The badge of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent.
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents shot a man in California on Tuesday, after he allegedly “weaponized his vehicle” and tried to run over an officer, according to the acting director of ICE.
The ICE agents were conducting a targeted vehicle stop in the Central Valley town of Patterson to arrest Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez, who is allegedly a member of the 18th Street Gang wanted in El Salvador for questioning in connection to a murder, according to authorities. That gang is based in Los Angeles and has more than 100,000 members, according to federal authorities.
“As officers approached the car, the wanted gang member weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run an officer over,” said Todd Lyons, the acting director of ICE, in a statement.
“Following their training, our officers fired defensive shots to protect themselves, their fellow agents, and the public,” Lyons said. “The illegal alien was taken to a local hospital.”
“The FBI is on the scene,” he said. “This is a developing situation and we will update the public when more information is available.”
The shooting comes amid a partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security that began in February when Democrats in Congress balked at voting for continued funding of the department if it included money for ICE and parts of Customs and Border Protection.
DHS has faced strong criticism since January, when federal agents engaged in immigration enforcement actions in Minneapolis in separate incidents, shot and killed two U.S. citizens.
An ICE officer on Jan. 7 killed Renee Nicole Good, who was driving her car in his direction.
On Jan. 24, a Border Patrol officer shot ICU nurse Alex Pretti after he had been restrained by other officers and was on the ground.
Video of both of those shootings contradicted initial claims about the incidents by Trump administration officials.
Then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem originally claimed that Pretti had committed an “act of domestic terrorism,” and that he was brandishing a gun, neither of which was borne out by any evidence. Noem also had initially given an account of Good’s shooting that was contradicted by video from the scene, and she also claimed that Good “proceeded to weaponize her vehicle, and she attempted to run a law enforcement officer over.”
On Monday, The New York Times reported that video of a third shooting by an immigration agent in Minneapolis of a Venezuelan immigrant contradicted that agent’s claim that he had been beaten by three assailants with a shovel and broom for about three minutes before he fired his gun.
“Instead, the confrontation depicted in the video lasts about 12 seconds and shows two men struggling with the agent. It shows no sustained attack with a shovel,” the Times reported.
The Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office in a post on Facebook on Tuesday said it is “assisting with an officer-involved shooting in our jurisdiction involving agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)” in Patterson.
“At this time, we can confirm that no local law enforcement was involved in the incident,” the sheriff’s office said.
