U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement agents shot a man Tuesday morning in Patterson, during what federal officials said was a targeted traffic stop.
The Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office first reported on its Facebook page that it was assisting with a shooting involving ICE officers on Interstate 5 at the Sperry Avenue exit.
This is the first confirmed shooting by federal immigration agents in the Central Valley and Northern California.
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said in a statement posted on X that agents were looking for an alleged gang member as part of a “targeted vehicle stop in Patterson, CA.” The post said the man, Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez, was “an 18th Street Gang member wanted in El Salvador for questioning in connection to a murder” and that he “weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run an officer over.”
Lyons confirmed Hernandez was taken to a local hospital and that FBI agents were on the scene as part of the investigation.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office also posted on X about the shooting, confirming he was briefed.
“As is established practice, we expect our federal law enforcement partners to appropriately collaborate with state and local law enforcement as this matter is investigated,” Newsom wrote.
The sheriff’s department first posted about the incident around 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, and followed up with a post reporting ICE involvement and the shooting a little more than an hour later. According to the sheriff’s office, Hernandez was transported to a local hospital for treatment and his condition is unknown at this time. No local law enforcement officer was involved.
The I-5 on and off ramps at Sperry Avenue will be closed until further notice, and the public should expect a heavy law enforcement presence throughout the day. Several FBI agents were also on scene.
Since the start of the second Trump administration, federal immigration agents have been involved in more than two dozen shootings – some of them fatal. Those include the high-profile shooting deaths of American citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis in January of this year which sparked national outrage and protests. Good had also been accused of weaponizing her vehicle against federal agents when she was shot.
Federal immigration agents have been involved in a handful of shootings in California since 2025, according to The Trace, a nonprofit newsroom that tracks gun violence nationally. All five previous shootings have been in southern California. One of those, the shooting of Keith Porter by an off-duty ICE agent in Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve, was fatal.
In the San Joaquin Valley, ICE and Border Patrol have been limited to targeted enforcement, and restricted from conducting large-scale deportation raids.
A federal lawsuit stemming from a January 2025 Border Patrol operation that swept through predominantly Latino neighborhoods in Bakersfield resulted in a preliminary injunction prohibiting Border Patrol from conducting detentive stops and warrantless arrests without proper legal justification across California’s Eastern District. The region stretches from Bakersfield to the Oregon border.
The Patterson ICE shooting drew swift response from Faith in the Valley, the nonprofit which runs the Valley Watch Network, the region’s rapid response hotline. In a post, the group urged Valley residents to contact their local elected leaders: “We need transparency and answers. Take action by calling your local and state representatives now.”
KCRA 3 News posted dashcam video of the shooting, which shows three ICE agents surrounding a car during a traffic stop. The vehicle reverses into a truck behind it, and then the driver attempts to speed off before coming to rest in oncoming traffic. ICE agents appear to fire into the vehicle as the driver attempts to flee.
