HSI Sacramento special agent honored for courage
Given the risks inherent in their jobs, all law enforcement personnel live with the awareness that they may go to work one day and not come home. For Robert Kennedy, a seasoned special agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), it happened one year ago during a gang takedown in the northern California city of Roseville.
That day, Kennedy was conducting surveillance for an upcoming enforcement operation with officers from the Roseville Police Department, when they happened to spot a fugitive parolee with ties to a dangerous street gang. After Kennedy and the officers cornered the man at a relative’s home, the suspect opened fire with a .45 caliber semi-automatic handgun, striking Kennedy in the leg. Kennedy was rushed to a local hospital where he underwent treatment overnight. Two weeks later, despite persistent pain and facing a year of grueling physical therapy, Kennedy was back on the job.
In November, just over a year after the shooting, Kennedy returned to Roseville to receive a Purple Heart and a Distinguished Service award from the Placer County Law Enforcement Agencies Executive Council. The recognition further steeled Kennedy’s resolve to fight back against the violence and crime perpetrated by transnational street gangs.
“I can’t tell you the satisfaction it gave me to get right out there again after Roseville,” Kennedy said. “There was no way I was going out on their (gang members) terms. I am so proud of what we are doing in HSI, and I can see how much our work is valued and appreciated in the communities where we live.”
While Kennedy is grateful for the recognition, his real satisfaction comes from being back on street duty, though the lingering effects of his injury will likely be with him for life. Meanwhile, the man who shot Kennedy finally surrendered following a nine-hour standoff, but not before firing upon and wounding five other officers.
Although a “military kid,” Kennedy spent many of his school years in the Napa Valley, a place most people associate with great wine, not gangs. “Not so,” he says. “As a teenager, I had to deal with them and saw firsthand the havoc they created in my town.”
Kennedy began his federal law enforcement career in 1996 with the former Immigration and Naturalization Service. Over the last 18 years, he has worked on many kinds of cases; including investigations involving national security threats, drug trafficking and human smuggling. Today, Kennedy is based in Sacramento, California, where he is assigned to work on gang enforcement full-time.
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