Unpacking reports ICE agents shot US citizen Carlos Jimenez during California stop

On Oct 30, 2025, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents shot a U.S. citizen named Carlos Jimenez in the shoulder, according to news reports from reputable outlets including the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times.

Posts about the shooting were shared widely on social media, where some told a slightly different version of events — claiming agents shot Jimenez in the back instead of the shoulder, for instance. 

Snopes readers wrote in looking for more information about the situation. We reached out to Jimenez's lawyer and the Department of Homeland Security looking for more details, but had not heard back at time of publication. 

According to The New York Times, Jimenez, who is a U.S. citizen, was on his way to his job at a food bank in Ontario, California, when he noticed ICE agents blocking traffic near a bus stop where children would soon be gathering on their way to school. He pulled over his car to ask immigration officers to clear the street and move away from the bus stop, the Times reported.

So far, there has been no video evidence documenting what happened next, and DHS and Jimenez have provided conflicting accounts. (It's worth noting that The New York Times previously investigated a case in which an ICE agent fatally shot a man in Chicago, and found discrepancies in the official DHS account.)

According to a court document filed against Jimenez, who was charged with assaulting a federal officer, one of the officers — gun in hand — approached Jimenez and told him to leave, then took out a canister of pepper spray. Jimenez briefly drove forward and away from the incident before "rapidly" reversing back towards a second officer, the criminal complaint says.

The officer with the pepper spray then shot Jimenez in the shoulder through the back window, according to the document. Trisha McLaughlin, a DHS spokesperson, told ABC News that "the subject fled the scene and abandoned his vehicle." Jimenez later checked himself into a hospital, where, after treatment, he was arrested by federal officers before being released on bond.

Statements Jimenez's lawyer provided the LA Times, The New York Times, ABC News and the news radio station KPCC agreed with some details — the agent approached Jimenez with a gun in hand and took out his pepper spray, while Jimenez quickly reversed his vehicle. 

They disagreed with other details, though — according to the lawyers, Jimenez, who was afraid, had to back up in order to leave, he said, because the agent's cars were blocking a lane of traffic. The lawyers claimed that the agent fired at Jimenez while he was driving away. 

We will update this report as more information becomes available.