PORTLAND, Ore. — Federal prosecutors have filed charges against one of the two people shot by Border Patrol agents in Portland on Jan. 8.
Luis David Nino-Moncada, 33, was booked into jail on Sunday and faces one count of aggravated assault of a federal officer and one count of depredation of federal property in excess of $1,000.
The aggravated assault charge is based on the fact that Nino-Moncada allegedly rammed a Border Patrol car with his truck multiple times while attempting to flee a traffic stop on Jan. 8, according to an affidavit in support of an arrest warrant. The affidavit was authored by the FBI agent who investigated the incident and filed in federal court on Saturday.
The car was unoccupied, and none of the agents involved were hit, according to the affidavit, but they experienced “a reasonable apprehension of bodily harm.” The affidavit contends that Nino-Moncada’s actions were “an attempt to cause harm to Border Patrol Agents on scene.”
The traffic stop was part of an enforcement operation seeking Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras, the other person shot in the incident. The affidavit does identify her by name, but Portland Police Chief Bob Day and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security previously identified her and Nino-Moncada, and the circumstances described in the affidavit make her identity clear.
On Friday, Day said Zambrano-Contreras and Nino-Moncada were known by law enforcement to be involved with a Tren de Aragua prostitution ring and believed to be connected to a shooting that happened in Portland on July 11, 2025, though they are not currently considered suspects in the shooting.
The affidavit includes new details about the July 11 shooting, as well as another shooting that took place three days earlier on July 8, citing Washington County Sheriff’s Office and Portland Police Bureau reports.
Zambrano-Contreras had been previously arrested by Border Patrol in Texas in September 2023 and instructed to check in with ICE in Portland, according to the affidavit. She never did, and was eligible to be arrested and held in immigration custody. An immigration judge in Colorado had previously ordered Nino-Moncada’s removal in 2024.
The July 8 shooting happened in Washington County, according to the affidavit. Sheriff’s deputies responded to a report of shots fired and interviewed two victims at an apartment, neither of whom was injured.
The victims said they had engaged the services of a prostitute, later identified by the sheriff’s office as Zambrano-Contreras. She left after a dispute, according to the affidavit, then returned to the apartment with several men and tried to break in. One of the victims ran out the back of the apartment and said he was shot at while running away.
Deputies found a single 9mm cartridge casing behind the apartment, which was later matched with casings from several other shootings, including one four days earlier in Portland, according to the affidavit.
The following month, while executing a search warrant at a hotel for a prostitution sting, law enforcement detained Zambrano-Contreras, Nino-Moncada and two other men. They interviewed Zambrano-Contreras about the July shooting, and she gave multiple versions of events but admitted her involvement, according to the affidavit.
She said she had gone to the apartment twice on the day in question, and on the second visit, one of the men forced her to perform oral sex and initially prevented her from leaving, forcing her to leave without her belongings and money. She texted Nino-Moncada to pick her up, then later called another friend who always carried a gun, according to the affidavit.
The other friend, referred to in the affidavit as “Alex,” and several other men went to the apartment to help her recover the money. Two of the men are identified by their initials in the affidavit. One of the men broke a window, and Zambrano-Contreras told investigators she went inside to look for her belongings but left without finding them. She said she did not hear any shots fired, according to the affidavit.
Nino-Moncada was also interviewed and admitted to regularly driving Zambrano-Contreras around, according to the affidavit. He said he didn’t know anything about the July shooting itself, but he said he did remember picking Zambrano-Contreras up that day to take her back to her hotel, and that she had been crying and had marks on her neck.
Recapping the second shooting on July 11, the affidavit states that Portland police responded to a shooting in Northeast Portland and were told that a victim had been shot in the chest and taken to a hospital in a private car. The victim was a Venezuelan national and had been shot in the abdomen and left arm, and told investigators that the incident stemmed from an altercation with members of Tren de Aragua.
The victim told police he had previously purchased a car from one of the men, “Alex,” and had been speaking to him on July 11 about getting his money back. The victim said four other men arrived in a car, including one that the victim described as running Tren de Aragua in Portland, according to the affidavit. The victim said one of the other men shot him, then they drove off.
The victim continued to cooperate with police and identified other suspected Tren de Aragua members in Portland, including two of the men who accompanied Zambrano-Contreras back to the apartment on July 8.
According to the affidavit, the Border Patrol agents on Jan. 8 were seeking a red Toyota Tacoma pickup truck “known to be associated” with Zambrano-Contreras. They found the truck and confirmed that she was a passenger and Nino-Moncada was driving, and began a traffic stop in the parking lot of Adventist Health Primary Care in East Portland using four unmarked vehicles.
Six agents got out and four of them approached the truck, while the other two stayed in their cars. The agents identified themselves as law enforcement and were wearing identifying markers “including tactical vests and/or badges,” according to the affidavit. One of the agents later told investigators that Nino-Moncada appeared anxious.
The agents ordered the occupants to get out of the truck, at which point Nino-Moncada put the vehicle in reverse and began repeatedly backing up and driving forward, smashing into an unoccupied Border Patrol car behind the truck several times and causing significant damage.
The affidavit summarizes FBI interviews with four of the involved agents, more than one of whom told investigators that they were concerned for their safety when the truck began ramming the car. An agent interviewed by the FBI said they were afraid that Nino-Moncada would try to hit the agents.
Only one agent fired, although another agent reported that they had also drawn their weapon, keeping it pointed at the ground. The agent who fired had initially been standing in front of the truck during the ramming, according to one of the interviews, but then moved to the driver’s side near the front and fired through the driver’s side window.
The truck fled the scene and the agents did not pursue it, according to the affidavit. The affidavit states that it’s unknown whether the shots struck either of the truck’s occupants, though it also later states that both occupants were later admitted to hospitals and treated for gunshot wounds.
There is no body camera footage of the incident, according to the affidavit, and so far investigators have failed to find any surveillance footage or other video of the event.
Day previously reported that Portland police had no advance warning of the Border Patrol operation and only learned of the incident when officers responded to a report of a shooting injury and found Nino-Moncada and Zambrano-Contreras outside an apartment complex in East Portland a short time after the shooting.
Nino-Moncada reportedly yelled obscenities repeatedly while police applied a tourniquet before he was taken to a hospital. After being treated, he was interviewed by FBI agents and admitted to intentionally ramming the Border Patrol car, and said he knew they were immigration enforcement vehicles, according to the affidavit.
Read more on WHAS 11 Louisville
