Attorney for man shot by ICE in California says his client did not try to run officers over

MODESTO, Calif. (AP) — An attorney for a man shot by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during an arrest in central California said Wednesday that his client did not try to run over officers with his car and disputed claims that he has a warrant out for his arrest in El Salvador.

The Department of Homeland Security said ICE agents fired defensive shots at Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez after he tried to drive into them on Tuesday. DHS said they were conducting an enforcement stop targeting Mendoza, 36, in Patterson, a city about 75 miles (120 kilometers) southeast of San Francisco. Officials described him as a suspected gang member wanted in El Salvador for questioning in connection to a murder.

Attorney Patrick Kolasinski, who is representing Mendoza and his family, said during a news conference that his client has been stopped for minor traffic infractions but has no criminal record in the U.S. and is not the subject of an arrest warrant in El Salvador, where he was acquitted of murder.

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.”

According to a Oct. 25, 2019 court document from a judge in El Salvador, Mendoza, who was 29 at the time, was acquitted after being accused of murder and ordered immediately released. The document lists 10 others who were convicted of various crimes from aggravated robbery to murder, and mentions at least one of them was a member of the 18th Street Gang. But there is no mention of Mendoza belonging to a gang or being accused of carrying out gang activity in the document.

Tuesday’s encounter was 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, a dual citizen of El Salvador and Mexico, 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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Weber reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press journalist Julie Watson contributed from San Diego.