WILDER, Idaho — A local security owner working at La Catedral Arena in Idaho during Sunday’s federal raid says he and his employees were zip-tied and detained for hours as agents moved through the property.
WATCH TO HEAR: What happened when FBI raided family event, according to security company owner.
John Carter, owner of Security Services LLC, said it was his first year working the event. He was there with his 14-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son, along with five other employees.
“It was a fun event to work at,” Carter said. “It was mostly a family event — most of the people we let in were couples or people here to just watch the horse racing.”
Carter said the FBI “jumped out flash-banged the area, and put guns on me and the gentleman I was with.” He recalled telling his colleague, “Just come here, you’re not going anywhere.”
Carter said the agents never identified themselves and never gave him the chance to identify himself, despite his security attire.
When asked if he thought agents were using flash bangs on other people in the crowd, Carter said he heard them going off throughout the property with young children present.
“The males in my staff were all zip-tied as soon as they came on the property and were disarmed,” he said. “We were told to stand up against the fence and wait, which we did.”
Carter said the zip ties were so tight they cut off circulation to his hands, and his 14-year-old daughter was also restrained. He said he was held for three to four hours.
“I was just worried that my kids were going to be okay, that my staff was going to be okay,” Carter said. “Everyone there was doing a legal, lawful activity.”
While zip-tied, Carter said he continued trying to do his job as security by keeping everyone calm. He said he saw families being separated and placed in different areas of the property.
Carter recalled what he called sanitation issues that still trouble him.
"When they started sending people over to the second stage area, if anyone going over there needed to use the bathroom and couldn't hold it any longer, they were in full view of people in that second staging area. They were having people go behind a van to use the restroom. Women, children, men — it didn't matter who," Carter said.
Carter went through the ICE process with his team which included a U.S. veteran.
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Carter also said his firearm was taken during the raid, but that he was not given paperwork or a receipt he asked Canyon County Sheriff Donahue about the timeline for getting his guns back.
"The answer is still we don't know, we don't know which agency and we don't know how this is gonna be processed just yet,“Now I’m getting the runaround,” he said.
He added that he’s worked security at events in Canyon County for 15 years. “Everyone goes home safe. That is my job, that is my priority.”
This article was written by the Scripps News Group in Boise.
