Red state sheriff fumbles as photos kneecap claim teens weren't zip-tied: 'I'm sorry'

An Idaho sheriff who denied that his agents used zip ties to detain dozens of children was forced to respond after being confronted with stunning photographic evidence of the damage left on the wrists of a 14-year-old girl.

Chaos unfolded in October during a horse racing event when federal agents descended on La Catedral Arena in a show of military force that traumatized families, many of them U.S. citizens, CBS News reported Tuesday.

Canyon County Sheriff Kieran Donahue initially denied that children were restrained with plastic cuffs during the raid. But then CBS News presented photographic evidence showing bruised wrists on 14-year-old SueHey, a U.S. citizen, who was zip-tied while watching her younger siblings.

"God bless her. I'm sorry she went through that," Donahue said, adding that "law enforcement is not evil because we contained everybody and detained them until we sorted it out. That's not evil."

According to the report, a military-style helicopter swooped low over the field and 200 officers swarmed the property in armored vehicles. Children said they had guns pointed at them and rubber bullets whizzed overhead. Agents smashed car windows where kids huddled from the rain.

Anabel Romero, SueHey's mother, described armed men threatening her when she asked what agency they represented: "I'm gonna [expletive] blow your head off."

"They kicked me, they punched me, they stepped on me," she said.

Homeland Security officials called the zip-tie allegations a "conspiracy theory," but the Caldwell Police Department later admitted that minors had indeed been zip-tied. The ACLU filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on behalf of affected families.

Officials claimed the raid targeted an illegal gambling operation. About 375 people, all U.S. citizens and lawful residents, were eventually released. Just over 100 were determined to be undocumented and detained.

"My opinion is they didn't know that most of the people there were American citizens," Nikki Ramirez-Smith, a local immigration lawyer, told the outlet. "I think law enforcement misjudged it because the event is in Spanish."

The report comes after President Donald Trump admitted last week he "learned that maybe we can use a little bit of a softer touch, but you still have to be tough," when it comes to his nationwide immigration crackdown.

It also comes amid a standoff with furious Democrats on long-term funding of DHS, which oversees ICE.