The family of the man ICE officers shot Tuesday in Northern California rebutted the agency’s narrative about Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez, denying Wednesday that he is a gang member from El Salvador.
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“He was never in a gang,” Patrick Kolasinski, a lawyer who is representing Mendoza Hernandez and his family, told reporters on a virtual media call.
Neither Kolasinski nor Mendoza Hernandez’s fiancée, Cindy, have been able to speak to him or see him since he was wounded and taken to a hospital for treatment, they said at the news conference.
Cindy, who declined to share her last name even though she is a U.S. citizen, citing privacy and safety reasons, said she gets only scarce updates about her fiancé’s condition through a social worker from the hospital.
On Tuesday, Cindy learned that Mendoza Hernandez was stable at the hospital. But when she asked how many times he was shot, the social worker replied, “I cannot share that information,” Cindy told reporters Wednesday.
Mendoza Hernandez, 36, who rehabilitates burned-down buildings for a living, was on his way to work when the shooting happened, Kolasinski said.
ICE Director Todd Lyons said Tuesday that officers conducted “a targeted vehicle stop” to arrest Mendoza Hernandez. Lyons described him as “an 18th Street Gang member wanted in El Salvador for questioning in connection to a murder.”
A court document from a judge in El Salvador, which Kolasinski shared with NBC News, shows Mendoza Hernandez was acquitted in October 2019 after he was accused of murder. He was ordered released immediately, the document says.
The document also lists 10 other people who were convicted of various crimes, from aggravated robbery to murder, and it mentions that at least one of them was a member of the 18th Street Gang. But there is no mention of Mendoza’s belonging to a gang or having been accused of carrying out gang activity in the document.
Lyons said Tuesday that when ICE officers approached the car, Mendoza Hernandez “weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run an officer over. Following their training, our officers fired defensive shots to protect themselves, their fellow agents, and the public.”
NBC News has reached out to DHS about the court documents from El Salvador and the family’s and the attorney’s statements but did not immediately receive a response.
The shooting occurred in Patterson, about 74 miles southeast of San Francisco.
Dashcam video obtained by NBC affiliate KCRA of Sacramento captured the moment ICE officers opened fire.
The video, which has no audio, starts with the witness’ car turning onto Del Puerto Canyon Road at Interstate 5. Three officers stand around a stopped vehicle on the side of the road. One of the officers appears to be touching the driver-side window of the stopped vehicle.
When the car begins to back up and turn, the officer who was standing by the driver-side window draws his weapon and appears to open fire at the driver. The vehicle quickly hits another car parked behind it. At least two of the agents have weapons drawn, pointing at the vehicle. The driver then pulls forward toward where the officers are standing and turns sharply. The video ends showing the vehicle driving over the roadway median.
Kolasinski said at the news conference that the video shows that Mendoza Hernandez “is doing everything he can” not to run the ICE officers over.