Federal prosecutors say Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez, 36, was arrested and charged after an April 7 Immigration and Customs Enforcement stop in Patterson, California, during which authorities allege he struck an agent with his car. Mendoza Hernandez was shot multiple times during the encounter and later appeared in federal court in Sacramento on the assault charge, according to court filings and reporting by the Associated Press and other outlets.
Federal authorities have arrested Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez, a 36-year-old man who was shot multiple times during an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) stop in Patterson, California, and then charged with assaulting a federal officer with a dangerous or deadly weapon.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California, Mendoza Hernandez drove forward and struck a federal agent with his car and then reversed into a law-enforcement vehicle after he was pulled over on April 7. He was scheduled to appear in federal court in Sacramento on Tuesday in connection with the charge, the Associated Press reported.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has said ICE agents fired what it described as “defensive shots” after Mendoza Hernandez tried to drive into them during what DHS called an enforcement stop targeting him in Patterson, roughly 75 miles (120 kilometers) southeast of San Francisco.
Dashcam video obtained by local media and described by the Associated Press shows officers surrounding a vehicle on the roadside as it backs up and turns, hitting a vehicle behind it, before pulling forward and driving over the roadway median.
ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons said in a public statement last week that agents were conducting a “targeted vehicle stop” and alleged Mendoza Hernandez was an “18th Street Gang member” wanted in El Salvador for questioning in connection to a murder. However, the Associated Press reported that those allegations were not mentioned in Tuesday’s hearing, and The Guardian reported they were not included in the publicly described criminal complaint or the Justice Department’s summary of the charge.
Mendoza Hernandez’s attorney, Patrick Kolasinski, has disputed the government’s account, saying his client panicked and tried to flee, and has challenged DHS claims about alleged gang ties and an arrest warrant in El Salvador. The Associated Press also reported that an El Salvador court document dated Oct. 25, 2019, states that Mendoza Hernandez was acquitted after being accused of murder and ordered released.
Separately, President Donald Trump removed Kristi Noem as DHS secretary in March and named Sen. Markwayne Mullin as her replacement, according to reporting by The Washington Post and the Associated Press.
Claims in some commentary about a specific, quantified surge in “vehicular attacks” against ICE during Trump’s first year, as well as assertions about the federal government shifting immigration tactics after “two fatal shootings of anti-ICE activists in Minneapolis” and personnel moves involving Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino, could not be independently confirmed from the most directly relevant reporting on the Patterson case reviewed for this article.
