Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents shot a man in a vehicle in northern California on Tuesday.
ICE agents conducted a vehicle stop in Patterson, a rural agricultural town in California’s Central Valley about 80 miles east of San Jose, to arrest Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez, ICE director Todd Lyons said in a statement.
Lyons described Hernandez as a member of the Los Angeles 18th Street gang and said he was wanted for questioning in El Salvador related to a murder. Lyons did not provide evidence of that allegation. The details of that investigation remain unclear.
Hernandez was hospitalized after the shooting. A spokesperson for the Stanislaus county sheriff’s office, which has jurisdiction over Patterson, declined to comment on Hernandez’s condition.
According to Lyons, as agents approached the car, Hernandez “weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run an officer over”.