Video shows CBP agent in Charlotte smashing car window with rifle during arrest

Claim:

A video authentically showed a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent smashing a car window with a rifle during an arrest in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Rating:

In November 2025, as Charlotte, North Carolina, became the latest U.S. city to face targeted immigration enforcement action by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a video (archived) circulated that claimed to show a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent smashing a car window with a rifle during an arrest in the city.

The DHS said on Nov. 17, 2025, that it had arrested more than 130 people during “Operation Charlotte’s Web,” the department’s name for immigration enforcement actions targeting criminals without legal status in the U.S. who DHS claimed “flocked” to North Carolina because “they knew sanctuary politicians would protect them.”

One user who posted the video on Reddit claimed agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or Customs and Border Protection (CBP), both DHS agencies, “abducted” two U.S. citizens after they honked their car horn to alert the public to the agents’ presence and that one agent used “an AR15 muzzle to smash out a car window before zip tying the women.”

ICE/CBP abducted 2 US Citizens for allegedly honking their car horns to warn of a kidnapping patrol in Charlotte, NC. The video shows heavily armed agents using an AR15 muzzle to smash out a car window before zip tying the women (11/18/25)
byu/I_may_have_weed inPublicFreakout

The footage also circulated on X (archived), Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived) and Threads (archived).

The video appeared to be authentic, meaning not created using artificial intelligence or digitally manipulated. According to a Facebook post (archived) by Shea Watts, who local news media reported recorded the video of the arrest, “BP agents” detained “two US citizens,” smashing their car window in the process. 

Watts’ footage showed an agent in a camouflage uniform using his weapon to dent a car window before more agents pulled two women out of the vehicle and handcuffed them. The footage showed one agent with a shoulder patch from BORSTAR, CBP’s Border Patrol Search, Trauma, and Rescue unit headquartered in El Paso, Texas. Therefore, we rate this claim true.

We reached out to Watts to confirm heXXX recorded the video. We also reached out to the CBP for its comments on the arrest. We await replies to our queries.

According to WCNC and WFMY News 2, two local news outlets in Charlotte and Greensboro, North Carolina, the husband of one of the women arrested said his wife was a U.S. citizen. Snopes could not reach either woman seen in the footage to confirm their citizenship status.

Reports said agents kept the two women they pulled out of the car detained for hours at an FBI facility before releasing them with a citation, or order to appear before a court. Reports did not say why the women received the citations.

In Watts’ footage, one woman, whose husband spoke to local news media, said (time code 00:41) agents accused her of “driving erratically because they were chasing me down the road.”

The woman said agents followed her down Central Avenue in Charlotte, through a parking lot and onto side streets before they (time code 01:38) “put their lights on after about five minutes of following me and pulled me over, pulled us into here, broke the windows in my car.”

CBP had not replied to a question about why agents detained the two women at the time of this writing. Watts reportedly told WCNC and WFMY News 2 that agents accused the driver of honking their car horn to warn others that border patrol agents were in the area. Snopes has not independently verified this claim.

According to Watts, one agent said he detained the women in accordance with federal legislation on “Assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers or employees.”

Watts also wrote on Facebook that one of the women had called the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) while CBP agents followed her. The department reportedly “told her not to open up.” When asked about this claim, the CMPD Public Affairs Division replied with a statement that did not directly address the claim but read, in part, “The CMPD does not participate in ICE or CBP operations, nor are we involved in the planning or execution of any federal immigration enforcement activities.”

Snopes submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for the reported call and will update this report if we hear back.

Watts posted the footage showing CBP agents detaining the women in Charlotte’s Plaza Midwood neighborhood on Nov. 17, 2025. Two days earlier, on Nov. 15, another video showed agents smashing the window of a truck belonging to Willy Aceituno, a Charlotte resident, before dragging him to the ground and arresting him.

According to a post (archived) on the DHS X account, Aceituno was “erratic, refused lawful commands, and had to be removed from his vehicle.” DHS also wrote that he “admitted he was trying to distract officers so others could evade the law.” 

Aceituno denied the DHS’ account of the incident in an interview with the Charlotte Observer.

Operation Charlotte’s Web began in Charlotte on Nov. 15, 2025, according to the DHS and an emailed CMPD statement.