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At the start of the new year, protests against federal immigration enforcement in Portland appeared to be slowing down. Last week, the military ordered all outstanding active Oregon National Guard members to demobilize.
The trend lasted eight days.
On Jan. 8, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent shot and wounded two people during a targeted enforcement operation in Southeast Portland. Luis David Nino-Moncada, the driver of the vehicle, and Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras, his passenger, were shot in the arm and chest, respectively, as they fled from Adventist Health Primary Care in outer Southeast Portland. The pair, both Venezuelan nationals, have been discharged from separate hospitals and are expected to survive.
The shooting, which came just one day after a U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officer killed an observer named Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, galvanized protesters and elected officials alike to condemn immigration operations spearheaded by President Donald Trump.
In the hours after the shooting, details about the wounded pair trickled in slowly. As a new week began, new information flooded in seemingly all at once. As the picture grows clearer, WW has pieced together the following timeline:
THURSDAY, JAN. 8
Shortly after 2 pm, six U.S. Border Patrol agents conducted a “targeted vehicle stop” in the parking lot of Adventist Health Primary Care at 10201 SE Main St. According to an FBI affidavit filed later, the agents were after Zambrano-Contreras, who was “known to be involved with a Tren de Aragua prostitution ring” and a shooting in July. (Tren de Aragua is a Venezuelan criminal gang.)
Those agents located a red Toyota Tacoma with a known association to Zambrano-Contreras. Four of the agents approached the vehicle after identifying her inside, while two stayed behind with four unmarked vehicles. The affidavit alleges those agents identified themselves and asked the pair to exit the vehicle.
That’s when, the affidavit alleges, Nino-Moncada, who was shifting around in the driver’s seat and appeared “anxious,” put the car in reverse and forcibly reversed into an unoccupied Border Patrol vehicle, causing damage. Nino-Moncada repeated this motion multiple times, causing further damage to the vehicle. One Border Patrol agent described a fear that Nino-Moncada would try to run them over.
A Border Patrol agent fired their service weapon at Nino-Moncada. “The target vehicle then fled the scene,” the affidavit read. “It was unknown at the time if the shots struck either Luis Nino-Moncada or Adult Female 1.”
The two drove to the Bria Apartments, a low-income housing complex at the corner of Southeast 146th Avenue and East Burnside Street, where Nino-Moncada called for medical attention. It remains unclear whether either of the pair lived there. By 3 pm, neighbors nearby recalled seeing the surrounding streets clogged by police vehicles and ambulances. One neighbor said she watched the pair wheeled out of the apartment’s Burnside entrance, and noted they appeared conscious “in that their eyes were open.” Nino-Moncada repeatedly stated “Fuck ICE!” as he was receiving medical care, according to the federal affidavit.
By dusk that evening, dozens of neighbors stood outside crime tape at the Bria Apartments, filming and confronting FBI agents and Portland Police Bureau officers, who were huddled in distinct groups. Many of those WW spoke to said they had not seen much immigration enforcement activity in Hazelwood, though they were aware of activity in nearby neighborhoods. “This is my nightmare, they don’t belong here,” said Aaron D., who lives close to the Bria Apartments, referring to the federal presence. “I want to be here to document and witness.”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a statement accusing the pair of being tied to Tren de Aragua.
But by 6 pm, Mayor Keith Wilson, Gov. Tina Kotek, and PPB Chief Bob Day were among more than a dozen elected officials holding a press conference at the Police Bureau’s Central Precinct, condemning the shooting and disputing the federal account. That night, officials drew comparisons to the shooting of Good, and Day told reporters he was not aware of any Tren de Aragua activity in Portland.
Meanwhile, at a Portland Democratic Socialists of America rally in front of City Hall, much of City Council’s progressive caucus, Peacock, gathered to condemn the immigration activity. “You’re hearing and you’re seeing attempts to justify the unjustifiable, to completely defend the indefensible from our federal government,” said Councilor Sameer Kanal. “It’s unacceptable. We’re going to stand against it.”
Late that night, Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield announced the state’s Department of Justice would investigate the shooting. That 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.”
FRIDAY, JAN. 9
At a tearful press conference Friday afternoon, Day, the police chief, walked back his Thursday evening comments that he was unaware of Tren de Aragua activity in the city. “They do have some nexus to involvement with TDA,” he told reporters, alluding to a shooting in July that the pair were allegedly involved in. Day indicated that he had received new information about the July 2025 shooting only after his previous appearance with elected officials the night before.
“I hesitated to even share this information initially,” he said, “because I’m very aware of the historic injustice of victim-blaming oftentimes by law enforcement, including this very agency.”
Day told reporters that the Portland Police Bureau would be keeping in close touch with the FBI as the federal agency ran its investigation, but that PPB would not run its own investigation.
The Oregon Office of the Federal Public Defender, which is representing Nino-Moncada, urged the public not to jump to conclusions about its client—a man it said it was proud to defend.
“The shooting of Mr. Moncada by federal officers and the subsequent accusations leveled against the victim of that shooting follow a well-worn playbook that the government has developed to justify the dangerous and unprofessional conduct of its agents,” the statement said.
It also dismissed the allegations of gang affiliation as shopworn character assassination. “In Portland, just like in Minneapolis and Chicago, federal immigration agents have again harmed civilians in our community and have claimed that the victims themselves are to blame.”
That night, advocates held a vigil outside Adventist Health for Nino-Moncada and Zambrano-Contreras. U.S. Rep. Maxine Dexter (D-Ore.) was among those who spoke.
As of press deadline, Zambrano-Contreras was in custody at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Wash. Federal prosecutors charged her on Friday with illegal entry. Her attorney declined to comment.
SATURDAY, JAN. 10
As a protest commenced on the waterfront against federal immigration activity, a judge issued an arrest warrant for Nino-Moncada. He was arrested and booked into Multnomah County Jail over the weekend.
MONDAY, JAN. 12
The federal government’s charges against Nino-Moncada for assault of a federal officer with a deadly or dangerous weapon, along with damage of federal property exceeding $1,000, became public on Monday.
Additional details emerged in the FBI affidavit filed on Friday and made public on Monday, mostly around the couple’s alleged gang affiliation.
The affidavit specifically links the pair back to an apartment shooting on Southwest Firlock Way in the Garden Home neighborhood of Washington County on July 7, 2025, stemming from a prostitution deal gone wrong.
Those details emerged when, in August, the affidavit alleges, police conducted a prostitution sting search warrant at an extended-stay hotel in Portland, interrogating Zambrano-Contreras, who eventually admitted her role in the shooting a month earlier.
Zambrano-Contreras said that on the night of July 7, she had engaged in sex work at the Firlock apartment, where she was forced to perform oral sex and where her client initially did not allow her to leave. When he did, she left without her money or belongings.
Zambrano-Contreras fled and then reappeared at the apartment with “several unknown males,” including Nino-Moncada, who started to break in to recover her things. Zambrano-Contreras searched the unit but left without recovering anything, according to the affidavit. Other men Zambrano-Contreras appeared with that night were also, the affidavit alleges, involved with Tren de Aragua. One of the men shot at a person fleeing out of the back of the apartment.
The affidavit included another important revelation: that no footage had been obtained of the confrontation and shooting in front of Adventist Health. “There is no body worn camera footage from the involved six Border Patrol agents,” the affidavit reads. It is unclear whether that means the six agents did not have body cameras or that they had body cameras but they were not switched on. There was also no footage, the affidavit says, from any of the fixed surveillance cameras in the area of the parking lot where the shooting occurred.
Andrew Schwartz, Sophie Peel and Aaron Mesh contributed reporting to this story.
