Man shot by ICE in California charged with assault on federal officer
Video shows moment ICE officer shoots suspect near California's I-5
Dashcam video obtained by KTVU shows the moments before and after an ICE agent shot someone in Patterson, Calif. on Tuesday.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The Department of Justice on Tuesday charged a man shot by ICE seven times in California last week with an assault on a federal officer with a deadly weapon – in this case, his car reversing and then making a hard U-turn.
Assault on officer
Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez, 36, a national of El Salvador living in Patterson, Stanislaus County, was not charged with anything else, however, like any type of murder, which the ICE officers said they were trying to question him about on April 7 when they fired at him and he drove away.
What we know:
Hernandez was acquitted of murder in El Salvador in 2019, so it has been unclear why ICE wanted to speak to him seven years later.
Hernandez is expected to appear in federal court in Sacramento on Tuesday afternoon before Magistrate Judge Claire, and he is being represented by attorney Patrick Kolasinski in Modesto.
In a news release from the Department of Justice in Sacramento, prosecutors said that officers were trying to arrest Hernandez because he is "illegally present in the United States."
The DOJ news release did not mention the murder that the DHS referenced, or the fact that he was a gang member, which acting ICE Director Todd Lyons also alleged last week, a day after the shooting.
"The purpose of this operation was to locate and arrest Mendoza Hernandez because he is an illegal alien with no status in the U.S.," according to a criminal complaint written by FBI special agent Brian Toy.
The "operation' came four days after Hernandez was stopped by Turlock police, not too far away from home, about a cracked windshield on his fiancé's Toyota. Hernandez relayed to his fiancé, Cindy, that the officers were rude to him, she said last week.
ICE and CPB
The backstory:
The complaint also indicates there were three ICE officers and one Customs and Border Patrol officer who were present at the scene.
It's true, Hernandez does not have legal status in the United States, his attorney, Kolasinski acknowledged, last week, stating Hernandez has dual citizenship in Mexico and El Salvador.
According to prosecutors and the criminal complaint, officers knew the license plate number of the car Hernandez was driving – his fiancé's – and followed him from his Patterson, Calif., home in his Toyota C-HR and stopped him near an on-ramp to Interstate 5 by activating their emergency lights about 6:30 a.m. Hernandez pulled over on the right shoulder.
During the stop, an agent told Hernandez that he was being detained and instructed him to step out of the Toyota, according to prosecutors.
Breaking car windows
Dig deeper:
Dashcam shows ICE shooting, car reversing
Dashcam footage, provided by a driver named Christina, shows ICE officers surrounding the vehicle with their weapons drawn. The vehicle reverses and crashes its side door into a truck. An officer then holds his pistol at the window of the vehicle as it zips forward into a median and moves onto the opposite side of the divided highway. Via Storyful
Hernandez kept his car running and did not comply with agent requests to comply with their orders, prosecutors allege.
In the criminal complaint, the FBI agent wrote that an officer told Hernandez "a lot of times" to get out of the Toyota and that the "conversation was going in circles."
Agents said they told Hernandez that they might have to break the windows of his car and "extract" him, according to the FBI complaint, which they ended up doing with a supervisor's approval.
It was then – after breaking the window – that officers drew their guns, and Hernandez decided to drive off and "gunned it," the FBI complaint alleges.
Struck an agent
Hernandez drove forward and hit an agent with his Toyota, prosecutors allege. This is the first known reference that Hernandez had struck a person. Prosecutors did not state if this officer was hurt or not.
Hernandez then "quickly shifted the vehicle in reverse and abruptly accelerated in a rapid backward motion," prosecutors described, which can also be seen on two dashcam videos that witnesses provided to news outlets. The FBI complaint also heavily relies on these two dashcam videos for evidence.
While in reverse, Hernandez "violently collided" with the front of an agent's F-150 truck, prosecutors allege.
After striking the front of the agents’ truck, Hernandez’s car then directly faced two of the agents assisting in the stop, according to prosecutors.
After a brief pause, Hernandez accelerated forward toward the agents, prosecutors allege.
One of the agents was in the direct path of Hernandez’s vehicle and jumped out of the way to avoid being hit, which can also be seen on the dashcam video.
Hernandez jumped the center median and drove the wrong way against traffic toward the freeway, which can be seen on the dashcam video. He then crossed the median, stopping his car on the side of the road.
At this point, agents discharged their firearms at Hernandez's car, and he was hit several times, prosecutors said.
Struck 7 times
Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez and his fiance, Ciny. Photo: attorney
Kolasinski said his client was struck seven times, including in the face, and has already undergone four surgeries.
The DOJ said that Hernandez was "medically cleared and taken into FBI custody" on Monday, despite Kolanski telling reporters Hernandez had still been in the ICU at Doctors Medical Center in Modesto earlier that day.
Different account
Through his attorney, Hernandez gave a different account of what happened.
Both he and another witness, Christina, say officers fired on Hernandez before he backed up his car.
Kolasinski said that Hernandez told him from his hospital bed that he was on his way to work and wanted to stop for coffee when he saw lights behind him. He pulled over.
Officers asked him for his driver's license, which he handed over. They then told him they were ICE officers and were going to take him into custody. He asked questions about that. He asked to call his wife.
"And the situation spiraled out of hand," Kolasinski said. "He wasn't doing what they asked for, just stepping out of the vehicle and surrender. He was simply saying he wanted to call his wife and then somebody shot at him."
IF YOU'RE INTERESTED: Kolasinki has set up a GoFundMe for Hernandez's family.