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An attorney for a man shot by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during an enforcement stop in central California says the man denies gang ties while recovering after multiple surgeries. Patrick Kolasinski said Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez is “recovering after three surgeries for multiple gunshot wounds,” and he told reporters that Mendoza was having difficulty speaking because he was shot in the jaw (Kolasinski, Associated Press).

Kolasinski said Mendoza was identified by ICE as a suspected gang member wanted in El Salvador, but he disputed that characterization. Kolasinski told reporters that Mendoza denies being “a member of a gang,” and he said Mendoza previously has been stopped for minor traffic infractions without a criminal record in the U.S. and is not the subject of an arrest warrant in El Salvador (Kolasinski, Associated Press).

ICE officials described the Tuesday encounter differently. The officials said agents fired defensive shots at Mendoza when he tried to drive into them after he was pulled over in Patterson, about 75 miles southeast of San Francisco, and they said they were conducting an enforcement stop targeting Mendoza, 36, who was described as a suspected gang member wanted in El Salvador for questioning in connection to a murder (Associated Press).

Kolasinski raised further questions by saying he was told by federal prosecutors that Mendoza is not under arrest. He said prosecutors told him Mendoza Hernandez is not under arrest and said no one under that name from El Salvador is in ICE detention, according to the agency’s online detainee locator. Kolasinski also said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not respond to inquiries about his statements (Associated Press).

The dispute also extends to who is handling the case. Kolasinski said the FBI was leading the investigation into the shooting and that ICE was not currently involved in Mendoza’s case. He said the Department of Justice referred inquiries to the FBI, which said it could not comment on an active investigation (Associated Press).

Kolasinski described what he said happened during the encounter, including how he characterized Mendoza’s actions after shots were fired. He said agents fired while the car was stopped and Mendoza drove away to flee the gunfire, adding: “He fled in a panic because he was being fired on,” and “He was not trying to hurt anyone … he was just scared he was going to die” (Associated Press).

Kolasinski pointed to court documentation from El Salvador to support his denial. He said a Oct. 25, 2019 court document from a judge in El Salvador says Mendoza, then 29, was acquitted after being accused of murder and ordered immediately released. The document lists 10 others 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 Kolasinski said there is no mention of Mendoza belonging to a gang or being accused of carrying out gang activity in that case (Associated Press).

A separate account of the shooting comes from video evidence obtained by KCRA-TV. The reporting described dashcam footage showing three officers standing around a vehicle stopped on the side of a road. According to the description of the video, one officer appears to be touching the driver-side window when the car begins to back up and turn, hitting a vehicle behind it, and at least two agents have weapons drawn and pointing at the car. The reporting said the driver then pulls forward toward where the men are standing and turns sharply, driving over the roadway median, and that the video has no sound so it is unclear when shots were fired or if words were said (Associated Press).

Kolasinski said Mendoza’s fiancée was able to speak with him Wednesday before a surgery and again Thursday morning. He also said Mendoza is a dual citizen of El Salvador and Mexico, came to the U.S. in 2019, and told him he did not know his legal status or how he arrived in the country. Kolasinski said Mendoza works as a laborer to repair fire damage and has a 2-year-old daughter and is engaged to a U.S. citizen (Associated Press).

The case has also drawn attention in the context of a series of shootings during the Trump administration’s aggressive push to detain and deport immigrants in the country illegally, with questions raised with federal immigration officials. (Associated Press)