Forensic Report on High-Profile Portland Shooting Undermines Trump Administration Account

Border Patrol Agent shot two immigrants in East Portland this past January, federal officials said he had good reason: He feared for his life because he was in the “direct path” of the immigrants’ truck, and he believed the driver was trying to kill him. A forensic consulting firm that analyzed the incident has come to a different conclusion: The vehicle was not headed toward the agent when the agent fired his shots. “When the shots were fired into the side of the Toyota, the shooter was not in a position to have been run into or over by the Toyota,” said the firm’s report, which was made public in a court filing Friday. This finding, an attorney for the driver noted, was consistent with other evidence, such as the position of broken glass at the scene from the side window of the truck. The report was submitted to the federal public defender’s office, which represented the truck’s driver, a Venezuelan man named Luis Niño-Moncada. The prosecution and defense do agree on key portions of what happened that day.

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