An attorney for a man who was shot by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during an arrest in central California said Wednesday that his client never attempted to hit officers with his car and challenged claims that he has a warrant for his arrest in El Salvador.
The Department of Homeland Security stated that ICE agents fired in self‑defense at Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez on Tuesday after he allegedly tried to drive into them.
DHS said the incident occurred during an enforcement stop in Patterson, California, and described Mendoza as a suspected gang member facing questioning in El Salvador over a murder.
However, Mendoza’s lawyer, Patrick Kolasinski, told reporters that his client has only been stopped for minor traffic violations, has no criminal record in the U.S., and is not subject to an arrest warrant in El Salvador, where he was previously acquitted of the murder charge.
Kolasinski said he has found no evidence his client was part of any street gang but he added he has not had the chance to talk to him to confirm that.
“If he was released after being acquitted, with no other holds on him, he cannot have a warrant,” Kolasinski said. “So that information must be either erroneous or completely made up. And only DHS knows what they’re looking at.”
It is among a string of shootings that have happened during the Trump administration's aggressive push to detain and deport illegal immigrants in which questions have been raised about the accounts by federal immigration officials.
DHS did not immediately respond to requests for comments about the lawyer's statements.
“He’s a good guy. He’s a hardworking person,” said Mendoza’s fiancée, Cindy, who did not provide her last name out of fear for her safety because of attention of his case. She said the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown is hurting families.
She said in Spanish that Mendoza was recently stopped for a cracked windshield in another town.
Dashcam footage obtained by KCRA-TV shows three officers standing around a vehicle stopped on the side of a road. One of the officers appears to be touching the driver-side window when the car begins to back up and turn, hitting a vehicle behind it. At least two of the agents have weapons drawn, pointing at the car. The driver then pulls forward toward where the men are standing and turns sharply, driving over the roadway median.
The video has no sound and it's unclear when the shots were fired and if words were said.
“He is doing everything he can to not run them over,” the attorney said of his client’s reaction during the arrest. He said he believes his client panicked and tried to flee. DHS said ICE agents were acting as trained.
Mendoza's family and his attorney have not been allowed to see him since he was hospitalized, and his condition was unknown Wednesday, Kolanski said. They were told by a social worker that he is stable.
Kolasinski said Mendoza came to the U.S. in 2019 but he said he did not know his legal status nor how he arrived to the country and hoped to talk to him to get those details. He said federal officials haven't said if Mendoza has been arrested for a crime or if he's being held by authorities as a victim of a shooting.
Kolasinski said his client works as a laborer to repair fire damage. He has a 2-year-old daughter and is engaged to a U.S. citizen, he said.
Kolasinski said officers endangered everyone by opening the car door when Mendoza tried to flee. “That may well be ICE training, but if it is it’s horrible training," he said.
The Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office said they were not involved in the incident and the FBI is leading the investigation.
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