The FBI said in a court document made public Tuesday that it had found no surveillance or other video of a Border Patrol agent shooting and wounding two people in a pickup truck during an immigration enforcement operation in Portland, Oregon, last week.
Agents told investigators that one of their colleagues opened fire Friday after the driver put the truck in reverse and repeatedly slammed into an unoccupied car the agents had rented, smashing its headlights and knocking off its front bumper. The agents said they feared for their own safety and that of the public, the document said.
The FBI has interviewed four of the six agents on the scene, the document said. It did not identify the agent who fired the shots.
The shooting, which came one day after a federal agent shot and killed a driver in Minneapolis, prompted protests over federal agents’ aggressive tactics during immigration enforcement operations. The Department of Homeland Security has said the two people in the truck entered the US illegally and were affiliated with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
None of the six agents was recording body camera footage, and investigators have uncovered no surveillance or other video footage of the shooting, FBI Special Agent Daniel Jeffreys wrote in an affidavit supporting aggravated assault and property damage charges against the driver, Luis David Nino-Moncada.
The truck drove away after the shooting, which occurred in the parking lot of a medical office building. Nino-Moncada called 911 after arriving at an apartment complex several minutes away. He was placed in FBI custody after being treated for a gunshot wound to the arm and abdomen.
During an initial appearance Tuesday in federal court in Portland, he wore a white sweatshirt and sweatpants and appeared to hold out his left arm gingerly at an angle. An interpreter translated the judge’s comments for him. The judge ordered that he remain in detention and scheduled a preliminary hearing for Thursday.
The agent’s affidavit said that after being read his rights, Nino-Moncada "admitted to intentionally ramming the Border Patrol vehicle in an attempt to flee, and he stated that he knew they were immigration enforcement vehicles".
His passenger, Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras, was hospitalised after being shot in the chest and on Tuesday was being held at a private immigration detention facility in Tacoma, Washington, according to an online detainee locator system maintained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Nino-Moncada and Zambrano-Contreras are Venezuela nationals and entered the US illegally in 2022 and 2023, respectively, the Department of Homeland Security said. It identified Nino-Moncada as an associate of Tren de Aragua and Zambrano-Contreras as involved in a prostitution ring run by the gang.
"Anyone who crosses the red line of assaulting law enforcement will be met with the full force of this Justice Department," Attorney General Pam Bondi said Tuesday in a news release announcing charges against Nino-Moncada. "This man – an illegal alien with ties to a foreign terrorist organisation – should NEVER have been in our country to begin with, and we will ensure he NEVER walks free in America again."
Oregon Federal Public Defender Fidel Cassino-DuCloux, whose office represents Nino-Moncada, did not immediately return messages from The Associated Press seeking comment. He told The Oregonian/OregonLive that the federal shooting of and the subsequent accusations against Nino-Moncada and his passenger follow "a well-worn playbook that the government has developed to justify the dangerous and unprofessional conduct of its agents".
Portland Police Chief Bob Day confirmed last week that the pair had "some nexus" to the gang. Day said the two came to the attention of police during an investigation of a July shooting believed to have been carried out by gang members, but they were not identified as suspects.
Zambrano-Contreras was previously arrested for prostitution, Day said, and Nino-Moncada was present when a search warrant was served in that case.
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