WASHINGTON (AP) — In a recent incident tied to President Donald Trump’s enhanced law enforcement operations, a federal agent discharged his firearm at an unarmed Black man during a routine traffic stop in the nation’s capital. Notably, the subsequent police report failed to document the gunfire, a detail that the man’s legal team argues suggests a possible cover-up.

The Metropolitan Police Department has launched an inquiry into the actions of a Homeland Security Investigations agent, who, alongside police officers and federal agents, halted a vehicle driven by Phillip M. Brown on October 17.

Although Brown, a 33-year-old resident of Hyattsville, Maryland, was not harmed by the gunfire, he was detained for three days on charges of evading law enforcement. However, a judge has since thrown out the case against him.

Brown’s attorneys allege that the omission of the shooting from the police report, along with the refusal to release police body camera footage, indicates an attempt to conceal the incident. During a court proceeding for Brown’s criminal case, testimony from a police officer revealed that he was directed to exclude the shooting from the report, according to civil rights lawyers Bernadette Armand and E. Paige White. Additionally, they claimed that the shooting was not disclosed to the prosecutor handling the case.

The judge’s decision to dismiss the charges against Brown was based on a lack of evidence to support claims that he was fleeing, as per his attorneys. They further noted that bullets pierced through Brown’s vehicle, striking the driver-side window and front passenger seat at chest level.

“We are lucky that our client is alive. He could very well be dead,” White said.

The officer’s police report says Brown revved his sport utility vehicle’s engine and began driving toward law-enforcement officers before he rear-ended another vehicle. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson says the agent who fired his gun feared for his life “and the lives of others” when he fired “defensive shots” into the vehicle.

“This incident is not isolated and reflects a growing and dangerous trend of vehicles being used as weapons against DHS law enforcement,” the DHS spokesperson said in a statement. “Our officers are facing a 1000% increase in assaults against them including vehicle rammings, terrorist attacks, and even bounties for their murders. The violence must end.”

Armand said it is “outrageous” for DHS to claim that the shooting was justified when there is no mention of the shooting in the police report.

“Of course they’re going to say it was justified. What are they going to say? ‘We shot at an unarmed Black man in his car in a routine traffic stop for nothing?’ They’re not going to say that. They’re going to say whatever they have to say to justify their actions,” Armand said.

“We are the agency investigating the officer-involved shooting, and we have been continuously since Oct. 17th,” Lynch said. He declined to comment on the officer’s testimony about the omission of the shooting from the report on Brown’s arrest.

In August, Trump, a Republican, issued an executive order declaring a crime emergency in Washington. For nearly three months, the White House has deployed hundreds of federal agents and over 2,000 National Guard members to help police patrol the city’s neighborhoods.

Agents from the FBI, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, the Diplomatic Security Service and the U.S. Marshals Service also were patrolling with two MPD officers and the HSI agent who shot at Brown, according to the police report. They stopped Brown for having heavily tinted windows and no front plate on his sport utility vehicle, the report says.

Brown’s attorneys say his traffic stop demonstrates the risky nature of patrols by federal agents who aren’t adequately trained for police work.

“It’s not OK to have agents and officers on the streets who are engaged in shooting at unarmed people and then covering it up after the fact,” Armand said. “There’s no trust there. There’s no accountability there. And there’s no credibility there.”

A magistrate judge in D.C. Superior Court ordered Brown’s release on Oct. 21. He was traumatized by his arrest and experiences in jail, his lawyers said. They’re weighing a possible lawsuit over his arrest.