A federal grand jury on Tuesday indicted the man who allegedly fled a U.S. Border Patrol traffic stop in Portland before being shot by one of the immigration officers.
Luis Nino-Moncada was charged with aggravated assault on a federal employee with a deadly or dangerous weapon and depredation of federal property.
The two-page document is short on details, but means federal prosecutors have established probable cause and that the criminal case against Nino-Moncada can proceed.
Crime tape surrounds a damaged vehicle rented and used by U.S. Border Patrol, 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
The 33 year-old Venezuelan-national drove a red Toyota Tacoma pickup away from six U.S. Border Patrol agents on Jan. 8, according to documents filed in court Monday by the FBI. The federal officers pulled up in four unmarked vehicles as part of an immigration enforcement operation, targeting Nino-Moncada’s passenger, Yorlenys Zambrano-Contreras.
At least one Border Patrol agent told the FBI the driver of the pickup, Nino-Moncada, was “moving fast and striking the Border Patrol vehicle with force like the driver had floored the gas pedal,” court documents allege.
The rental car was unoccupied, but the Border Patrol told the FBI they were “fearful for their safety and for the safety of other Border Patrol agents.” According to the FBI, at least two agents drew their service weapons, one fired shots into the driver’s side window as Nino-Moncada allegedly drove the truck out of Adventist Health’s medical clinic parking lot.
Both Nino-Moncada and Zambrano-Contreras were wounded in the shooting and hospitalized. They were later arrested and placed into federal custody.
FBI Investigators work on the scene near the 10200 block of Southeast Main Street in Portland where two people were shot and wounded Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, by U.S. Border Patrol earlier that day.
Eli Imadali / OPB
After the shooting, the U.S. Department of Justice charged Zambrano-Contreras with illegally entering the United States in 2023, a misdemeanor.
The shooting has drawn national attention, in part, because it came the day after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a U.S. Citizen in Minneapolis.
After the shooting in Portland, a spokesperson with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Nino-Moncada was a member of Tren de Aragua — a gang from Venezuela — and called Zambrano-Contreras an associate.
“Law enforcement continues to investigate the links between these subjects and TdA,” the FBI wrote in a complaint filed Monday in federal court.
Oregon’s federal public defender has called gang connections allegations without evidence.
So far, none of the federal charges are related to any gang connection.
