Pair shot by federal officers in Portland had unspecified Tren de Aragua ties, police say

Two people shot by federal agents in Portland on Thursday “have some nexus” to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, Portland Police Chief Bob Day said Friday afternoon. 

Both people, identified Friday morning by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as Luis David Nico Moncada and Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras, are still hospitalized and in federal custody, Day said. He added that they both had surgery and are in stable condition. 

The man’s name is spelled differently in Washington County district court records from a November 2025 arrest for driving under the influence of intoxicants: Luis David Nino-Moncada.  

With tears in his eyes, Day said that the pair’s potential connection to the gang “in no way draws a throughline” to the shooting. 

“Even sharing this information around this association is so difficult and painful for me, because I understand, from what I have been told, that fear that suddenly this is going to be some wholesale blaming, this wholesale approval of the actions that happened yesterday, and that is not the case. Nothing that I’ve said today should be warranted in any way to affirm whatever happened yesterday.” 

The shooting, which occurred the day after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a woman in Minnesota, sparked protests and highlighted the growing chasm of mistrust between the Trump administration and the progressive Democrats who govern Oregon and Portland. 

The Department of Homeland Security quickly claimed the two were affiliated with Tren de Aragua and that Nino-Moncada “weaponized” their vehicle against officers who shot in self-defense — a strikingly similar statement to one it put out to rationalize the killing of Renee Nicole Good in Minnesota on Wednesday. In that instance, multiple bystanders took cell phone videos that appeared to show the officer firing on Good as she was driving away from them, but no such videos have been made available of the Portland incident. 

Police chief cites gang ties

Capital Chronicle searches of state and federal criminal court records and the Lexis-Nexis database turned up no charges for either Nino-Moncada or Zambrano-Contreras. But Day said Friday that Zambrano-Contreras was previously arrested for prostitution in Washington County and Nino-Moncada was present when Zambrano-Contreras was served with a search warrant. 

Police, who have been investigating a July shooting in northeast Portland, also believe there is a connection between Tren de Aragua and that incident based on a report from the victim, a Venezuelan immigrant. Day said he’s not aware of either Nino-Moncada or Zambrano-Contreras being involved in that shooting, but he said that the investigation led police to believe the two are connected to the gang.

It was a change of tune for Day, who told reporters at a Thursday evening press conference that he didn’t have any information about Portland’s involvement with Tren de Aragua, a multinational crime organization founded in 2014 in a Venezuelan prison. Since Thursday, Day said he learned the names of the two people shot and asked investigators about any connections.

Stephen Mayer, a spokesperson for the Washington County District Attorney’s Office, confirmed to the Capital Chronicle that Nino-Moncada has an active driving under the influence of intoxicants case, and could not comment further because it is pending. Prosecutors in that case also allege that he took and drove Zambrano-Contreras’ 2015 red Chevrolet Camaro without her consent.

Mayer also confirmed that Zambrano-Contreras is involved in a case that was referred to the county from local law enforcement during the summer of 2025 involving human trafficking and firearm offenses.

“Because the case involved multiple jurisdictions and potential federal law violations, it was referred to the FBI and US Attorney’s Office,” Mayer said. “Because the investigation is ongoing, we can make no further comment.”

At the news conference, Day stopped short of condemning Thursday’s shooting and urged Portlanders to remain peaceful and trust the justice system. He gave as an example the Portland Police Bureau’s testimony that led a federal judge to block the Trump administration from deploying the National Guard to the city.  

“The very fact that the National Guard did not wind up on the streets of Portland is a testament to the behaviors and the actions of the Portland Police Bureau, and it’s also a testament to the system continuing to work,” he said. 

Other than providing names in a statement posted to the social media platform X on Friday morning, the Department of Homeland Security has shared few details about Thursday’s shooting. Along with mentioning the July shooting, the department alleged Nino-Moncada was previously arrested for a DUI and Zambrano-Contreras was involved in a prostitution ring, but did not provide any evidence. A department spokesperson did not respond to questions from the Capital Chronicle. 

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 for disorderly conduct. A few officers were injured, Day said. 

More protests are expected this weekend, including demonstrations near the Portland ICE facility and outside the state Capitol in Salem. 

State and local officials, meanwhile, are 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. Kotek described the shooting as “another terrible, unnecessary violent event instigated by the reckless agenda of the Trump administration.” 

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.

Republican leaders in the state Legislature, meanwhile, accused Democrats of stoking fear and rushing to judgement. 

“It is deeply irresponsible for elected officials to immediately politicize an active investigation, delegitimize law enforcement and inflame fear by suggesting federal agents are acting as some kind of secret police,” Senate Minority Leader Bruce Starr, R-Dundee, and House Minority Leader Lucetta Elmer, R-McMinnville, said in a joint statement. “That rhetoric is reckless and dangerous at a moment when clarity and calm are needed most.”

At the apartment complex where the victims called 911 for help, two federal public defenders were investigating the scene Friday morning, though they said they had not yet been assigned to the case. They declined to comment further.

Shooting details emerge

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 Nino-Moncada was driving as part of a “targeted” traffic stop aimed at Zambrano-Contreras, 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, police received a call for help from an apartment complex in east Portland. Dispatch audio obtained by the Capital Chronicle indicated that a man was shot twice in the arm and a woman identified as his wife shot once in the chest. Emergency responders transported both people to the hospital. 

On Friday morning, several residents at the income-restricted Bria Apartments told the Capital Chronicle they did not recognize the couple, but some said they had seen the red truck the couple were in when they called for medical help. Many Bria residents are originally from Venezuela and Oaxaca, Mexico, residents said.

Employees at the on-site Bria leasing office said they were not able to comment or confirm whether the two lived at the apartments due to federal housing laws.

Resident Catherine Vitolo said she was napping during the afternoon and woke up to see the police tape around the building. She later saw officers scrubbing down blood from a sidewalk near the spot the truck was left. 

Vitolo, who has lived at the Bria Apartments since April 2025, said she feels mostly safe there and has not seen what she’d characterize as gang activity in or around the building. She said FBI agents had visited her and neighbors Thursday evening to ask if they’d seen anything. 

Ana Muñoz, the director of community defense at the Latino Network said on social media in a message in Spanish that the Portland-based organization is supporting the couple’s family at the moment, including their children. She called the federal government’s characterization of the couple lies, and she has not responded to inquiries from the Capital Chronicle about the source of her information. 

“They are a married couple with kids,” Muñoz said. “They are people fleeing the violence in their country. They are people looking to live free from poverty and hunger. They are human.”

Muñoz said one of the victims is hospitalized at Oregon Health and Science University and the other at Legacy Emmanuel Medical Center in Portland. 

While Portland Police confirmed possible gang ties, investigations into what happened during the shooting are ongoing. The federal government’s rationale is similar to its explanation for an officer shooting and killing a Minnesota woman on Wednesday. Video obtained by the Minnesota Reformer shows an ICE officer firing three shots through the windshield and driver-side window of an SUV and then walking away from the vehicle, apparently unharmed. 

But President Donald Trump claimed Renee Nicole Good, the woman shot by that officer “violently, willfully, and viciously ran over” the officer and that it was hard to believe he was alive. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said Good “weaponized her vehicle” and “attempted to run a law enforcement officer over.”

Unlike the Minnesota case, in which multiple bystanders took and shared cell phone videos, there wasn’t immediately available video from the Portland shooting. Portland Police have not seen video of the incident, Day said. 

Little evidence of Tren de Aragua in Portland

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.

Still, Venezuelans make up a small portion of Portland’s immigrant population — fewer than 400 people, according to U.S. census data. Elliott Young, a Latin American history professor at Lewis and Clark University who has researched Tren de Aragua in Venezuela, surrounding countries and the U.S., said he has not seen evidence of the gang’s presence in Portland.

Young, who is also a co-director of Stanford’s Migration and Asylum Lab, urged skepticism of the Homeland Security Department’s claims because the agency has not provided any evidence linking Nino-Moncada or Zambrano-Contreras to the gang. 

“Based on allegations made by DHS and the government about other Venezuelans linked to Tren de Aragua, it’s based almost completely on no evidence or circumstantial evidence, like someone being at a party where there are people who are known Tren de Aragua members,” he said. “Those people then get picked up, charged with being linked to this gang and being deported.”