On Thursday, January 9, 2026, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent opened fire on two individuals outside a health clinic in Southeast Portland, wounding both in a dramatic confrontation.
The incident unfolded around 2:20 p.m. near Southeast Main Street outside the Adventist Health clinic, where the agent shot Luis David Nino-Moncada and Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras, who the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) claims used their vehicle as a weapon against the officer, prompting a self-defense response; Nino-Moncada, shot in the arm, is now in FBI custody after hospital release, while Zambrano-Contreras, shot in the chest, remains hospitalized in stable condition, with both identified as having connections to the Tren de Aragua (TdA) criminal group.
The broader context of this shooting has ignited public concern, with protests erupting at Portland’s ICE facility that same evening, resulting in six arrests, and coming just a day after a fatal federal shooting in Minneapolis on January 8, 2026, the Fox News Portland affiliate reported.
Critics of current border policies point to this event as a stark reminder of the challenges faced by law enforcement on the front lines.
At the time of the shooting, Nino-Moncada was behind the wheel, with Zambrano-Contreras as his passenger, and after the agent fired, the pair drove over 2.5 miles to Northeast 146th Avenue and East Burnside before being located and hospitalized.
DHS notes that Nino-Moncada entered the U.S. without authorization in 2022, has a final order of removal, and is a suspected TdA member, while Zambrano-Contreras, who arrived in 2023, is allegedly tied to a TdA prostitution ring and a prior Portland shooting.
Court records paint a troubling picture of Nino-Moncada’s past, including a recent DUII indictment in Washington County from December 2025, multiple speeding tickets in Multnomah County, and a protective order against Zambrano-Contreras for allegedly striking him with a car and making death threats in November 2025—yet, curiously, they were together during this incident.
Portland Police Chief Bob Day confirmed a TdA “nexus” for both, while downplaying the group’s local footprint, saying, “We certainly can say that there is a presence. It would not appear to be as significant as maybe some have been led to believe.”
Chief Day’s cautious tone might reassure some, but it sidesteps the real worry—any presence of a notorious criminal network preying on vulnerable communities, as he himself noted, is a problem worth tackling head-on.
Chief Day also highlighted how TdA often targets Venezuelan immigrants hesitant to engage with police, a predatory dynamic that Multnomah County District Attorney Nathan Vasquez echoed as a growing concern, stating, “It's certainly something that we have seen, and we are working on with our local law enforcement.”
While Vasquez’s commitment to collaboration is commendable, one wonders if the response matches the urgency—after all, a separate July 2025 shooting involving TdA connections and these same individuals remains unresolved, even if they aren’t formally charged.
Additional details, like Zambrano-Contreras’s prostitution arrest in Washington County and Nino-Moncada’s presence during a search warrant there, only deepen the sense that local authorities are playing catch-up with a slippery network.
The Portland shooting, paired with the Minneapolis incident a day prior, has fueled nationwide unrest, with Chief Day urging calm during any upcoming weekend demonstrations as residents exercise their First Amendment rights.
While peaceful protest is a cornerstone of our republic, the timing couldn’t be worse—law enforcement faces escalating dangers, and incidents like this only pour fuel on the fire of distrust between communities and federal agents.
