A 19-year-old U.S. citizen was taken to New Century Detention Center, detained for hours and released without charge after an encounter with an ICE agent in Olathe on Saturday.
That same agent, Jack Ravencamp of Johnson County, is currently facing a federal civil rights lawsuit in Maine alleging unlawful detention and use of excessive force during an immigration operation in that state in January.
Alan Marquez, who was handcuffed at the scene by Olathe police officers alongside his cousin on Saturday, told the Post they were never given a clear explanation for why they were detained and they were not charged.
He said Ravencamp pepper-sprayed his and his cousin’s trucks and backed into Marquez’s truck, doing enough damage that a Department of Homeland Security official later gave Marquez instructions on how to file a claim.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to the Post’s request for comment. Neither did the U.S. Department of Justice attorneys representing Ravencamp in the Maine lawsuit.
Olathe Police would not comment on Saturday’s events, and the department denied the Post’s request for records of the incident, citing an active investigation.
Ravencamp’s confrontation with Marquez and the Maine lawsuit come at a time of heightened scrutiny of ICE’s operations, especially surrounding traffic stops and street encounters.
News outlets this week reported that ICE temporarily suspended most vehicle stops while reviewing two recent fatal shootings involving drivers and ICE agents in Texas and Maine, respectively. On Wednesday, however, Reuters reported that President Trump reversed that policy, ordering ICE to resume using traffic stops as a tactic.
Olathe confrontation
On Saturday morning, Marquez was on the way to his auto shop when he noticed several Olathe police cars and ICE agents at an apartment complex near Dennis Avenue and Harrison Street.
Curious, Marquez said, he pulled into the complex’s parking lot.
He said an ICE agent, later identified as Ravencamp, wearing tactical gear and a hat with the Mexican flag on it, soon approached Marquez’s red pickup truck.
According to Marquez, the agent said something like, “’What’s up, papi? You next?’”
From there, according to Marquez, a second witness and multiple videos shared with the Post, things escalated.
Video taken by a witness and shared with the Post shows Ravencamp approaching Marquez’s truck with pepper spray.
Marquez said he drove away, but circled back around and parked in front of Ravencamp’s car.
He said Ravencamp, who wasn’t in his car at the time, told him to move repeatedly. Marquez said several Olathe police officers nearby were watching the encounter unfold.
“The police officers were like around there, they were looking at me, and not a single one came up to me and told me to move,” Marquez said.
A video Marquez shot and shared with the Post shows Ravencamp at his truck window, seemingly recording Marquez on his phone.
Marquez said the stand-off lasted about 10 minutes. At some point, Marquez’s cousin drove by and, recognizing Marquez’s truck, also parked in the lot, on the other side of Ravencamp’s car.
Video taken by another witness and reviewed by the Post shows Ravencamp backing his car into Marquez’s truck, damaging the mirror and driver’s side door. That’s when Marquez said he decided to reverse to give Ravencamp space to get out.
“I backed up because that’s when I like got scared,” Marquez said.
Marquez said Ravencamp then turned his attention to his cousin, allegedly pepper spraying his truck, too.
According to Marquez, when his cousin drove off, Ravencamp soon followed. Marquez then left the complex’s parking lot, but once he drove to a nearby intersection, he saw his cousin pulled over, in handcuffs on the ground.
Handcuffed and taken to jail
Marquez pulled over and said an Olathe police officer then knocked on his window and told him to get out. He refused at first.
“I was like, ‘I haven’t done anything,'” Marquez recalled. “‘There’s no reason for me to get out of my truck.'”
Marquez said he got out of his truck with his hands in the air, was handcuffed and put in a patrol car.
Marquez said officers told him they were detaining him while they figured out what happened. Later, he said an officer told him he was under arrest.
Marquez and his cousin were taken to the New Century Detention Center in separate cars and changed into prison uniforms there.
Marquez alleges that neither the Olathe Police officers who brought them to New Century nor the clerk at the detention center knew what to do next but ultimately decided to hold them until ICE arrived.
Hours later, Marquez said, a man with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security came to speak with him and his cousin.
“They were trying to say that we had tried to hit them and that we were [evading] a federal arrest, and they were trying to give us charges for that,” Marquez said.
Marquez said he showed the investigator the videos he had taken of the encounter with Ravencamp, including the agent pepper-spraying his car and backing into him.
He said the investigator told the agents that there wasn’t enough evidence to charge Marquez or his cousin and they were released.
Marquez shared screenshots of a text conversation he had later with the investigator instructing him to submit a claim for the damage to his truck.
Lawsuit stemming from Maine incident
Even before his run-in with Marquez, Ravencamp has become a known figure among rapid responders in Johnson County, activists who have tasked themselves with monitoring ICE activity in the area.
A video of the Ravencamp confronting a man videotaping in a QuikTrip parking lot circulated widely on social media this week. The video was posted on Saturday, the same day as Marquez’s encounter.
In the video, Ravencamp can be heard saying, “What’s up, papi?” and telling the man, “Get back now, or I’m going to spray you.”
Multiple “community defense” volunteers have also brought up Ravencamp’s aggressive tactics in previous interviews with the Post, well before this latest incident.
Ravencamp is currently the lead defendant in a federal civil rights lawsuit filed in April in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine.
The suit was filed by Juan Sebastián Carvajal-Muñoz, a Colombian civil engineer working in Maine on a valid H-1B visa, over an incident that happened in January.
According to the complaint, Carvajal-Muñoz was driving to work when multiple unmarked ICE vehicles boxed in his car. He alleges agents smashed his car window with a crowbar and dragged him out of it. The complaint says Ravencamp himself pointed a taser at Carvajal-Muñoz.
Documents from the Main lawsuit detail Ravencamp’s car and license plate — the same ones seen in videos from Saturday’s encounter with Marquez in Olathe and the exchange in the QuikTrip parking lot.
Carvajal-Muñoz said he repeatedly told ICE agents he was in the U.S. lawfully. Even so, the complaint says, the agents handcuffed and detained him.
According to the complaint, the agents confirmed his visa was valid within two hours of his detention but held him anyway. They allegedly drove him between Maine and an ICE facility in Burlington, Massachusetts. In total, Carvajal-Muñoz was in custody for about 12 hours before being released with no charges. Once released, the lawsuit says he was left on his own to find his way home.
The complaint alleges that at no point did the agents give Carvajal-Muñoz a reason for stopping or arresting him.
The lawsuit says Carvajal-Muñoz’s arrest was part of an ICE initiative called “Operation Catch of the Day,” which the complaint says led to 200 detentions in Maine in its first week.
Cumberland County Sheriff Kevin Joyce is quoted in the complaint as calling the operation “bush league policing” and that local law enforcement was told one story, while another played out.
The suit claims Carvajal-Muñoz’s Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights were violated as well as the Maine Civil Rights Act. Carvajal-Muñoz is seeking compensation and punitive damages and a jury trial.
The federal lawsuit is still pending. Ravencamp is being represented by lawyers from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Federal court records show Ravencamp was served a civil summons at a Johnson County address on April 30.
ICE stops bring scrutiny
The lawsuit against Ravencamp and his encounter with Marquez come as ICE’s use of traffic stops has drawn scrutiny across the country.
On Monday, an ICE agent fatally shot a 25-year-old man in his car in Biddeford, Maine, about 15 miles from Portland.
Six days before that, an ICE agent shot and killed a 52-year-old man in Houston.
ICE officials have said agents in both cases believed they faced imminent threats from moving vehicles. Investigations into both shootings remain ongoing.
