A man shot by ICE agents in the Central Valley this week said he tried to drive his car away from a traffic stop only because agents began shooting at him while he was pulled over — the latest in a series of claims that agents have misrepresented reasons for using deadly force nationwide.
“He said he moved backwards because he was being shot at,” attorney Patrick Kolasinski said Thursday. “He fled in a panic because he was being fired on.”
The statements by Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernández through his lawyer during a Thursday morning news conference directly contradict the official description from Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials earlier this week.
ICE Director Todd Lyons announced Tuesday that Mendoza Hernandez had “weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run an officer over,” and that agents responded with “defensive shots.”
But according to Mendoza Hernández, the shooting began abruptly after he was pulled over along Interstate 5 that morning in Patterson, about 40 miles south of Stockton.
His attorney said agents took his driver’s license, then told him to get out of the car. Mendoza Hernandez initially refused, asking to call his fiancé first.
“They just started shooting,” the attorney said.
Kolasinski said his client was shot “at least half a dozen times” including his face, and has undergone three major surgeries. Kolasinski said Mendoza Hernández is “very adamant that he was fired upon before he moved the vehicle.”
Kolasinski said he met with Mendoza Hernández in the hospital Thursday morning, then relayed his statements in a media conference just afterward.
The new claims follow statements from Wednesday, when the attorney said he believed Mendoza Hernández had been targeted because of “bad information” about an older criminal case in El Salvador. Mendoza Hernández and his family have denied immigration officials’ claims that he was a gang member.
Video published by KCRA-TV, which the station said was captured on a dashboard camera at the scene of the shooting, shows a vehicle at a roadside, flanked by armed agents who appear to try to reach inside.
In the video, several agents surrounding the car appear to have their handguns already drawn — but the video has no audio, so it’s unclear when the shooting begins.
The car shifts into reverse and begins backing up. As it does, a piece of debris from the car flies into the air. After that, the car strikes an unmarked pickup truck sitting behind it on the roadside, then pulls forward as agents spread out and drives over the median into a lane with oncoming traffic.
Kolasinski is asking the public to send him their videos of the incident. “What I have heard from witnesses aligns with Carlos’ version,” he said.
Mendoza Hernández is expected to be released from intensive care at a Modesto hospital tomorrow, but it is not clear whether he will be held in custody by any agency, or if ICE will attempt to arrest him again.
The FBI has said it is investigating the shooting, but has not named any suspects for any crime.
Kolasinski said his client may choose to sue ICE, but that the first priority is his physical recovery.
“He is in significant pain,” Kolasinski said. “He is a victim, not a suspect.”
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to questions about Mendoza Hernandez’s claim, and has not said when it will release more information, video or the identities of the agents involved in the shooting.