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.
"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.
"When he tried to flee, an officer opened the door. That endangers the officer. It endangers everybody around there. That may well be ICE training. But if it is, it's horrible training," he said.
For Cindy, her fiancé's actions indicated how afraid Mendoza Hernandez must have been. "I know it was fear. That's why his reaction," she said.
Cindy was not sure why ICE was seeking his arrest, but she said they had been stopped Friday for a cracked windshield. His attorney said Mendoza Hernandez had no criminal record in the U.S. and had been stopped for only minor traffic infractions.
The Department of Homeland Security has previously accused people of using their vehicles as weapons against federal immigration officers. In one prominent case, a Border Patrol agent shot Marimar Martinez multiple times in Chicago; she was charged with using her car to assault and impede federal law enforcement. A judge dismissed all charges after federal prosecutors filed a motion to dismiss their own case.
In some cases, videos have contradicted the Trump administration's accounts, including in the fatal shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis in January.
Federal immigration officers shot 14 people from September to February as DHS ramped up deportation operations around the country. Firing on cars was common. In seven of the 13 shootings, officers said they shot because a car was moving and they believed it posed a threat.
While the FBI has assumed primary responsibility for the investigation in connection with the ICE shooting Tuesday, the detectives with the sheriff’s office major crimes unit are also investigating.
A spokesperson for the FBI told NBC News on Tuesday its Sacramento field office is “conducting a thorough investigation in partnership with the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office and are grateful for the Patterson community’s continued patience and support.”
Kolasinski said Mendoza Hernandez, a dual citizen of El Salvador and Mexico, came to the U.S. sometime in 2019. Kolasinski said he did not know Mendoza Hernandez's immigration status or how he came to the country.
Mendoza Hernandez has a 2-year-old daughter with Cindy.
"My daughter absolutely loves him," Cindy said as she described how the toddler perks up every time Mendoza Hernandez whistles to let her know he has arrived home from work.
"My little girl could be all the way across the living room, and she would come running to meet him," she said. But on Tuesday night, Cindy's daughter did not fall asleep until 1 a.m. as she kept searching for her father.
"She kept saying, 'Daddy's coming,'" Cindy said in Spanish, "turning her head to look for him, since sometimes he occasionally lies down on a sofa we have next to the bed."
"We really didn't have a good night," Cindy said.
