Nine days after the U.S. Border Patrol shot and injured two people in East Portland during an immigration traffic stop, few details have been shared with the public.

The facts that have been released have come primarily from court documents filed by the FBI and federal prosecutors.

It remains unclear exactly how and why a team of six Border Patrol agents initiated the Jan. 8 stop, which led to the shooting that drew national attention.

The incident in Portland occurred one day after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis shot and killed a U.S. citizen.

Here’s what we know about the shooting and what comes next.

What happened during the shooting?

On Jan. 8, a Border Patrol Agent fired into the driver’s side of a red Toyota Tacoma pickup.

Federal law enforcement said the driver, Luis David Nino-Moncada, fled the traffic stop in the Adventist medical clinic parking lot.

Two people were shot during the interaction: Nino-Moncada and a woman, Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras, who was a passenger.

He was shot in the arm, and she was shot in the chest. Both are Venezuelan.

Zambrano-Contreras was the Border Patrol’s target, court documents later showed.

After the shooting, federal investigators interviewed the Border Patrol agents. There had been six of them on the traffic stop – in four, separate, unmarked cars.

Two of the agents hadn’t yet been interviewed in the records.

According to the other agents, they identified themselves and approached the vehicle near the medical office in East Portland.

One agent described Nino-Moncada as “anxious and visibly moving around in the driver’s seat.”

The agents accused Nino-Moncada of sending the situation into chaos. They said he put the truck in reverse and collided with an unmarked car “with enough force and speed to cause significant damage.”

At about this time, court records show, one federal officer drew his handgun and fired. Two agents told investigators they heard two gunshots.

After the shooting, the two then drove to a nearby apartment complex and called 911. Zambrano-Contreras and Nino-Moncada were both transported to area hospitals before being placed in federal custody.

On Jan. 9, the day after the shooting, Zambrano-Contreras was charged with illegally entering the United States, a federal misdemeanor.

Nino-Moncada was indicted by a federal grand jury on Tuesday on two counts: depredation of federal property and aggravated assault on a federal employee with a deadly or dangerous weapon.

What do we know about the events leading up to the shooting?

Few details have been released, and much of what has been made public has come from federal prosecutors.

Those limited details have also been challenged by the federal public defenders representing Nino-Moncada and Zambrano-Contreras.

In the hours after the shooting, officials with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security accused Nino-Moncada and Zambrano-Contreras of being involved in the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, but offered few details about what that entailed.

The following day, Portland Police Chief Bob Day loosely confirmed a “nexus” between the two and the gang, stemming from a shooting over the summer, but did not say what that connection was.

Oregon’s Federal Public Defender Fidel Cassino Du-Cloux pushed back against federal and local law enforcement.

“The shooting of Mr. Moncada by federal officers and the subsequent accusations leveled against the victim of that shooting follow a well-worn playbook that the government has developed to justify the dangerous and unprofessional conduct of its agents,” he said in a statement to OPB.

What is the reported connection between the two people shot and Tren de Aragua?

The earliest information about the two stems from a complaint the FBI made public in federal court on Jan. 12.

It states that Border Patrol became aware of Zambrano-Contreras when she reportedly crossed into the U.S. illegally in 2023 in Texas.

She was quickly caught, and on Sept. 16, 2023, she was arrested and then released from the El Paso Central Processing Center “due to lack of space in the detention facility.”

She was given a June 1, 2028, immigration court date.

That same document explains very little about what happened between her 2023 release and her 2026 shooting and apprehension by Border Patrol.

“Investigations conducted by law enforcement in Portland have revealed that (Zambrano-Contreras) has engaged in criminal conduct since she was … released on her own recognizance,” Border Patrol agent Cesar E. Ponce wrote a day after the shooting.

That “conduct” is likely referring to a July shooting initially investigated by the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff’s deputies responded to reports of gunfire at an apartment building on July 7, 2025.

Deputies talked to two men who admitted they had “engaged the services of a prostitute.” They told investigators that the woman then left the apartment and returned with multiple men and broke in.

A month later, Zambrano-Contreras was apprehended during a prostitution sting. According to the court filings, she described that during the July 7 incident, “she had gone to the apartment two times that evening to engage in prostitution.

On the second visit, one of the males forced her to provide oral sex, initially did not let her leave, and she was forced to leave without her belongings and all of her money.”

Zambrano-Contreras told Washington County investigators that she then phoned a friend, identified in court records as “Alex,” to help her retrieve her belongings, according to the filing.

The Portland Police Bureau investigated another shooting on July 11, 2025, that resulted in no arrests.

One man was shot in the chest and said it stemmed from an altercation with Tren de Aragua gang members, including someone named “Alex.”

It’s not clear, however, who the individuals are and to what extent Zambrano-Contreras is affiliated.

She was never charged in any of these local incidents.

The Washington County District Attorney’s Office said it referred all the police and prosecutorial records to the federal government shortly after they happened.

Both Zambrano-Contreras and Nino-Moncada got on the radar of Border Patrol “after concerned citizens provided law enforcement with information that the two individuals may have been involved in a shooting in Portland,” court records show.

Why is there no footage of the events?

There’s no body-worn camera footage, according to federal investigators. It isn’t clear if that’s because Border Patrol agents weren’t wearing cameras or if they weren’t enabled and recording.

Likewise, federal investigators said they “scoured the area and social media in an effort to find surveillance footage, but to no avail.”

So, when will we know more?

In court this week, a judge set a five-day trial for Nino-Moncada in March.

Zambrano-Contreras doesn’t have a specific court date because her criminal charge is illegal entry into the U.S. She will likely be called as a witness in Nino-Moncada’s trial.

At any point, too, the defendants could go public with their own versions about what happened.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/01/17/what-we-know-so-far-about-border-patrol-shooting-in-portland/