Federal prosecutors say Luis David Nino-Moncada, a Venezuelan national whom authorities describe as an associate of the Tren de Aragua gang, repeatedly rammed an unoccupied Border Patrol vehicle during a targeted stop in Portland, Oregon, prompting an agent to fire and wound him and a passenger. Nino-Moncada has been charged with aggravated assault of a federal officer and damaging federal property, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
Newly unsealed federal court filings and a U.S. Justice Department statement describe a Portland encounter in which agents conducting a targeted enforcement operation stopped a vehicle driven by Luis David Nino-Moncada, whom federal officials say is in the United States illegally and was ordered removed by an immigration judge in 2024.
According to the Justice Department, agents directed Nino-Moncada to exit the vehicle. Instead, prosecutors allege, he reversed into an unoccupied federal law-enforcement vehicle “with enough speed and force to cause significant damage,” then moved forward and reversed repeatedly, striking it multiple times. A Border Patrol agent later told investigators he feared Nino-Moncada could hit agents or others with the vehicle, the Justice Department said.
Federal officials said the agent fired after concluding the vehicle posed an immediate threat. Nino-Moncada was shot in the arm and a female passenger, identified by the Department of Homeland Security as Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras, was shot in the chest, according to Reuters and other reports. Authorities said the pair fled in their vehicle before later seeking medical help.
In a post-incident interview, Nino-Moncada admitted he intentionally rammed the federal vehicle to escape and said he knew it was an immigration enforcement vehicle, the Justice Department said. Prosecutors charged him with aggravated assault of a federal officer with a deadly or dangerous weapon and depredation of federal property.
Federal authorities have also alleged Zambrano-Contreras is in the country illegally and has ties to Tren de Aragua, and they have linked her to prostitution activity and a prior Portland-area shooting. Portland-area officials have said the two individuals surfaced in connection with an open shooting investigation, but local officials have cautioned that their specific roles were not clear based on the information publicly available.
The Portland shooting occurred amid heightened national scrutiny of federal immigration enforcement tactics following the killing of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, where the Department of Homeland Security described Good’s actions as “an act of domestic terrorism,” a characterization disputed by local officials and some independent reporting.
