Screen shot from Tesla dashcam provided by DOJ showing Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez driving into F-150 of immigration officer in Patterson, Calif. on April 7, 2026. Source: DOJ motion to oppose bail
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A federal judge in Sacramento on Monday ordered a 36-year-old man shot by ICE officers in California to remain in federal custody after he was charged with felony assault on an immigration officer.
Flight risk
What we know:
US District Court of the Eastern District of California Judge Dale Drozd determined that Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez of Patterson, Calif., would be a flight risk if he was released on $50,000 bond, as his fiancé, Cindy, had hoped. A preliminary hearing was set for May 5.
The judge said that according to his viewing of dashcam videos on April 7 along Interstate 5, the wheel of Hernandez's Toyota turned before the first shot was fired by immigration agents that day.
Hernandez and a witness have insisted that ICE officers fired first, before Hernandez reversed his car into an agent's truck – where the assault charge stems from – and then made a U-turn into oncoming traffic.
Screen shot Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez's chest tattoo. The government says the tattoo is of an X and 8, consistent with an 18, of the 18th Street Gang. Source: DOJ motion to oppose bail
Asst. US Attorney Jason Hitt argued to keep Hernandez in custody.
Cocaine, tattoos
Dig deeper:
Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez was shot by ICE officers on April 7, 2026 in Patterson, Calif.
In a court motion, prosecutors noted that Hernandez also tested positive for cocaine in the hospital, had tattoos consistent with being in an 18th Street Gang and had spent five years in prison in El Salvador for "aggravated extortion" in 2010.
Outside court, Hernandez's attorney, Patrick Kolasinski, said, according to Hernandez's family, he does not use drugs and he's not sure how cocaine made it into his client's system. He also questioned how the government got these medical records and said cocaine wasn't relevant to the situation.
Kolanski also said he has no knowledge of Hernandez being in the gang, which hails from Los Angeles, and that he has yet to see any records from El Salvador showing his client's criminal conviction. Kolasinski did provide documents earlier showing that Hernandez had been acquitted of murder in El Salvador in 2019, the year he moved to the United States.
He used to live in Hayward and moved to Patterson about two years ago, court records show.
For now, Hernandez will remain in the custody of federal marshals. The last detention facility it was in was Taft Community Correctional Facility in Taft, Calif., which is in Kern County.
And although he was shot seven times on the day in question, Kolasinski said he has been given almost no pain medication, no change of dressing for his open wounds and no antibiotics.
What about ICE?
What's next:
At this point, Hernandez is not in ICE custody, although that was the original intention of immigration officers on the day they pulled Hernandez over.
Kolasinki added that "in this day in age," Hernandez could possibly be deported before he completes his criminal felony assault case, but that he felt it was very "unlikely."