Massachusetts Dem city councilor charged with assault, interfering with police after obstructing ICE operation

Worcester, Massachusetts City Councilor Etel Haxhiaj has been charged with assault and battery on an officer as well as interfering with police following a May 8 ICE operation in the city that saw the District 5 city councilor captured on camera attacking authorities as they carried out an arrest.

Per the Telegram & Gazette, court records released on June 4 found that the police department had sought three charges against Haxhiaj, however, at a closed-door hearing on June 4, an assistant clerk-magistrate found probable cause to issue two of the charges.

Haxhiaj has been charged with one count of assault and battery on a police officer and one count of interfering with police. Police had sought two counts of assault and battery on an officer. She is set to be arraigned on July 23.

Haxhiaj wrote in a statement regarding the charges, "Our community continues to be shocked and devastated by the events on Eureka Street as our country staggers from political upheaval. It is frustrating to now be targeted by this criminal prosecution as well. I am a mother, an immigrant and elected leader who attempted, along with other Worcester residents, to protect a traumatized young person, two mothers and an infant. I did the humane thing to do in this situation, nothing more, nothing less."

"My life’s calling has been to help others. I am a former refugee who fled and escaped violence. I, like too many others in our city, have previously lived through the nightly terror of whisper campaigns, street round-ups and disappeared neighbors, which I experienced when I lived in both Albania and Greece. It is frightening that the same type of conduct is now a reality in this country,” she added.

Haxhiaj ;concluded, "Protecting the most vulnerable should not lead to being targeted and vilified. And working to improve policing in our city by calling for oversight and accountability should not provoke political grandstanding and attacks. I look forward to responding to these charges in court."

A statement of facts filed by Worcester police Lt. John Bossolt said that Haxhaij had pushed an officer, Shauna McGuirk, in the chest at one point during the incident, and pulled the officer’s arm as she was making the arrest.

40-year-old Rosane Ferreira de Oliveira, a Brazilian national who entered the country illegally in August 2022, was taken into custody as well as her teen daughter. De Oliveira was charged with endangerment of a child, disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, while the teen was charged with reckless endangerment of a child, disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest.