Images of the red Toyota Tacoma truck driven by Luis Nino-Moncada included in a U.S. Department of Justice court filing on Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. Moncada was one of two people shot in Portland by the U.S. Border Patrol last week.
Images via U.S Department of Justice court filing
The two people shot in Portland last week by U.S. Border Patrol have been released from the hospital and are now in federal custody and face criminal charges.
Newly released court records show that a team of six Border Patrol agents tried to pull over Luis David Nino-Moncada and Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras last week. After they allegedly tried to escape, their pickup truck rammed one of the agents’ unmarked vehicles. One agent fired into their truck, striking Nino-Moncada in the arm and Zambrano-Contreras in the chest.
Nino-Moncada, charged with aggravated assault by the U.S. Department of Justice, wore all white sweats and moved with a slight limp as he entered the courtroom Monday afternoon. He held his left arm gingerly to his side.
He sat between his public defender, Michael Benson, and a court-appointed interpreter. Behind them: two U.S. Marshals. U.S. Magistrate Judge Stacie Beckerman scheduled a preliminary hearing for Nino-Moncada on Wednesday.
Zambrano-Contreras, meanwhile, was transferred to the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Wash., according to facility records. Federal prosecutors charged her with illegal entry into the U.S. on Friday. The charges were filed in the Western District of Texas. Her attorney declined to comment.
The new court documents released Monday give the first detailed glimpse into the Jan. 8 shooting, which captured national attention for being the second shooting by federal immigration enforcement officers in as many days. A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed a U.S. citizen in Minneapolis the day prior.
The charging documents provide some accounts by federal agents involved in the shooting and photos of the vehicles involved. Federal investigators are, however, struggling to find video of the incident, they said.
Officials with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security accused Nino-Moncada and Zambrano-Moncada of being involved in the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a statement Monday morning celebrating the charges.
“Anyone who crosses the red line of assaulting law enforcement will be met with the full force of this Justice Department,” Bondi wrote. “This man – an illegal alien with ties to a foreign terrorist organization – should NEVER have been in our country to begin with, and we will ensure he NEVER walks free in America again.”
While the shooting set off protests in Portland, federal investigators offered almost no details after labeling the people shot as gang members.
Local police said the federal government quickly took over the case but corroborated there was a “nexus” in their records that involved the duo, the Venezuelan gang and a shooting last summer.
FILE - FBI investigators work on the scene where two people were shot and wounded Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, by U.S. Border Patrol earlier that day.
Eli Imadali / OPB
Shooting details
The new federal filings give new accounts of what transpired leading up to the shooting on Thursday.
The records show they were searching for Zambrano-Contreras and her red Toyota Tacoma, which was registered to a friend that Zambrano-Contreras had made payments to. Cesar E. Ponce, a member of a Border Patrol team from El Paso, Texas, since 2008, wrote that Zambrano-Contreras entered the U.S. through the southern border about one mile east of the Paso Del Norte Port of Entry in September 2023.
Ponce wrote in court filings that their hunt for Zambrano-Contreras stemmed from a public tip.
“Concerned citizens provided law enforcement with information that the two individuals may have been involved in a shooting in Portland,” Ponce wrote.
Six agents – driving in four unmarked cars – spotted the red pickup truck Thursday afternoon. They initiated a traffic stop and pulled into the parking lot of a medical office in east Portland.
“The Border Patrol agents identified themselves as law enforcement officers to the occupants and were wearing law enforcement markings,” FBI Special Agent Daniel Jeffreys wrote in the complaint.
Nino-Moncada was “anxious and visibly moving around in the driver’s seat,” one of the Border Patrol agents told federal investigators.
After agents commanded them to exit the truck, Nino-Moncada put the truck in reverse and collided with an unmarked vehicle “with enough speed and force to cause significant damage,” according to Jeffreys.
Nino-Moncada then put the vehicle in drive and performed several forward-and-reverse maneuvers, “striking the Border Patrol vehicle multiple times.”
One Border Patrol agent said they were afraid Nino-Moncada could hit them with the pickup. An agent, identified as BP4, told the FBI they drew their service weapon, but aimed it towards the ground.
Another agent drew and fired at the driver, Jeffreys wrote. The identity of that agent has not been released and is not listed as among the agents who have been interviewed by federal investigators.
Two of the involved agents told the FBI they heard two gunshots. One said the shots were fired into the driver’s side window.
As the red Toyota drove off, the immigration officers told the FBI they did not know if anyone inside was hit.
Both were shot and minutes later called 911 from Bria apartment complex, where witnesses told OPB that Nino-Moncada and Zambrano-Contreras sometimes stayed.
Portland police and paramedics arrived on the scene. While a tourniquet was being placed around his arm, Nino-Moncada repeatedly said: “‘f-ck ICE.’”
Later, at the hospital, Nino-Moncada was interviewed by the FBI and “admitted to intentionally ramming the Border Patrol vehicle in an attempt to flee.”
Nino-Moncada has not yet been indicted by a federal grand jury. Instead, evidence and witnesses could testify, face cross-examination, and have a probable cause hearing before a judge. The judge would then determine how the case moves forward.
As of Saturday, the FBI, which is leading the investigation, told a federal judge that agents had interviewed four of the six Border Patrol agents who were on the scene.
No video
News of the fatal Minneapolis shooting by an ICE officer quickly spread across the country last week, aided by the fact that it was caught on video at multiple angles. Cell phone video taken by bystanders and security camera footage from the area flooded social media. The officer’s camera footage was published soon after.
Video footage of the shooting in Portland, however, appears harder to come by.
“Investigators have scoured the area and social media in an effort to find surveillance footage, but to no avail,” Jeffreys wrote in the federal charging document. “The fixed surveillance cameras in the area of this parking lot, according to the business, did not capture footage of this event.”
The Border Patrol agents did not wear body cameras, Jeffreys wrote in federal court filings. He noted that investigators are continuing to search for video.
July shooting
Homeland Security officials have been quick to call those shot by federal officers in Minneapolis, Chicago and Portland as “criminals,” “domestic terrorists,” or gang members.
Agency officials claim that Nino-Moncada is a member of the Tren de Aragua gang, which started in a Venezuelan prison. The group has spread internationally and has been one of the primary targets of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown.
They accused Zambrano-Contreras of being “affiliated” with the gang.
Those connections were loosely corroborated the day after the shooting by Portland Police Bureau Chief Bob Day. Responding to reporters’ questions, Day said a shooting in July suggested a “nexus of involvement” with the gang.
The charging documents shed light on that incident. Jeffreys wrote in the charging documents that the July case was initially investigated by the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.
Sheriff’s deputies first responded to reports of gunfire at an apartment building on July 7, 2025. Deputies talked to two men who admitted they had “engaged the services of a prostitute,” who then left the apartment and returned with multiple men and broke into the apartment.
“One of the victims fled out of the back of the apartment and stated he was shot at while he ran away,” Jeffreys wrote.
Washington County sheriff’s deputies found a 9-millimeter bullet casing near the apartment that matched casings at other shootings in the Portland area, the filings said.
Sheriff’s deputies later interviewed Zambrano-Contreras, according to Jeffreys, after apprehending her during a prostitution sting a month later. According to the court filings, Zambrano-Contreras then described the July 7 incident to local investigators.
“She had gone to the apartment two times that evening to engage in prostitution. On the second visit, one of the males forced her to provide oral sex, initially did not let her leave, and she was forced to leave without her belongings and all of her money,” the court records said.
Zambrano-Contreras was then driven back to her hotel by Nino-Moncada, she told Washington County investigators. Nino-Moncada said she was crying and had “marks on her neck when he picked her up.”
Zambrano-Contreras then phoned another friend identified in court records as “Alex” to help her go to the apartment to retrieve her belongings, according to Jeffreys’ description of the county records.
“Alex brought several other unknown males to the apartment,” Jeffreys wrote. One broke a window, he wrote, but Zambrano-Contreras denied hearing any gunshots.
Similarly, Jeffreys wrote that the Portland Police Bureau investigated a July 11 shooting that occurred near Northeast 82nd and Sandy Boulevard that left a man with gunshots in the stomach and arm. The man told Portland investigators the shooting stemmed from a disagreement with “members of Tren de Aragua,” one of whom was later identified as “Alex.”
While federal investigators begin building a case following the shooting of Zambrano-Contreras and Nino-Moncada last week, a federal defense attorney told OPB that the purported gang connections are flimsy.
“They have accused (Nino-Moncada) and his passenger of unrelated crimes and have claimed without evidence that he is a member of Tren de Aragua, just as they have said about many other Venezuelan citizens,” Fidel Cassino Du-Cloux said.
