By Lauren Mascarenhas, Danya Gainor

(CNN) — Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were involved in a shooting that sent one person to the hospital while they were conducting a targeted traffic stop in California’s Central Valley, the agency said Tuesday.

The ICE officers fired defensive shots after the person they stopped attempted to run an agent over, acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said in a statement shared with CNN by the Department of Homeland Security.

The shooting happened near Interstate 5 in Patterson, about 90 miles south of Sacramento.

The DHS statement identified the target of the vehicle stop as Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez, an undocumented immigrant and “18th Street Gang member wanted in El Salvador for questioning in connection to a murder.”

“As officers approached the car, the wanted gang member weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run an officer over. Following their training, our officers fired defensive shots to protect themselves, their fellow agents, and the public,” the statement continued.

DHS says its agents have been the target of increasing violence, citing more than 180 vehicle attacks since Trump’s second term. But the administration’s initial accounts of shootings involving federal agents have, in some cases, changed over time – or been proven wrong altogether.

“As is established practice, we expect our federal law enforcement partners to appropriately collaborate with state and local law enforcement as this matter is investigated,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said on X.

The Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office told CNN it’s assisting with the investigation and confirmed no local law enforcement was involved. The FBI is on scene, Lyons said.

Roads around the area are expected to be closed for the rest of the day, the sheriff’s office said in a social media post.

Car-involved incidents are a mark of the federal immigration crackdown

While agents have been subjected to violence since the start of Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration last year, DHS has also at times faced a crisis of credibility regarding claims it has made in the aftermath of some high-profile incidents. In arrests and use-of-force encounters across the country, versions provided by DHS of some events have been contradicted by eyewitness accounts and bystander video and challenged by independent judges.

Altercations in or around vehicles have been a steady symbol of the administration’s immigration crackdown, including car crashes between federal agents and people who try to flee, traffic stops turned violent and alleged rammings involving pro-immigrant activists.

The phrase “weaponized his/her vehicle” has been repeated by officials including former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem when she described Renee Good, a Minneapolis mother shot and killed by an ICE agent this year. Good’s death prompted widespread protests and her burgundy SUV has become a recognizable symbol of the chaotic immigration operations in Minneapolis.

18th Street Gang is a designated terrorist group

DHS said Mendoza Hernandez, the man agents were targeting Tuesday, is a member of the 18th Street Gang. The Department of Justice has said the group is a “well-known and established international criminal organization and violent street gang” with members and associates across the United States. It began as a Mexican-American street gang and now has more than 100,000 members in the United States, the Drug Enforcement Agency says.

The State Department last year designated the gang, also known as Barrio 18, a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

Earlier Tuesday in Brooklyn, New York, a high-ranking member of the gang was sentenced to more than 35 years in prison for racketeering conspiracy in connection with the 2017 murder of a man in New York state, the DOJ said. Two other gang members were previously sentenced as part of the same conspiracy.

Twelve members and associates of the 18th Street Gang were arrested last month in Los Angeles on charges including murder in the death of a drug trafficker, the DEA said.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

The-CNN-Wire
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