The lawyer for a man who was shot by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during his arrest in central California said Thursday that his client is recovering after three surgeries for multiple gunshot wounds and that he denies being a gang member.
Attorney Patrick Kolasinski said federal prosecutors told him Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez is not in custody, raising questions about why he was targeted for enforcement action. No one with that name from El Salvador is in ICE custody, according to the agency’s detainer website. The US Department of Homeland Security did not respond to inquiries about Kolasinki’s statements.
Tuesday’s confrontation was among a series of shooting incidents during the Trump administration’s aggressive campaign to detain and deport immigrants in the country illegally, which have raised questions with… Federal immigration officials.
DHS said ICE agents fired defensive shots at Mendoza when he tried to storm them after he was stopped Tuesday. Officials said they were conducting a holdup targeting Mendoza, 36, in Paterson, a city about 75 miles (120 kilometers) southeast of San Francisco. They described him as a suspected gang member wanted in El Salvador for questioning in connection with a murder.
Kolasinski told reporters that Mendoza was having difficulty speaking because he was shot in the jaw, but said he was never a gang member. Kolasinski previously said his client was stopped for minor traffic violations, but he has no criminal record in the United States and is not subject to an arrest warrant in El Salvador, where he was acquitted of murder.
Kolasinski said the FBI was leading the investigation into the shooting and that ICE was not currently involved in the Mendoza case. The Justice Department referred the investigation to the FBI, which said it could not comment on the ongoing investigation.
Agents shot Mendoza while the car was parked and he drove away to escape the gunfire, Kolasinski said. “He ran away terrified because he was shot,” Kolasinski said. “He wasn’t trying to hurt anyone…he was just afraid he was going to die.”
According to an October 25, 2019 court document from a judge in El Salvador, Mendoza, who was 29 years old at the time, was acquitted after being charged with murder and ordered to be released immediately. The document lists 10 others who were convicted of crimes ranging from aggravated robbery to murder, and states that at least one of them was a member of the 18th Street Gang. But there is no mention in the document of Mendoza belonging to a gang or being accused of gang activity.
In the California shooting, dashcam footage obtained by KCRA-TV shows three officers standing around a car parked on the side of the road. An officer appears to touch the driver’s side window as the car begins to back up and turn, causing a car behind it to collide. At least two agents held weapons, pointing toward the car. Then the driver drives forward towards where the men are standing, turns sharply, and drives his car over the middle of the road.
There is no audio in the video, and it is not clear when the shots were fired or whether words were said.
Kolasinski said Mendoza’s fiancée was able to talk to him Wednesday before surgery and again Thursday morning.
Kolasinski said Mendoza, a dual citizen of El Salvador and Mexico, came to the United States in 2019 but said he did not know his legal status nor how he got to the country.
The lawyer said that his client works as a worker to repair fire damage. He added that he has a two-year-old daughter and is engaged to an American citizen.