Investigation Shows No Direct Threat to Community

Bryan Stalder
Contributor

On the morning of Tuesday, January 6, several parents dropping off students at Garfield Elementary School (436 Prospect Ave) grew alarmed after seeing law enforcement officers parked near the reservoir in Kessler Park, roughly three blocks north of the school. Within hours, rumors circulated throughout the neighborhood that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were watching nearby schools and potentially planning to deport students and their families.

According to our investigation, that did not happen.

No federal law enforcement officers interacted with students or families at Garfield Elementary that morning, and no investigation was directed at the school, or any other school in Northeast. What unfolded, instead, was a rapid spread of partial information—some of it accurate, some of it not—that escalated fear in a community already on edge.

Reservoir Rd. in Kessler Park is a location where residents frequently see law enforcement vehicles. Kansas City Police Department officers and Jackson County Sheriff’s deputies are known to park there periodically, and their presence alone is not unusual.

What made this incident jarring for many residents was that these vehicles were unmarked, some had Kansas license plates, and officers were seen wearing gear associated with different federal agencies. One officer was observed wearing a vest marked ATF, while another wore a vest marked ICE. Those details, combined with the proximity to an elementary school and the current national climate around immigration enforcement, created understandable concern.

Shortly after the sighting at the reservoir, a U.S. Marshals-related investigation took place near Independence Avenue and Jackson Avenue. According to multiple sources, that operation was not related to immigration enforcement.

Numerous law enforcement officers we spoke with suggest that what was seen in Kessler Park that Tuesday morning was a Federal Task Force, possibly preparing for an investigation or operation, likely related to the one seen at Independence Avenue and Jackson Avenue.

On Tuesday, Dec. 30, Kansas City FBI Special Agent Stephen Cyrus announced that federal authorities had conducted 55 large-scale drug seizures across the Kansas City metro in 2025, confiscating illegal narcotics and hundreds of firearms. He called the reduction of violent crime and drug-related violence his office’s top priority for the year. Often times, in these federal operations, members of various federal agencies partner together. Occasionally, federal agents will even be “deputized” to another agency.

The officers seen that morning at Kessler Park were not there to investigate Garfield Elementary and did not engage with families, students, or school staff. There is no evidence to suggest the school was ever a target.

Jordan Schiele, a Pendleton Heights resident and project director for Jerusalem Farm, a Catholic intentional community serving Historic Northeast, said members of the Jerusalem Farm community witnessed officers in the area wearing ICE-identifying gear.

“The people we saw clearly had ICE vests on,” Schiele said. “It can be true that they were working with ATF or other agencies. I am very aware of false ICE reports. We had people from our community see an agent outside the school. We aren’t saying they were targeting the school, but we saw what we saw.”

Schiele emphasized that residents attempted to verify information before sharing it.

“This is the first we have actually verified ICE firsthand in Pendleton Heights. They could have been part of a separate operation. But regardless, it’s good to know they were here.”

Ben Roesler, another Pendleton Heights resident who later appeared in local news coverage of this incident, described seeing multiple officers and vehicles near the reservoir on East Reservoir Drive shortly before 8 a.m. Roesler said a neighbor first alerted him to the presence of the officers, after which he arrived, photographed them, and recorded video.

“The men I saw had different gear on, one said ATF and one said ICE,” Roesler said. He later said he saw two men wearing ICE vests. “They were wearing vests, visibly armed, and some had badges visible. I counted six men in six vehicles of different types.”

Roesler said that shortly after 8 a.m., the officers entered their vehicles and left the area nearly simultaneously, which heightened concern among nearby residents.

“When they all left at once, some of us worried they might be heading toward neighborhood schools during morning drop-off,” he said.

Roesler and other neighbors attempted to follow some of the vehicles to better understand what was happening. He followed one truck on a circuitous route that eventually parked on Garfield Avenue near the Scuola Vita Nuova Charter School (SVN) (544 Garfield Ave,) while other residents reported following additional vehicles until they separated or entered the highway.

Roesler reports that others have told him they observed one of these vehicles parked outside the Della Lamb daycare (500 Woodland) but emphasized that no officers attempted to engage with Garfield Elementary, SVN, or Della Lamb.

“We did not see any attempt by these agents to engage at Garfield,” he said. “Several neighbors, myself included, went there just to be present. I saw other neighbors out as well.”

He said that throughout the day, residents coordinated informally to be present near neighborhood schools in Pendleton Heights and across Northeast Kansas City, including during dismissal.

Northeast News has created a graphic using the images that Roesler provided, which may help readers visualize the proximity of the officers to the school and the identification or clothing they may have been wearing that morning.

Although Garfield Elementary was not the intended target of the law enforcement activity, nor was any other school in Northeast, fear spread quickly among parents at schools throughout the neighborhood.

Jimmy Fitzner, president of the Indian Mound Neighborhood Association, said he was not an eyewitness to the officers at the park but became involved after seeing images and videos circulating online.

“At Garfield, Gladstone, and James [schools], parents were definitely scared,” Fitzner said. “I had to wait with some kids [after school] until we called parents to give them an all clear.”

Fitzner stressed that the panic was not manufactured.

“That’s not just people causing panic—that’s these agents causing panic by being here,” he said. “I agree that we can’t just panic when any agency comes around, especially if we want them addressing crime at all.”

Concerned residents contacted Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation (AIRR-KC), an organization that helps verify reports of immigration enforcement and provides rights-based resources for vulnerable communities. AIRR subsequently issued an alert stating that ICE had been present in Northeast Kansas City.

Edgar Palacios, an Independence Plaza resident and executive director of Revolución Educativa (RevEd,) a Kansas City-based education advocacy organization located in Pendleton Heights, said he did not personally witness ICE at the park but trusts AIRR’s verification process. Palacios was interviewed by multiple local media outlets following the incident.

“Here’s our protocol,” Palacios said. “When we receive a report of an ICE sighting, before we post or share anything publicly, we send it to AIRR to vet. They have an established process to verify sightings and determine whether they are credible. We’re aligned on the importance of not spreading false information or creating additional fear.”

Palacios added that his public comments were focused less on the specific event and more on preparedness.

“I’m not commenting on the event itself,” he said, “but rather on the importance and need for Know Your Rights training, particularly for schools.”

Disclosure: Northeast News has a longstanding partnership with RevEd to provide Spanish-language reporting in the community.

As the situation circulated through social media, some versions of the story became increasingly exaggerated. Claims emerged that as many as six ICE agents were operating together, that all were masked, and that Garfield Elementary may have been a target.

There is no documented evidence that officers were masked at the Kessler Park staging area, and no credible information supports the assertion that the elementary school was under investigation. Framing the incident around a school, rather than verified law enforcement activity, may have amplified fear unnecessarily.

While English-language neighborhood forums focused on ICE and the school, Spanish-language Facebook discussions reflected a more skeptical tone, with many commenters urging verification and warning against rumor-spreading.

Several residents stated that the activity appeared to be anti-narcotics or non-immigration related, and criticized posts that caused panic without confirmation.

“First of all, you need to be sure of what you’re posting,” wrote Kimberly Carillo. “Mistakes like this scare a lot of people. Just seeing these trucks makes people think they’re ICE, and that’s not the case.”

Others echoed concerns about credibility and the harm caused by misinformation, particularly in immigrant communities already living with fear.

The anxiety surrounding the sighting did not occur in isolation. The following day, Wednesday, January 7, Renee Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent during a protest in Minnesota, an incident that intensified national scrutiny and fear of immigration enforcement. Against that backdrop, residents’ reactions in Northeast Kansas City were shaped by real vulnerability and recent trauma—not by irrationality.

State representative Wick Thomas answered community members’ questions at the RevEd Office, (2301 Lexington Ave) on Sunday, January 11.

At least two community training sessions have been held in the week since the initial sighting was reported. The goal of these meetings has been to inform individuals of their rights, and to let people know how to report information accurately, and avoid interfering with a federal investigation in a way that could create unnecessary harm or panic to themselves or others.

The sighting of federal law enforcement agents at Kessler Park was not an immigration raid on an elementary school. But the fear that followed was real, and it had real consequences for families and children.

Protecting vulnerable communities requires both vigilance and restraint: verifying information before sharing it, being precise when schools are involved, and distinguishing between the presence of law enforcement and the purpose of their activity.

In moments like these, accuracy is not just a journalistic value—it is a form of community care.