A 32-year-old Venezuelan illegal immigrant who was teaching in an Illinois classroom has been arrested by ICE for allegedly acting as the driver and getaway accomplice for two Tren de Aragua (TDA) gang members during a brutal December 2024 mass shooting in Chicago that left three people dead and five others wounded.
Giovanna Mercedes Moreno Occhipinti, a Venezuelan national with dual Italian citizenship, entered the United States in October 2021 under the Visa Waiver Program but overstayed her visa.
She was taken into ICE custody on May 13, 2026, and is currently being held at the Grayson County Detention Center in Leitchfield, Kentucky, pending removal from the country, Fox News reported.
WATCH:
.@ICEgov ARRESTED an illegal alien former teacher wanted for her involvement in a TDA MASS SHOOTING.
Giovanna Mercedes Moreno Occhipinti, a former Illinois teacher and an illegal alien from Venezuela, assisted in a December 2024 Tren de Aragua MASS SHOOTING at a Chicago house… pic.twitter.com/couLnoijRT
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) June 22, 2026
According to the Department of Homeland Security, Occhipinti drove two alleged TDA gang members, Ricardo Granadillo Padilla and Edward Martinez Cermeno, to a house party in Chicago’s Gage Park neighborhood on December 2, 2024.
The gunmen opened fire on the crowd. Three people were killed and five were wounded. Federal authorities say she then helped the shooters flee the scene of the slaughter.
Chicago Police arrested Occhipinti just three days later, on December 5, 2024, after finding multiple weapons in her vehicle. But because Chicago and Illinois are militant sanctuary jurisdictions, she was released without ICE ever being notified, despite the obvious public safety threat tied to a triple homicide.
The two actual shooters were eventually deported. One had even been released from ICE custody earlier by a federal judge due to prosecutorial issues. Occhipinti remained free in the community and was reportedly working as a teacher at a school in the Chicago suburb of Elgin until HSI agents finally tracked her down months later.
Illinois officials have refused to disclose to DHS which school employed her.
This illegal alien former school teacher HELPED FACILITATE A TDA MASS SHOOTING.
Giovanna Mercedes Moreno Occhipinti drove the Tren de Aragua shooters to the mass shooting site and then helped them evade law enforcement.
Illinois sanctuary politicians RELEASED HER after she was… https://t.co/BkYyUL7GPX pic.twitter.com/TShK3LrkbL
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) June 22, 2026
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