UPDATE: On Thursday, Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez’s fiancée and his attorney, Patrick Kolasinski, were able to speak with him at Doctors Medical Center, where he is recovering from more than half a dozen gunshot wounds.
His attorney also said the Patterson resident told him he reversed his car to flee only because ICE agents had begun firing at him. This disputes the agency’s claim he was trying to “run an officer over.” On Friday, a witness with dashcam footage of the shooting came forward to say she heard a shot before the car began moving.
The family of the man shot by ICE agents in Patterson is speaking out adamantly to say he is not a gang member or a criminal – but a loving partner and father with a 2-year-old daughter at home.
His fiancée Cindy, who declined to share her last name out of safety concerns, spoke during a press conference Wednesday morning at their attorney’s office in downtown Modesto. She provided documents that appear to counter previous claims made by U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement officials.
Cindy has been with Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez for four years, and they live together in Patterson with their 2-year-old daughter and her two other children. The family has not had contact with him since his shooting and detention, she said.
“I’m having to have a strong face for my children and his daughter, but this is incredibly hard,” Cindy said in Spanish in an interview with The Modesto Focus. “The most frustrating part for me is being kept in the dark. Me and his family have no idea what his condition is. How do I explain that to his daughter?”
Patrick Kolasinski, the Modesto attorney representing Hernandez, said in the press conference that Carlos is a family man who was on his way to work, and he has had no criminal contacts in the United States. Cindy said her 36-year-old fiancé works in construction.
Immigration enforcement traffic stop
At 6:30 a.m. Tuesday, armed ICE agents attempted to arrest Hernandez during a traffic stop at the Sperry Avenue exit just off Interstate 5 in Patterson, on the western edge of Stanislaus County.
The incident, which was captured on dashcam video from passersby and confirmed by Kolasinski, shows Hernandez backing up his vehicle and then pulling forward in an attempt to flee. It also appears to show the officers firing into his moving vehicle, though there is no sound to confirm the gunshots. Hernandez’s vehicle comes to a stop in opposing traffic.
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said in a statement posted on X Tuesday after the shooting that agents were looking for an alleged gang member as part of a “targeted vehicle stop in Patterson, CA.”
The post said that Hernandez was “an 18th Street Gang member wanted in El Salvador for questioning in connection to a murder” without providing further evidence or additional information about his alleged affiliations.
As federal immigration agents continue to enact President Donald Trump’s mass deportation policies, ICE and other agencies have repeatedly been accused of misidentifying or improperly detaining people. That includes arresting people without criminal records, misinterpreting tattoos as gang tattoos, and other mistakes that have led to deportation. U.S. citizens have also been detained and arrested during sweeps and protests.
Lyons, in his X post, claimed Hernandez “weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run an officer over” and that the agents acted defensively. But Kolasinski said the video shows otherwise, and that Hernandez was “doing everything he can to not run them over, as they try their best to get in his way” in the footage.
“We’ve all seen the video, and one of our big things here is, if you look at the video, the officers there clearly weren’t trained how to do a proper traffic stop,” Kolasinski said. “It created a dangerous situation for everybody.”
Since the start of the second Trump administration, federal immigration agents have been involved in more than two dozen shootings across the country. This January, the high-profile shooting deaths of American citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis sparked national protests. Good was also accused of weaponizing her vehicle against federal agents in the aftermath of her killing.
Attorney, family dispute ICE claims
Hernandez’s family said they are very concerned for his health. He was taken to Doctors Medical Center in Modesto for treatment, where he apparently remains. But his condition is unknown at this time, Kolasinski said, and family members have not been able to contact him. Calls to the Doctors spokesperson were not returned to The Modesto Focus Wednesday.
Kolasinski set up a GoFundMe for Hernandez’s family to pay for his medical care and help his fiancée and 2-year-old daughter. While Cindy is a U.S. citizen, Hernandez’s specific immigration status is unclear. His attorney said he is a dual citizen of El Salvador and Mexico, with one parent from each country.
Being undocumented is, for the most part, not a federal criminal offense, but a civil violation in the United States.
Kolasinski provided to the press an official document from the Department of Sonsonate, a city in El Salvador, that appears to acquit Hernandez of the murder charges referenced by ICE officials after his shooting. A translation of the Spanish documents from October 2019 by The Modesto Focus shows “there is no arrest warrant issued and he is ordered to be released immediately.”
Cindy said it has been difficult hearing and reading comments from the public following the shooting.
“It’s painful, people wishing for him to die,” she said. “I’m thinking how we got to this point as humans, why we are wishing someone is dead.
“I know Carlos,” she continued. “Based on my experience living with him, and the years that we’ve been together, the situations that we encounter, and I know he’s not that bad person that they are creating.”
Kolasinski said he is unsure how and why Hernandez was targeted by ICE agents, though a recent traffic stop in Turlock about a cracked windshield could be the cause.
“He has had one minor traffic ticket and was recently stopped for the horrible crime of having a cracked windshield, and that, we believe, may have led to this encounter with ICE yesterday,” Kolasinski said.
Valley community reaction, protests and arrests
Despite claims to be going after the “worst of the worst” during its raids and sweeps, federal officials have rounded up significant numbers of immigrants without any criminal records. Since the shootings of Good and Pretti, more than half of those detained had no criminal history, according to the Deportation Data Project.
Hernandez’s shooting and detention have already inspired local protest. After a handful of protestors arrived at Doctors Medical Center Tuesday evening, two people were arrested and taken to the Stanislaus County jail. They have since been released on their own recognizance without needing to post bail. A small shrine to Hernandez with signs and candles has sprung up at the hospital.
“I think a lot of us were reluctant to believe what ICE was saying about the individual that they were attempting to detain,” said Bianca Lopez, a community member who waited overnight at the county jail for more information on the arrestees. “When we saw the video, it seemed pretty evident that what they are claiming happened isn’t what we saw happen, just like what happened in Minneapolis with Renee Good.”
Cindy said last night, Hernandez’s 2-year-old daughter didn’t fall asleep until 1 a.m. because her father is always the one to tuck her in.
“She waited by the door, to hear his signature whistle that he made when he came through the door home from work. But it never came,” Cindy said.
“There was one time that he told me, ‘I just want you to take care of my daughter, because that’s my biggest fear. That one day something would happen to me, I won’t be able to be here with her.’ That was his biggest fear. And I believe yesterday, his reaction came from that fear.”
