Faris Tanyos is a news editor for CBSNews.com, where he writes and edits stories and tracks breaking news. He previously worked as a digital news producer at several local news stations up and down the West Coast.
Two people were shot by federal agents in Portland, Oregon, on Thursday, Portland police said. The Department of Homeland Security said the shooting involved Customs and Border Patrol agents.
Two people, a man and a woman, were wounded and hospitalized, Portland Police Chief Bob Day said in a news conference Thursday night.
Homeland Security identified the two people Friday as Luis David Nino-Moncada and Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras from Venezuela and accused them of being suspected associates with the Tren de Aragua gang. Nino-Moncada sustained an injury to the arm, DHS said, while Zambrano-Contreras was hit in the chest. Both are in stable condition, and Nino-Moncada is now in FBI custody, the agency said.
The department said on social media that Nino-Moncada entered the country illegally in 2022 and that a removal order had been issued for him. The department said Zambrano-Contreras entered the U.S. illegally in 2023.
The people shot were a husband and wife, according to a statement from the PCUN farmworkers union, which is active in supporting immigrants and Latinos in the community. However, the DHS claimed the two are not married.
DHS said Border Patrol agents stopped a car searching for a Venezuelan they claim is in the country illegally and a member of Tren de Aragua. Day said in a news conference Friday that the two “do have some nexus to involvement” with Tren de Aragua, a gang that the Trump administration has designated a foreign terrorist organization.
DHS said after the agents identified themselves, the driver “weaponized his vehicle and attempted to run over the law enforcement agents.”
“Fearing for his life and safety, an agent fired a defensive shot,” DHS said. The department said the man drove off with his passenger.
The shooting occurred at around 2:18 p.m. local time in the Hazelwood neighborhood in East Portland. Portland police officers responded to a 911 call and “confirmed federal agents were involved in a shooting,” Day said.
About six minutes later, Day said, officers responded to a separate location about three miles away for a 911 call, where they found a man and woman with gunshot wounds.
“Officers determined that the two people who were injured in the shooting involving the federal agents in the earlier call,” Day said. The two victims were then rushed to separate hospitals.
“There were federal officers both at the original scene, and federal officers met us out at the scene farther away,” Day said.
Day added that “it’s early on, we do not know the cause.”
The police chief told reporters the FBI was investigating the shooting.
“This is a federal investigation being led by the FBI,” Day said, noting that Portland police were providing “investigative support and perimeter support” that was “minimal.”
Later, Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield announced on social media that his office is opening a formal investigation into the shooting. “Our office will take every step necessary to ensure the rights and security of Oregonians are protected,” he said, adding that the investigation “will look into whether any federal officer acted outside the scope of their lawful authority and will include witness interviews, video evidence, and other relevant materials.”
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek said during the news conference, “We are all shaken and outraged by another terrible, unnecessary violent event instigated by a reckless agenda of the Trump administration.” She said her message to the federal government was that “we demand transparency, we demand cooperation with Portland police and the Multnomah County DA.”
Kotek said she had not spoken to any White House officials about the incident.
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the ICE facility in downtown Portland as night fell. The city’s police used a sound truck to warn protesters to stay off roadways and obey the law or face possible arrest and the possible use of “impact munitions or other physical force.” Later, they said six people were arrested for alleged misdemeanors.
As of midnight Thursday, some 60-90 protesters were still there, but most were just standing around and roads were clear, CBS News’ Amanda Arden reported.
The shooting came a day after 37-year-old Renee Good was shot and killed by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis. DHS officials also alleged in that incident that Good had “weaponized her vehicle,” although Minnesota officials and video from the scene have cast doubt on that assertion.
“Our community deserves answers, our community deserves accountability, and most of all, our community deserves peace,” Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said during the briefing.
“We cannot sit by while constitutional protections erode and bloodshed mounts,” Wilson said in an earlier statement. “Portland is not a ‘training ground’ for militarized agents, and the ‘full force’ threatened by the administration has deadly consequences. As Mayor, I call on ICE to end all operations in Portland until a full investigation can be completed.”
A Portland City Council session abruptly recessed on Thursday after members were informed of the shooting.
Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden said on social media, “Trump’s deployment of federal agents in my hometown is clearly inflaming violence — and must end.” Fellow Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley wrote on Facebook, “Please keep protests of Trump’s ICE/CBP peaceful, as Trump wants to generate riots. Don’t take the bait.”
Portland has been the site of continued protests against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown for months. This fall, hundreds of National Guard troops were sent to Portland to “protect federal assets and personnel” carrying out immigration operations, the White House said.
Mr. Trump said last week that he was pulling National Guard troops out of Portland as well as Chicago and Los Angeles, after a federal court ruled against the administration’s action. But he said, “we will come back” if crime “begins to soar again.”
