An FBI agent, among other investigators and emergency personnel from various organizations, works at the scene of a U.S. Border Patrol shooting of two people at building three of Adventist Health on the 10200 block of Southeast Main Street in Portland on Jan. 8, 2026.
Eli Imadali / OPB
Thursday afternoon, a U.S. Border Patrol agent shot a man and woman during an attempted traffic stop in East Portland, according to local and federal law enforcement officials. Responding to a report of a shooting, Portland police found the people who were shot and applied first aid before the two were transported to local hospitals for treatment.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the Portland shooting occurred as Border Patrol agents were stopping a vehicle. She claimed the driver and passenger were members of a Venezuelan gang and that the driver attempted to run over the federal agents, prompting one of the agents to open fire in self-defense.
According to Portland Police Chief Bob Day, the FBI is leading an investigation into the shooting. Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield said the Oregon Department of Justice would open its own investigation. Federal, state and local officials, including Portland Mayor Keith Wilson and Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, condemned the shooting. Portland police said they made six arrests during a protest Thursday night outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in South Portland that attracted hundreds of people.
The shooting in Portland happened just one day after an ICE agent shot and killed a U.S. citizen, Renee Nicole Good, in Minneapolis.
Joining us for more details is OPB reporter Joni Auden Land.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. We start today with the latest on yesterday’s shooting of two people by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. According to local and federal law enforcement officials, it happened during an attempted traffic stop in East Portland. A man and a woman were taken to local hospitals for treatment. A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said the driver attempted to run over Border Patrol agents, prompting an agent to fire in self-defense. Local and state officials condemned the shootings, and Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield said the State Department of Justice would open its own investigation.
OPB reporter Joni Auden Land has been covering this story and joins me now. It’s great to have you on the show.
Joni Auden Land: Thanks, Dave.
Miller: This is a situation where there are still at least as many questions as there are verified facts, but what do we know about what happened early yesterday afternoon?
Auden Land: Well, details are still pretty scant at this moment. As you said, what DHS has said is that Border Patrol agents were conducting a targeted stop at the Adventist Hospital campus in East Portland. To set the scene, it’s kind of like a medical office building across from the main hospital, and it took place in a parking lot. DHS says that the driver allegedly weaponized their vehicle in an attempt to injure border patrol agents, one of the agents fired shots in self-defense and the couple soon fled the scene. They ended up calling 911 from an apartment complex at NE 146 in East Burnside.
I’m sure many people listening will realize that that’s pretty similar to what we saw in Minneapolis as far as the allegations of someone using their car allegedly as a weapon to potentially injure police and police firing a shot in response.
Miller: At this point, what do we know about the medical condition of the couple?
Auden Land: We really don’t. It’s not been confirmed if the couple is still alive or even what the extent of their injuries is. We do know one was taken to Oregon Health and Sciences University and the other to Legacy Emanuel. It’s still unclear even if they’re still at the hospital right now. It’s just we don’t know very much.
Miller: What has the Department of Homeland Security said about the two people who were shot?
Auden Land: So this morning, DHS identified the two as Luis David Nino-Moncada and Yorlenys Zambrano-Contreras, and said both of them were originally from Venezuela. Now, DHS also says that both of them entered the U.S. illegally and claim that they have ties to a Venezuelan gang. And also saying that each of them have criminal records in the U.S. For example, Luis is said to have a DUI in his record and Yorlenys is said to have been involved in some sort of prostitution gang ring here in the United States. But that’s not something we’ve been able to find records of so far.
Miller: Have OPB reporters been able to verify any of what you’ve just described?
Auden Land: No, not really. We have not been able to verify their legal status or any alleged gang affiliations or crimes they may have committed with the names that have been provided. We did find someone with slightly different spelling for Luis than what DHS provided who has similar charges over a similar time period, consistent with what they were describing. But again, it’s not something that we can know for sure this time. It just seems to sort of match.
Miller: What have local and statewide leaders in Oregon said about what happened yesterday?
Auden Land: They largely have condemned what took place. There was a large press conference last night in Portland where Governor Tina Kotek kind of laid this at the feet of the Trump administration because of its increasing immigration enforcement around Oregon the past few months. And Portland Mayor Keith Wilson also condemned the shooting. Here’s a clip of him speaking last night.
Keith Wilson [recording]: We know what the federal government says happened here. There was a time when we could take them at their word. That time is long past. That is why we’re calling on ICE to halt all operations in Portland until a full and independent investigation can take place.
Auden Land: Yeah, and the responses weren’t completely uniform though, Dave. Republican State Senator Christine Drazan issued a statement last night saying that the Democrats were grandstanding and that everyone should wait for a full investigation to take place. And yet in that same statement, she also called Moncada and Zambrano-Contreras “dangerous criminals.”
Miller: In the Minneapolis shooting and in a lot of other high-profile incidents that became national news in recent years, there has been bystander footage, cell phone video or body camera footage that’s become public. So far, that’s not the case. How does that complicate the story?
Auden Land: At this moment, the trust for the federal government is very low for situations like this. You look at the way that President Donald Trump was describing the situation in Minneapolis yesterday, saying that the driver was attempting to run over officers, but when you look at the video, it seems to contradict that, that she wasn’t trying to run over an officer and that maybe he wasn’t immediately in danger.
In this case, it’s even more complicated because as you said, there isn’t any video, we just have the narrative provided by DHS. And given the recent deployment of the National Guard to Portland in response to the protests of the ICE building that we saw over the fall, trust is very low while tensions are very high at this moment.
Miller: The FBI has said that it’s investigating the incident as an “assault on a federal officer.” Meanwhile, late last night, Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield announced that his office would do its own investigation into the incident focused on “whether any federal officer acted outside the scope of their lawful authority.” State officials in Minnesota have been unable to do the same thing to investigate the shooting in Minneapolis because federal agencies have blocked them. Do we know if that’s happening here?
Auden Land It’s unclear if there’s an active blocking of officials here in Portland and in Oregon, but Portland Police Chief Bob Day did say yesterday that the FBI, the federal government, they’re leading the investigation and Portland police is sort of providing a general assistance. But they are not involved in the actual minutia of the investigation in that way.
Miller: The ICE building has been very quiet for weeks now, for months now, I think it’s fair to say. What happened last night?
Auden Land: It got less quiet for sure. There were multiple protests held around the city, not just the ICE building. There was a vigil held at Portland City Hall last night, which was peaceful. At the ICE building, there were nearly 500 people that showed up. Again, really reminiscent of the protests that we were seeing in response to the National Guard.
It was mostly peaceful. At some point, Portland police announced they had seen criminal activity. It’s not clear what that was, but there were people burning flags, setting fires to flags like that and then they started to make arrests. In total, six people were arrested. But on the whole, it did not appear to be violent, this protest last night.
Miller: Have more protests been announced?
Auden Land: Yes, there are more protests expected at the ICE building tonight throughout the weekend, and we’re expecting multiple protests in downtown and at hospitals in Portland throughout the weekend.
Miller: Joni, thanks very much.
Auden Land: Thank you.
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