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A federal grand jury on Friday indicted Carlos Ivan Mendoza
Hernandez, who has dual citizenship in El Salvador and Mexico,
on two counts of assaulting a federal officer with a deadly
weapon and one count of damaging government property.
Patrick Kolasinski, one of his lawyers, has said Mendoza
panicked and tried to flee when Immigration and Customs
Enforcement agents blocked his car and that he did not intend to
run over anyone. Kolasinski also disputed claims by officials
that his client was a suspected gang member wanted in El
Salvador for questioning in relation to a murder.
Salvadoran court documents show he was acquitted of murder in El
Salvador and Mendoza has denied ever being in a gang, his lawyer
has said. He came to the U.S. in 2019 and has no criminal
record, Kolasinski has said.
The U.S. Attorney's Office said Monday that Mendoza has
requested a jury trial. A status conference was set for July 27.
Mendoza is recovering after several surgeries for multiple
gunshot wounds, including one to the jaw, his attorney said.
The Department of Homeland Security has said ICE officers fired
defensive shots at Mendoza after he tried to drive into them.
DHS said the officers were conducting an enforcement stop
targeting Mendoza, 36, on April 7 in Patterson, a city about 75
miles (120 kilometers) southeast of San Francisco.
It was part of a series of shootings that have occurred during
the Trump administration’s aggressive push to detain and deport
immigrants in the country illegally. It is also among those
where questions have been raised to federal officials about the
circumstances since in some shootings, video evidence
contradicted immigration officials' initial accounts.
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