Men in tactical police gear, at least two carrying rifles and at least one masked, converged on an Amagansett house on Monday evening in what the East Hampton Town police chief said was “a criminal investigation conducted by multiple federal law enforcement agencies, and was not solely an immigration case.”
Due to the “nature of the ongoing investigation” the Police Department could not release “any further specific details,” Chief Michael Sarlo said Tuesday.
A video posted to social media just after 6:30 p.m. Monday, showing plainclothes officers in tactical vests at the Bluff Road house, had been viewed over 10,000 times by Tuesday afternoon and sparked concerns that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers had begun to conduct raids in the Town of East Hampton.
“I do not understand the secrecy surrounding these things,” said Minerva Perez, the executive director of Organizacion Latino Americana of Eastern Long Island. If an investigation has come to the point where there is an arrest, “Why isn’t there more information that can be offered?”
In the video, at least one individual appears to be seated in the back seat of a black S.U.V. parked across the street from the property, as a man wearing a tactical vest with “police” written across the back stands in front of the open rear passenger door.
Another man can be seen standing on the other side of the vehicle before the camera pans to follow three more men in tactical gear, two of whom are carrying rifles, as they cross the street from the property to the car. The group then engages in a conversation outside of the car, and one of the men closes the back door.
Uniformed town police officers were seen in the driveway of the property around 7:30 p.m., talking to the men who appeared in the video, two of whom were still carrying rifles. Several town
police vehicles were parked along Bluff Road, and a town Marine Patrol truck was parked across the street on Dune Crest Way.
A nearby resident of Bluff Road, who asked to remain anonymous, said that she had been out at the time but received a text message from an acquaintance with a screenshot of the video that had been posted to Facebook. Her children had been biking on the road earlier with their babysitter and had gone inside shortly before the officers showed up. After viewing the video, she told her babysitter to stay inside, lock the door, and close the curtains.
The house is owned by a limited liability company. It is listed for sale with Bespoke Realty and the Agency for $7.999 million.
