By Brad Brooks
Jan 12 (Reuters) – The Venezuelan man shot by a border patrol agent last week in Portland, Oregon, was charged on Monday with assaulting federal officers, the U.S. Justice Department said.
The department said Luis Nino-Moncada will make a court appearance on Monday to face charges of aggravated assault of a federal officer and depredation of federal property. It said he repeatedly rammed his car into agents’ vacant vehicle.
The Portland shooting came amid heightened tensions over President Donald Trump’s aggressive mass deportation efforts after an ICE immigration agent shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis, Minnesota last week.
Authorities said Nino-Moncada, who was shot in the arm and is in FBI custody, has ties to Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and is in the U.S. illegally.
The border patrol agent shot him and a woman in the car out of fear that Nino-Moncada “could strike them and other Border Patrol agents with the target vehicle,” the Justice Department said.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the border patrol, said last week Nino-Moncada “weaponized” his car.
The woman was identified by DHS as Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras, who federal officials say was also in the U.S. illegally. She was shot in the chest.
The Justice Department alleges that she also has ties to the Venezuelan gang, was involved in prostitution and was previously involved in a shooting in Portland.
After the shooting, the pair fled in their vehicle, driving about two miles northeast before calling for medical help.
(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Colorado; editing by Donna Bryson and Cynthia Osterman)
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