Identified: federal agents who pointed gun, punched detainee in Evanston

Content warning: this story contains descriptions of police violence and graphic hate speech.

Editorial note: Border Patrol Agent Timothy Donahue arrested and then released Unraveled journalist Steve Held without charges on September 27 outside the Broadview, Illinois ICE facility. Held was not involved in the writing or editing of this story.

Newly released records obtained via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request reveal the names of two U.S. Border Patrol agents responsible for a violent scene that unfolded in the streets of Evanston on Halloween afternoon.

Agent Timothy Donahue of Arizona is identified via a vehicle crash report as the driver of a car of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents that traveled through Evanston and Rogers Park that day. Another agent on the team, Thomas Parsons, gives his name to an Evanston 911 dispatcher as well as a police officer.

Several hours of body-worn camera (BWC) videos from Evanston police officers who responded to the scene are also included in the materials released.

Both federal agents are seen in social media videos from the crash behaving aggressively, with Donahue pointing his service weapon at unarmed bystanders, and Parsons punching a handcuffed man on the ground. Agents reportedly also pepper sprayed onlookers, and detained three people in total before taking them to the Chicago FBI field office and then releasing them without charges.

According to The Evanston RoundTable, Mayor Daniel Biss has now asked Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul to investigate the incident.

Unraveled has verified a social media account on X (formerly known as Twitter) belonging to Donahue. While not a prolific user, he has used the account to make disparaging remarks about women and trans people, share racist imagery, and cheer on hate crimes. His tour across Chicagoland this autumn—during which he was easily spotted due to a distinctive red beard and lack of a face covering—included several known instances of reckless driving, menacing people with chemical weapons, and questioning them about their citizenship status.

Halloween rampage

Viral videos from October 31 show Agent Timothy Donahue pointing his gun at bystanders in Evanston after a vehicle crash near Oakton and Asbury.

“Step back or I’ll fucking shoot you,” he says as he draws his weapon:

By far the most disturbing ICE video I’ve seen from Evanston, IL today.

An ICE agent points his gun at unarmed citizens. Twice.

Then, he goes around the SUV, drops to his knees, and presses his full weight onto a man’s back. Moments later, that same man’s head is beaten into… pic.twitter.com/2TkiaP3R48

— Jesus Freakin Congress (@TheJFreakinC) October 31, 2025

Another agent, identified by both 911 audio and BWC footage as Thomas Parsons, can also be seen in the street at the time beating an already handcuffed man on the ground:

Donahue provided his name in full on an Illinois traffic crash report filed out during a brief meeting with Evanston police officers after the chaos. The residence address listed is the Chicago ICE field office on Ida B. Wells drive:

He can also been seen on video giving Evanston police his information:

Thomas Parsons, the other agent in the vehicle alongside Donahue during this exchange, identified himself as a team lead on scene approximately 45 minutes earlier to an Evanston police officer:

Shortly after leaving Evanston, Donahue and Parsons were seen driving in Rogers Park—where they were again witnessed driving erratically and intimidating people with pepper spray.

When a rapid responder witnessed him with the window rolled down and biked closer, he could hear detainees in the back of the car shouting, “ICE! ICE! ICE!” Donahue can then be seen on video casually shaking his pepper spray can.

“I was scared when he menaced the pepper spray at us,” John* told Unraveled. “He had the energy of someone that was about to snap and spray us or get out of the car and grab us.”

After driving several more blocks, a frustrated Donahue exited the vehicle in the middle of the street to threaten the car driver behind him with the chemical agent. He then sped off the wrong way down a one-way road:

“It was hard to go on with my day after witnessing this,” John said. “Their operation reminded me of what I witnessed in the West Bank of Palestine […] when the attack ended, life continued in the village, but their violence altered everything in me.”

“Some cultures are better than others”

Agent Donahue has used an X account with a small following—using the handle @Timothy77593126—to boost and reply to right-wing and QAnon influencers for years. He also claims he donates money regularly to Alex Rosen/@IFightForKids, a controversial and popular vigilante “pedophile hunter.” Rosen has repeatedly falsely blamed the LGBTQ* community for “grooming” children.

“Elections aren’t real. Lucifer is,” he writes in one reply to a post from November 8, 2023.

In another reply, he says that he previously worked as a paramedic. He claimed to Evanston police that this medic status is still active when they inquired about detainee injuries.

An archived version of the account included Donahue’s full name in his user handle, as well as a profile photo of his younger self:

Donahue makes a number of bigoted comments about queer and trans people. In the replies to a post from right-wing hate account Libs of TikTok, he simply remarks “Woodchipper” to a photo of a drag queen.

“Based,” he writes underneath a disturbing video of two men allegedly beating another for being gay.

Under another video clip purporting to show a “car full of illegal immigrants” crashed into intentionally, someone asks if the car flippings are really necessary. “Super necessary,” Donahue replies. Federal agents were involved in numerous car crashes, including at least one admitted PIT maneuver on the Southeast Side, across Chicagoland throughout September and October.

He shares several racist memes, including one that calls the Juneteenth holiday “retarded and gay,” and also approves (“Based”) of a (potentially fictional) writeup of a “Southern” father disowning his daughter for going to prom with a Black man, complete with a barrage of racial slurs.

He also affirms America would improve if women lost the the right to vote. And in a reply to right-wing provocateur Ian Miles Cheong, he shares his “unpopular opinion” that some cultures are better than others:

“You could just tell he thought he could do whatever he wanted”

Jordan* was biking through Albany Park on October 21 watching for ICE vehicles when he was briefly stopped and questioned by Agent Donahue.

As he attempted to pass the agents’ SUV, the driver, who was wearing a bright blue hoodie and no mask, rolled down his window.

“Hey brother, we’re officers with DHS, we want to ask you some questions,” the agent said. After Jordan didn’t respond, the fed asked if he was a U.S. citizen.

“It felt very much like the trope of the racist police stop,” Jordan told Unraveled. “There’s no way someone would’ve asked me that if I wasn’t brown.”

Donahue would quickly move on from Albany Park to Rogers Park after that. But Jordan was left shaken by the encounter.

“It was incredibly scary,” he added. “I carry my passport with me now. People who are white don’t have to think about this at all.”

“They were also taking photos of me. In the moment I was thinking I have to comply with these agents, because they can do anything they want with me. I can see how people are getting coerced. They are unidentifiable, they have weapons […] you could just tell he thought he could do whatever he wanted.”

A social media video from October 17 shared to Instagram shows a similar stop by Donahue across town in Chicago’s Southeast Side neighborhood. This time, Agent Donahue exits his vehicle with other agents and advances. The video ends abruptly with Donahue grabbing the person filming the encounter. Unraveled could not reach any eyewitnesses:

On October 27, Donahue can be seen behind the wheel in yet another incident, also on the far South Side. Another Border Patrol agent advances on a person filming while questioning where they were born:

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to our inquiries on agents’ uses of force or Donahue’s social media use.

*victims’ names have been anonymized due to safety concerns