Chicago police officers responding to assist federal agents who were surrounded by a crowd of protesters near an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility were allegedly instructed to stand down, according to dispatch audio recordings and internal messages reviewed by reporters.

The Department of Homeland Security said the incident occurred Saturday on the city’s South Side, where a group of federal agents conducting a routine patrol “were attacked and rammed by vehicles and boxed in by 10 cars.”

The agents were patrolling about 15 miles from ongoing anti-ICE demonstrations outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center in Broadview, a Chicago suburb, when the attack began.

According to federal officials, after agents attempted to escape their vehicle, a woman armed with a semi-automatic weapon allegedly tried to drive into them. She was shot by officers and later taken into custody.

Local police officers were initially preparing to assist the agents but were reportedly instructed to stand down by the department’s chief of patrol, according to the New York Post.

“Younger male Hispanic wearing all black … wanted for the hit-and-run, this guy fled from the scene,” a female dispatcher says in response to a call for assistance from the surrounded ICE agents, per audio shared by ExxAlerts on the X platform.