Man Shot by ICE Agents During California Traffic Stop Pleads Not Guilty to Federal Charges

A man who was shot by ICE agents during a traffic stop, then arrested by the FBI after his release from the hospital, has been indicted by a federal grand jury in California, according to court documents.

Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez pleaded not guilty Monday morning in Sacramento to two counts of assault on a federal officer with a deadly weapon and one count of destruction of government property, following a traffic stop last month in which federal agents fired at him as he allegedly tried to flee.

ICE identified Mendoza Hernandez as an undocumented immigrant whom the department described as an “18th Street Gang member wanted in El Salvador for questioning in connection to a murder.”

{snip}

The federal complaint says agents surveilled Mendoza Hernandez’s home, followed him as he left, then pulled him over on the morning of April 7 as part of an operation to “locate and arrest Mendoza Hernandez because he is an illegal alien with no status in the U.S.”

During the stop, near Interstate 5 in Patterson, about 90 miles southeast of Sacramento, Mendoza Hernandez identified himself but refused to exit the vehicle despite repeated commands, the complaint said. After agents broke the front passenger window to extract him, Mendoza Hernandez drove forward, striking an agent, then rapidly reversed into a federal vehicle parked behind him, causing significant damage, according to the complaint.

Mendoza Hernandez then accelerated forward toward two agents, one of whom was directly in his path and had to jump out of the way to avoid being hit, the complaint said. He then jumped the center median and drove the wrong way against traffic before colliding with another vehicle, striking a guardrail and coming to rest about 500 feet from the traffic stop, according to the DOJ.

{snip}