A man shot by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during an enforcement stop in central California last week was arrested Monday by the FBI after being discharged from a hospital, his attorney said.
Attorney Patrick Kolasinski said federal officials have not said what charges Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez might face. Messages were sent to the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office seeking more information about the arrest.
Kolasinski said Mendoza,
who underwent three surgeries for multiple gunshot wounds, was discharged into FBI custody without any notification to his family or legal team.
“We're in shock,” Kolasinski told The Associated Press. “He should not be out of that hospital. He was in no condition to be released.”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has said ICE agents fired defensive shots at Mendoza when he tried to drive into them after he was pulled over last Tuesday. Officials said they were conducting an enforcement stop targeting Mendoza, 36, in Patterson, 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 last week that Mendoza was having difficulty speaking because he was shot in the jaw, but that he insisted he was never a member of a gang. Kolasinski said 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.
Federal authorities haven't said why Mendoza was the target of an enforcement action. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has not responded to inquiries about Kolasinski’s statements.
Tuesday’s encounter was among a string of shootings during the Trump administration’s aggressive push to detain and deport immigrants in the country illegally, about which questions have been raised with federal immigration officials.
Kolasinski has said that agents fired on Mendoza while the car was stopped and he drove away to flee the gunfire.
According to an Oct. 25, 2019, court document from a judge in El Salvador, Mendoza was acquitted after being accused of murder and ordered immediately released. He was 29 at the time. 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 the document contains no mention of Mendoza belonging to a gang or being accused of engaging in gang activity.
In the California ICE shooting, 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's 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 or if words were said.
Mendoza’s fiancée visited him in the hospital over the weekend and he was still in significant pain, Kolasinski said Monday.
Kolasinski has said Mendoza, a dual citizen of El Salvador and Mexico, came to the U.S. in 2019 but the attorney did not know his legal status nor how he arrived in the country.
The attorney 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.
