‘Family Man’ Shot 6 Times by ICE Arrested by FBI Days After Hospital Release — Lawyer ‘In Shock’

On April 7, Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez was shot at least six times by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during a traffic stop in Patterson, California. Hernandez, 36, had to undergo three surgeries after suffering multiple gunshot wounds.

Less than a week later, he was released from the hospital and taken into custody by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Hernandez’s attorney, Patrick Kolasinski, said he was arrested on April 13, expressing disbelief over the development.

“We’re in shock. He should not be out of that hospital. He was in no condition to be released,” Kolasinski said in a statement to the Associated Press.

The charges against Hernandez remain unclear. However, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) previously claimed he is an illegal immigrant and a Los Angeles-based gang member wanted in El Salvador on a murder accusation.

Hernandez’s family has refuted these claims. Kolasinski initially said it could be a case of mistaken identity. However, he later said Hernandez was indeed involved in a murder case in El Salvador but was acquitted in 2019.

“Initially, when I was asked, I said we thought it may have been a mistaken identity. This morning, we received a little bit of information from El Salvador that he had had a criminal encounter in El Salvador, where he had been accused of murder, and he was acquitted,” Kolasinski said during a press conference.

Hernandez also maintained that he is not a gang member but a family man. He is engaged to a U.S. citizen named Cindy and shares a daughter with her, who will soon turn two. Cindy first spoke with Hernandez after the shooting on the evening of April 8 and later visited him over the weekend.

Cindy said Hernandez works as a laborer helping rehabilitate buildings destroyed by fire. According to her, he was on his way to work in the Bay Area when ICE agents stopped him near Interstate 5 in Patterson, California.

The DHS said ICE agents had to shoot Hernandez in self-defense as he tried to run them over. Video of the incident shows three agents surrounding Hernandez’s car. The agents draw their weapons as the vehicle begins to back up. The car later pulls forward and takes a sharp left turn. An agent is seen running out of the way as the vehicle drives over the roadway median.

Kolasinski said Hernandez was pulled over for minor traffic violations. He added that the man entered the U.S. in 2019 and has no criminal record in the country, though his legal status remains unclear.

The attorney has also questioned DHS’s claim that ICE agents were acting in accordance with standard protocol. “If that’s the case, then ICE’s own training puts their officers in danger, puts the community in danger and the people they’re trying to detain in danger,” he said.

Hernandez is being held at the Stanislaus County jail, and his detention hearing is scheduled for April 14.