A shooting involving US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) occurred in in Patterson, California, on Tuesday (US time). According to the dashcam footage of the incident obtained by CNN, at least three law enforcement agents were seen surrounding a black vehicle after a collision on a road near Interstate 5.

The Tuesday incident is seventh such shooting involving ICE or Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers in the US this year, The Sacramento Bee reported.

ICE says agents were pursuing ‘illegal alien’: California shooting

The Department of Homeland Security has since confirmed that one person, whom they are labelling as the suspect, was taken to the hospital.

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Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons told Newsweek in an emailed statement that the incident took place on April 7 when ICE officers were conducting a “targeted vehicle stop” in Patterson to arrest an “18th Street Gang member wanted in El Salvador for questioning in connection to a murder.”

The hospitalised suspect mentioned therein was identified as a man named Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez. Lyons did not provide evidence backing the hefty accusation. According to the ICE director’s claims, Hernandez “weaponised his vehicle in an attempt to run an officer over” as the agents approached the car.

Since the dashcam video has no audio, it remains unclear how many shots were fired (or when they were fired). Meanwhile, Lyons maintained that the ICE agents involved in the shooting only “fired defensive shots to protect themselves, their fellow agents, and the public.”

The statement further highlighted, “The illegal alien was taken to a local hospital. The FBI is on the scene. This is a developing situation and we will update the public when more information is available.”

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Family of man injured in California ICE shooting responds

Patrick Kolasinski, a Modesto-based immigration attorney representing Mendoza Hernandez’s family told The Modesto Bee that the injured man is in stable condition at Doctors Medical Centre. His family, on the other hand, has denied all allegations that Hernandez shared connections to gangs.

“The biggest thing the family wants to get out right now is that he is not a gang member,” the attorney said. “He is a family man engaged to a US citizen with a 2-year-old US citizen daughter who was on his way to work in the Bay Area.”

While at a press briefing, Kolasinski said that while his client had once been accused of murder, he had been acquitted. “He cannot possibly have a warrant out for his arrest in El Salvador,” he added. “That is a complete misstatement. And even if that wasn’t the case, that wouldn’t be an excuse to shoot somebody in the situation that he was in.”

The attorney also revealed that just days before the ICE shooting incident, Hernandez was stopped by police in Turlock for a cracked windshield. He was then issued a traffic ticket, according to The New York Times.