Portlanders gathered outside Portland City Hall on Thursday, Jan. 8, for a candlelight vigil and protest after federal officers shot two people. (Photo by Shaanth Nanguneri/Oregon Capital Chronicle)
This is a developing story and will be updated
The federal Department of Homeland Security on Friday morning released the identities of two people shot and injured by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Portland on Thursday afternoon.
In a statement posted to the social media platform X, the department named Luis David Nico Moncada and Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras, two Venezuelan nationals. The statement alleges that both are affiliated with the gang Tren de Aragua, and that Moncada was previously arrested for a DUI and Zambrano-Contreras was involved in a prostitution ring and a prior shooting in Portland.
A Portland Police Bureau spokesman said he did not have any information to share about the two on Friday morning, but that the bureau planned to address the allegations later Friday. A search of state and federal criminal court records turned up no charges for either Moncada or Zambrano-Corteras.
The shooting Thursday sparked demonstrations outside Portland City Hall and the city’s waterfront Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility, with hundreds of Portlanders taking to the streets to protest. Portland Police arrested six people outside the ICE facility.
State and local officials, meanwhile, were still gathering information about the shooting in Oregon’s largest city. Portland Mayor Keith Wilson, who joined Gov. Tina Kotek and other local officials at a fiery press conference late Thursday, called on ICE to halt all operations in the city.
And Attorney General Dan Rayfield announced Thursday evening that his office will investigate whether any federal officers acted outside the scope of their authority, in keeping with a November warning he and district attorneys of the state’s three largest counties gave the federal government that the state will investigate and prosecute federal agents who engage in excessive force.
Shooting details still unclear
Portland Police received a report of a shooting shortly after 2:15 p.m. near a medical office on Southeast Main Street. According to the Department of Homeland Security, federal agents stopped a vehicle Moncada was driving as part of a “targeted” traffic stop aimed at Zambrano-Corteras, who was a passenger.
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin accused the driver of attempting to run over law enforcement agents, and said that an agent “fired a defensive shot.” A witness who spoke to The Oregonian/OregonLive said he saw officers follow the truck into the Adventist Health parking lot, pound on the truck’s window and then officers fired about five shots at the truck as the driver sped away.
A few minutes later, Portland Police received a call for help from an apartment complex in east Portland. Emergency responders transported a man and woman to the hospital.
Venezuelans are among the top three nationalities most arrested by ICE in Oregon in 2025, according to Deportation Data Project, a database of federal immigration records from September 2023 to October, 2025.
ICE detained at least 68 Venezuelans in the first 10 months of 2025, of whom 11 had convicted criminal records, according to the data.
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