Surveillance video shows moment ICE agent's gun found in San Francisco airport bathroom
Sep 18, 2026
Surveillance video from San Francisco International Airport obtained by NBC Bay Area is shedding more light on a July incident where an ICE deportation officer allegedly left his gun unattended in an airport restroom.
A review of roughly two hours of CCTV footage – obtained through a Californ
ia Public Records Act request – shows the moment the gun was found inside a bathroom stall by a flight attendant, along with the likely moment the ICE agent returned to the scene roughly 10 minutes later.
As NBC Bay Area first reported in August, the firearm was found unattended inside a bathroom stall past security checkpoint D in Terminal 2, according to airport spokesperson Doug Yakel.
Around 10:23 p.m., the surveillance video shows a person who appears to be the flight attendant run out of the bathroom and flag down airport security. The flight attendant and security officer then head back to the bathroom.
Airport security then calls 9-1-1 and reports the gun to San Francisco police.
“Hi, yeah, a flight attendant just came up to me and said there is a gun in the men’s bathroom,” an airport security officer tells police in a recording of the 9-1-1 call.
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The video shows additional law enforcement officers quickly arrive to investigate. Multiple travelers are turned away from the bathroom by police or security.
The video makes it clear that dozens of people could potentially have found the gun if the flight attendant had not spotted it and notified security.
Roughly 10 minutes after the flight attendant appears to discover the gun, the surveillance video shows a man dressed in plain clothes approach security outside the bathroom, present what looks like a badge, and enter the bathroom. The airport confirmed the man seen in the video was the ICE agent returning for his firearm.
The video shows the apparent ICE agent emerge from the bathroom more than 10 minutes later with other law enforcement officials. He remains in front of the bathroom, where he seems to talk to officers on scene and present some sort of identification.
Officers soon verify the gun belongs to the agent, according to police radio traffic.
“We verified his firearm serial number through the government website,” someone says in the recording.
Due to the position of the video camera and the quality of the video, it was not immediately clear to NBC Bay Area when the agent may have first left the gun in the bathroom.
For weeks, NBC Bay Area has been asking ICE if the agent has faced any discipline for misplacing his gun, but the agency has not responded.
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