Overview
- Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez, who was arrested by the FBI Monday after his hospital discharge, was ordered released on $50,000 bond at a Tuesday hearing in Sacramento.
- Prosecutors charged him with assaulting a federal officer with a deadly weapon, alleging he struck an agent with his car, reversed into a government truck, then accelerated toward two agents.
- His lawyer disputes the account and says agents fired first, a claim the muted dashcam clips cannot confirm or refute.
- The criminal complaint says agents targeted him for lacking legal status, and it does not mention DHS claims of gang ties or a murder inquiry that his attorney counters with a 2019 acquittal in El Salvador.
- The FBI continues to investigate the shooting, and a conviction on the federal charge carries up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.