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By CLAIRE RUSH
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The FBI mentioned in a courtroom doc made public Monday that it had discovered no surveillance or different video of a Border Patrol agent taking pictures and wounding two folks in a pickup truck throughout an immigration enforcement operation in Portland, Oregon, final week.
Brokers instructed investigators that considered one of their colleagues opened fireplace Thursday after the driving force put the truck in reverse and repeatedly slammed into an unoccupied automobile the brokers had rented, smashing its headlights and knocking off its entrance bumper. The brokers mentioned they feared for their very own security and that of the general public, the doc mentioned.
The FBI has interviewed 4 of the six brokers on the scene, the doc mentioned. It didn’t establish the agent who fired the photographs.
The taking pictures, which got here sooner or later after a federal agent shot and killed a driver in Minneapolis, prompted protests over federal brokers’ aggressive ways throughout immigration enforcement operations. The Division of Homeland Safety has mentioned the 2 folks within the truck entered the U.S. illegally and have been affiliated with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
Not one of the six brokers was recording physique digicam footage, and investigators have uncovered no surveillance or different video footage of the taking pictures, FBI Particular Agent Daniel Jeffreys wrote in an affidavit supporting aggravated assault and property injury prices towards the driving force, Luis David Nino-Moncada.
The truck drove away after the taking pictures, which occurred within the parking zone of a medical workplace constructing. Nino-Moncada known as 911 after arriving at an residence advanced a number of minutes away. He was positioned in FBI custody after being handled for a gunshot wound to the arm and stomach.
Throughout an preliminary look Monday afternoon in federal courtroom in Portland, he wore a white sweatshirt and sweatpants and appeared to carry out his left arm gingerly at an angle. An interpreter translated the decide’s feedback for him. The decide ordered that he stay in detention and scheduled a preliminary listening to for Wednesday.
The agent’s affidavit mentioned that after being learn his rights, Nino-Moncada “admitted to deliberately ramming the Border Patrol automobile in an try to flee, and he acknowledged that he knew they have been immigration enforcement autos.”
His passenger, Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras, was hospitalized after being shot within the chest and on Monday was being held at a personal immigration detention facility in Tacoma, Washington, in line with a web based detainee locator system maintained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She faces a cost of unlawful entry into the U.S., which federal prosecutors in Texas filed final week. The federal public defender’s workplace for the Western District of Texas didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Nino-Moncada and Zambrano-Contreras are Venezuela nationals and entered the U.S. illegally in 2022 and 2023, respectively, the Division of Homeland Safety mentioned. It recognized Nino-Moncada as an affiliate of Tren de Aragua and Zambrano-Contreras as concerned in a prostitution ring run by the gang.
“Anybody who crosses the purple line of assaulting legislation enforcement will likely be met with the total drive of this Justice Division,” Legal professional Normal Pam Bondi mentioned Monday in a information launch saying prices towards Nino-Moncada. “This man — an unlawful alien with ties to a international terrorist group — ought to NEVER have been in our nation to start with, and we’ll guarantee he NEVER walks free in America once more.”
Oregon Federal Public Defender Fidel Cassino-DuCloux, whose workplace represents Nino-Moncada, mentioned in an announcement final week that the taking pictures and the accusations towards Nino-Moncada “comply with a well-worn playbook that the federal government has developed to justify the damaging and unprofessional conduct of its brokers.”
Portland Police Chief Bob Day confirmed final week that the pair had “some nexus” to the gang. Day mentioned the 2 got here to the eye of police throughout an investigation of a July taking pictures believed to have been carried out by gang members, however they weren’t recognized as suspects.
Zambrano-Contreras was beforehand arrested for prostitution, Day mentioned, and Nino-Moncada was current when a search warrant was served in that case.
Johnson reported from Seattle.
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