around 8:20 a.m. before tackling him, said Raphi Talisman, a Hyattsville photographer who was at a stoplight when the arrest happened. Talisman said his “heart sunk” and he got out of his vehicle to record the arrest.

In the video, ICE officers are on top of the man, who is face down on the street in front of a line of stopped cars. Talisman said several people were watching and filming the arrest when one ICE officer fumbled his gun, picked it up and pointed it toward those gathered around.

Talisman said the officer was “sweating and panicking,” and the gun “just escalated everything so quickly.”

In a chaotic scene, the man on the ground was screaming “help me” in Spanish and English. Bystanders were yelling back to him and the officers in both languages.

When one bystander asked the officer with the gun why the man was being arrested, the officer replied, “Because he’s a criminal.”

Within 10 minutes, at least six officers who joined the fray had the man cuffed by his hands and ankles before placing him into an unmarked light blue minivan, the video showed.

“I was shocked that all of this was happening in pure daylight in such a brazen way,” Talisman said.

The video also showed, after the man was placed in the vehicle, one of the ICE officers pointing at another bystander and approaching him to ask, “Do you want to be next?”

When the bystander responded that he was a minor, the officer walked away and responded, “Oh, you’re lucky.”

The Department of Homeland Security identified the man whom officers arrested as Job Arias-Mendoza, an immigrant from El Salvador who the department said is in the country illegally. Arias had been arrested previously for first-degree assault, second-degree assault, reckless endangerment, concealing a dangerous weapon and resisting arrest, Assistant Secretary for DHS Tricia McLaughlin said in an emailed statement.

Maryland court records show Arias was indicted in 2024 on charges of first-degree assault, second-degree assault and reckless endangerment, but prosecutors decided not to prosecute the case. It was not immediately clear what led to the decision not to prosecute him or if he had other charges outside of the state.

McLaughlin added that Arias resisted arrest and attempted to bite an officer on Wednesday.

“After he was handcuffed, Arias was found to have multiple knives and drugs in his possession,” she said in the statement.

It is unclear where Arias is being held.

Hyattsville is in Prince George’s County outside Washington. The intersection where the arrest took place is part of a main road just over a mile outside the capital.