A violent agitator was sentenced to three years in federal prison for throwing rocks at ICE vehicles during riots in Los Angeles last year.
Elpidio Reyna, 42, from Compton, was captured on video hurling large chunks of concrete at the government vehicles last June near a Home Depot in Paramount.
“Disagreeing with laws passed by Congress does not give you a right to assault federal officers,” First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli said in a statement.
“This defendant thought he would go unpunished for throwing large rocks at law enforcement. Instead, he’ll be serving time in federal prison, where he can reflect on his poor decision.”
The attack occurred as agents were staging an operation near the Home Depot, when Reyna and other protestors began lighting objects on fire and throwing rocks toward their vehicles.
A rock that Reyna threw broke through glass and cut an officer’s forehead.
After the attack, Reyna fled to Mexico after law enforcement released images of him. He ended up on the FBI’s “Most Wanted’ List” and was eventually arrested by Mexican authorities before agreeing to surrender to the FBI.
The 42-year-old pleaded guilty on February 17 to one felony count of assault on a federal officer by deadly or dangerous weapon resulting in bodily injury and has been in federal custody since July 2025.
In a separate case, a 31-year-old man named Jacob Daniel Terrazas was also sentenced to 10 months in jail in July for throwing chunks of cinderblocks at the same riot. One of the rocks hit a Border Patrol agent in the leg, causing him to bleed.
And 25-year-old man was sentenced to 30 months behind bars in June after hitting an officer in the head with a rock at an ICE office in Portland.
