Who is Richard LA and what happened to him? Shooting incident involving ICE agents and TikTok star explained

TikTok star Richard LA was recently shot and injured by ICE agents along with a US marshal in South Los Angeles during the morning hours on October 21, 2025. A press release from the US Attorney’s Office stated that Richard has now been charged with hitting the vehicles of the authorities while trying to take his car during an immigration operation.

While Richard’s identity was initially not revealed, acting US Attorney Bill Essayli eventually confirmed it as the news of the shooting incident started trending everywhere.

Notably, LA is being accused of reportedly assaulting a police officer, and he might be sentenced to eight years. ABC 7 Los Angeles also obtained a statement from the assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, who claimed that Richard LA was allegedly trying to escape by ramming into the vehicles. Tricia added:

“Fearing for the safety of the public and law enforcement, our officers followed their training and fired defensive shots.”

Richard LA, also known as Carlitos Ricardo Parias, will now be taken to the Roybal Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles, Essayli shared on X (formerly Twitter). Essayli added:

“Vehicles are deadly weapons. Anyone who uses them against federal agents risks arrest, imprisonment, and life-threatening injuries. We will continue to use every tool in our legal arsenal to protect our agents and enforce immigration laws passed by Congress.”

ABC7 WWSB stated that Richard LA frequently posts videos and other kinds of content related to immigration enforcement on TikTok. He has accumulated more than 100,000 followers on the platform and received a Certificate of Recognition for his work in empowering and protecting the South Los Angeles community from the Councilmember Curren Price’s office.

Richard LA has previously avoided being arrested by the authorities: Shooting incident and more explained

The press release from the US Attorney’s Office stated that there was an administrative immigration arrest warrant against Carlitos Ricardo Parias/Richard LA. Notably, the authorities prepared a surveillance at a particular spot in the South-Central region of South Los Angeles. Moreover, he had reportedly avoided an arrest on another occasion.

Richard reportedly came out of his house and drove towards the east. Although the authorities positioned themselves to stop him from moving further, Richard was able to recognize them and immediately tried to turn back. However, he was stopped by two more vehicles, following which they boxed the car, aiming to ensure that Richard could not leave the spot.

The federal agents initially ordered Richard to surrender. But he refused to leave the car and allegedly started moving it back and forth, eventually hitting the vehicles of the authorities.

One of the agents tried to break a window of the car, and while Richard was reportedly trying to drive and leave, smoke started forming around the entire vehicle, along with debris flying into the air. A portion of the debris also hit the agents.

Bill Essayli said that the agents were worried for their safety as the car started to “fishtail.” Essayli opened up on what happened next:

“Ultimately, an agent opened fire, wounding Parias and a deputy U.S. marshal, who was hit with a ricochet bullet. Fortunately, both the deputy marshal and Parias are expected to recover. Parias was arrested. He is presumed innocent until proven guilty.”

Both Richard and the federal agent were transported to a hospital in downtown Los Angeles. Apart from that, the LAPD responded by stating that they were not directly involved in the entire case.