None of the six Border Patrol agents involved in the Portland case was recording body camera footage, the FBI said in a court document made public Monday, adding that it also found no surveillance or other video of the shooting.
The FBI said the case involved an immigration enforcement operation in Portland, Oregon, last week, in which a Border Patrol agent shot and wounded two people in a pickup truck. The document described investigators interviewing agents and tracking what video existed or did not exist.
Agents told investigators that one of their colleagues opened fire after the driver put the truck in reverse and repeatedly slammed into an unoccupied car the agents had rented. The FBI document said the collision smashed the rental car’s headlights and knocked off its front bumper, and that agents feared for their own safety and for the public.
The FBI said it interviewed four of the six agents on the scene. The court document did not identify the agent who fired the shots, according to the reporting that summarized the affidavit prepared for charging.
The shooting happened in the parking lot of a medical office building. The document described the truck driving away after the shooting, with Luis David Nino-Moncada later calling 911 after arriving at an apartment complex several minutes away. Nino-Moncada was placed in FBI custody after being treated for a gunshot wound to the arm and abdomen.
During an initial appearance Monday afternoon in federal court in Portland, Nino-Moncada wore a white sweatshirt and sweatpants and appeared to hold out his left arm gingerly at an angle, according to the report. The judge’s comments were translated for him, and the judge ordered that he remain in detention while scheduling a preliminary hearing for Wednesday.
The affidavit supporting the charges, written by FBI Special Agent Daniel Jeffreys, also described Nino-Moncada’s admissions after he was read his rights. The document said Nino-Moncada “admitted to intentionally ramming the Border Patrol vehicle in an attempt to flee,” and said he “stated that he knew they were immigration enforcement vehicles.”
The report said Nino-Moncada’s passenger, Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras, was hospitalized after being shot in the chest. By Monday, she was being held at a private immigration detention facility in Tacoma, Washington, based on an online detainee locator system maintained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Federal prosecutors in Texas filed a charge of illegal entry against her last week, the report said, citing the public defender’s office that represents Nino-Moncada and noting it did not immediately respond to a comment request.
The charging followed a separate federal agent shooting the previous day in Minneapolis that killed a driver and prompted protests over federal agents’ tactics during immigration enforcement operations, the report said. It also described the Department of Homeland Security’s position that the two people in the truck entered the U.S. illegally and were affiliated with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
In a news release announcing charges against Nino-Moncada, Attorney General Pam Bondi said, “Anyone who crosses the red line of assaulting law enforcement will be met with the full force of this Justice Department.” Bondi also said the man “should NEVER have been in our country to begin with,” and that prosecutors “will ensure he NEVER walks free in America again,” according to the report.
Portland Federal Public Defender Fidel Cassino-DuCloux, whose office represents Nino-Moncada, said in a statement last week that the shooting and the accusations “follow a well-worn playbook that the government has developed to justify the dangerous and unprofessional conduct of its agents,” the report said. The reporting also cited Portland Police Chief Bob Day, who confirmed the pair had “some nexus” to the gang and said the police came to attention of them during an investigation of a July shooting believed carried out by gang members, though he said they were not identified as suspects.