Man shot by Border Patrol in Portland to remain in custody

PORTLAND, Ore. (CN) — A federal judge on Wednesday denied bail for the man shot by federal immigration officers in Portland, citing concerns he’s a flight risk and danger to the community.

Attorneys for Luis Niño-Moncada, 34, said their client was in “abject terror” when he rammed his truck multiple times while trying to escape Border Patrol officers a day after an officer shot and killed Minneapolis resident Renee Good. Niño-Moncada hit an officer, seriously damaged an unoccupied federal rental car and was then shot at by an agent as a result.

With a large bandage wrapped around his left bicep, Niño-Moncada repeatedly shook his head in protest as Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Edmonds insisted Border Patrol agents made multiple commands from both sides of the vehicle to comply and exit.

Edmonds said after being boxed in by unmarked federal vehicles upon arrival at a medical center to bring his girlfriend to an appointment, Niño-Moncada and his passenger refused to cooperate.

“It was 15-30 seconds that the defendant considered what was in front of him when he was lawfully confronted by six officers,” Edmonds told U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Armistead on Wednesday. “He considered what to do and he made a conscious choice to fight his way out (and) in his hands he had a very potent weapon, let’s be clear about it.”

Niño-Moncada’s defense attorney Michael Charles Benson argued that in those few seconds the officers had already begun to break in the driver’s side window, casting doubt on claims that the officers had conducted themselves calmly. Benson said the stop was “almost deliberately designed to be the kind of circumstances that illicit a panic response,” and that much of the damage occurred after the officers fired their weapons.

Prosecutors say Niño-Moncada reversed his red Toyota Tacoma truck multiple times, hitting an officer in the chest and crashing into the federal vehicle behind him before accelerating and aiming the vehicle toward another officer.

“He didn’t have a huge chance to accelerate, but certainly accelerate enough to be a significant threat to the life of the officer,” Edmonds said, noting the officer fired and hit Niño-Moncada in the arm and his girlfriend in the chest before they drove off. The pair pulled over in an apartment complex three miles away and called 911.

“The debris field from the damage done to that vehicle looks like something out on the highway after a major crash," Edmonds said.

A bulk of the hearing consisted of debating Niño-Moncada’s involvement with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. According to his attorneys, Niño-Moncada entered the United States from Venezuela illegally in 2022, looking for work and escaping political persecution after previously being assaulted by Venezuelan law enforcement officers.

Following his arrest last week, the federal government began suggesting possible gang involvement because Niño-Moncada’s girlfriend supposedly contacted individuals with ties to the gang after she was assaulted, resulting in a summer 2024 shooting in Northeast Portland.

“He took her away from a bad situation and she called someone else,” Armistead, a Joe Biden appointee, said.

In addition to the gang ties, prosecutors said Niño-Moncada had notched in eight traffic stops in a single month. This seemed to sway Armistead, although he noted Niño-Moncada had been cooperative each time.

“Using a vehicle in an unsafe manner repeatedly is just really concerning, seeing that frequency,” Armistead said, noting Niño-Moncada has minimal ties to Portland when compared to his Venezuelan ties. “We believe the government has met its burden.”

Benson argued Niño-Moncada couldn’t be a flight risk, as he has no way to get to Venezuela and is still healing from his bullet injury.

Niño-Moncada will remain in detention until his five-day jury trial in March before U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut, a Donald Trump appointee. He previously pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated assault on a federal officer using a deadly or dangerous weapon — his pickup truck — and damaging government property.