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Tag: patrol

  • FBI Says It Has Found No Video Of Border Patrol Agent Shooting Two People In Oregon – KXL

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    Law enforcement officials work the scene following reports that federal immigration officers shot and wounded people in Portland, Ore., Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

    PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The FBI said in a court document made public Monday that it had found no surveillance or other video of a Border Patrol agent shooting and wounding two people in a pickup truck during an immigration enforcement operation in Portland, Oregon, last week.

    Agents told investigators that one of their colleagues opened fire Thursday after the driver put the truck in reverse and repeatedly slammed into an unoccupied car the agents had rented, smashing its headlights and knocking off its front bumper. The agents said they feared for their own safety and that of the public, the document said.

    The FBI has interviewed four of the six agents on the scene, the document said. It did not identify the agent who fired the shots.

    The shooting, which came one day after a federal agent shot and killed a driver in Minneapolis, prompted protests over federal agents’ aggressive tactics during immigration enforcement operations. The Department of Homeland Security has said the two people in the truck entered the U.S. illegally and were affiliated with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

    None of the six agents was recording body camera footage, and investigators have uncovered no surveillance or other video footage of the shooting, FBI Special Agent Daniel Jeffreys wrote in an affidavit supporting aggravated assault and property damage charges against the driver, Luis David Nino-Moncada.

    The truck drove away after the shooting, which occurred in the parking lot of a medical office building. Nino-Moncada called 911 after arriving at an apartment complex several minutes away. He was placed in FBI custody after being treated for a gunshot wound to the arm and abdomen.

    During an initial appearance Monday afternoon in federal court in Portland, he wore a white sweatshirt and sweatpants and appeared to hold out his left arm gingerly at an angle. An interpreter translated the judge’s comments for him. The judge ordered that he remain in detention and scheduled a preliminary hearing for Wednesday.

    The agent’s affidavit said that after being read his rights, Nino-Moncada “admitted to intentionally ramming the Border Patrol vehicle in an attempt to flee, and he stated that he knew they were immigration enforcement vehicles.”

    His passenger, Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras, was hospitalized after being shot in the chest and on Monday was being held at a private immigration detention facility in Tacoma, Washington, according to an online detainee locator system maintained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She faces a charge of illegal entry into the U.S., which federal prosecutors in Texas filed last week. The federal public defender’s office for the Western District of Texas did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    Nino-Moncada and Zambrano-Contreras are Venezuela nationals and entered the U.S. illegally in 2022 and 2023, respectively, the Department of Homeland Security said. It identified Nino-Moncada as an associate of Tren de Aragua and Zambrano-Contreras as involved in a prostitution ring run by the gang.

    “Anyone who crosses the red line of assaulting law enforcement will be met with the full force of this Justice Department,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said Monday in a news release announcing charges against Nino-Moncada. “This man — an illegal alien with ties to a foreign terrorist organization — should NEVER have been in our country to begin with, and we will ensure he NEVER walks free in America again.”

    Oregon Federal Public Defender Fidel Cassino-DuCloux, whose office represents Nino-Moncada, said in a statement last week that the shooting and the accusations against Nino-Moncada “follow a well-worn playbook that the government has developed to justify the dangerous and unprofessional conduct of its agents.”

    Portland Police Chief Bob Day confirmed last week that the pair had “some nexus” to the gang. Day said the two came to the attention of police during an investigation of a July shooting believed to have been carried out by gang members, but they were not identified as suspects.

    Zambrano-Contreras was previously arrested for prostitution, Day said, and Nino-Moncada was present when a search warrant was served in that case.

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    Jordan Vawter

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  • Border Patrol Operation At Wildfire In Washington State Sparks Criticism – KXL

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    A wildland fire crew looks on after setting a fire line on Harlow Ridge above the Lick Creek Fire, July 12, 2021, south of Asotin, Wash. (Pete Caster/Lewiston Tribune via AP, File)

    SEATTLE (AP) — A U.S. Customs and Border Patrol operation at the site of a wildfire on Washington state’s Olympic Peninsula sparked condemnation by Sen. Patty Murray who said firefighters put their lives at risk to keep communities safe.

    It was not immediately clear what the Border Patrol action was about, but several firefighters who witnessed the incident told The Seattle Times on condition of anonymity that federal agents demanded identification from firefighters working for two private contractors before taking two into custody.

    The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond Thursday to email messages seeking comment.

    Jennifer Risdal, a spokesperson for the U.S. Forest Service’s Incident Management Team overseeing the firefighting efforts, said they were aware of the Border Patrol activities at the fire site but offered no information about what happened.

    “The Border Patrol operation is not interfering with firefighting activity and Bear Gulch firefighters continue to make progress on the fire,” Risdal told The Associated Press in an email.

    The blaze has burned about 14 square miles (36 square kilometers) on the north side of Lake Cushman in the Olympic National Forest and National Park and was 13 percent contained on Thursday.

    Murray responded to the news on Thursday by saying the Trump administration has undercut wildland firefighting by “decimating the Forest Service” and their immigration policy “is fundamentally sick.”

    “Here in the Pacific Northwest, wildfires can, and have, burned entire towns to the ground,” the Democrat said in a statement, “This new Republican policy to detain firefighters on the job is as immoral as it is dangerous.”

    During the first Trump administration, DHS issued a statement during the 2020 wildfire season saying CBP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement were concerned about the impact the fires could have on Western states and said their highest priority was “the preservation of life and safety.”

    “In consideration of these circumstances, there will be no immigration enforcement initiatives associated with evacuations or sheltering related to the wildfires, except in the event of a serious public safety threat,” the statement said.

    Washington Department of Natural Resources spokesman Michael Kelly told The Associated Press that they were aware of the Border Patrol’s appearance at the fire, but referred questions to federal officials.

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    Jordan Vawter

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  • South Pasadena’s all-Tesla police fleet saves money, fights crime and cuts emissions

    South Pasadena’s all-Tesla police fleet saves money, fights crime and cuts emissions

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    In South Pasadena, new police cars are patrolling to reduce crime and cutting emissions at the same times.

    The South Pasadena Police Department unveiled Monday what the city says is the first all-electric vehicle police fleet in the country, sporting 10 Tesla Model Ys for patrol and 10 Model 3s for detectives and administration.

    The city will pay $1.85 million overall for the electrified fleet, officials said in a release. Over half of the project’s cost are covered by multiple partners that have agreed to build city-managed electric vehicle chargers and contingencies.

    “This transition reflects the city’s vision of a sustainable future, based on both sound fiscal management and environmental stewardship,” Mayor Evelyn Zneimer said in the release. “We will have a 21st Century police force that is safe, clean and saves taxpayer dollars.”

    The new zero-emissions police force will save the city more than $400,000 in gas and maintenance costs over 10 years, according to the Electrify South Pasadena website.

    Fuel costs alone were about $4,355 a year for the department, compared to the estimated cost of $336 per year to charge all of the new cars, according to a September 2022 staff report.

    The fluctuating cost of gas could impact the city’s savings, South Pasadena Police Department Sgt. Tony Abdalla said. The $312,282 figure was calculated using September 2022 gas prices, which were $5.27 a gallon in California, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Gas prices have fallen since then, down to $4.47 a gallon this month.

    The fuel savings are not the only advantage to the zero-emission vehicles.

    The 2022 report presenting the plan to the city council cited “significant maintenance and reliability issues” over the gasoline-powered fleet.

    One gas-powered police vehicle overheated during a pursuit. Another was out of service due to a blown head gasket. Yet another had electrical and brake issues. Two had air conditioning problems, one with a note that the vehicle’s AC was “insufficient” for the K9 assigned to it.

    South Pasadena police had been considering for years whether to replace the fleet of 22 vehicles, six of which were out of commission. “We were looking for a creative solution,” Abdalla said.

    The department looked to the 35 other police departments all over the country that had added electric vehicles to see if going all-electric was possible. No other agency, however, had transitioned the whole force, according to the city.

    The new vehicles require a new infrastructure, which lead to the construction of 34 Level 2 electric vehicle chargers at South Pasadena City Hall, funded by the Charge Ready program from Southern California Edison. An additional Level 3 charger, which can fully charge an electric vehicle in about an hour, will also be installed in the police department parking lot.

    The city is also expected to benefit from the revenue generated by 14 public-facing EV chargers at City Hall plus Low Carbon Fuel Standard credits from the state’s Air Resources Board, which could translate to thousands of dollars a month.

    A backup solar and battery storage system that was provided by the Clean Power Alliance’s Power Ready Program protects the department from running out of power during electricity outages and grid failures.

    The project expects to reduce 1,850 metric tons of smog-creating carbon dioxide by 2030, greatly surpassing the city’s current plan for the police department to reduce 23 metric tons by 2030.

    The move to the Tesla fleet reduces 10% of the city’s overall emission cuts needed to meet the state’s 2030 climate action plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% below 1990 levels statewide.

    City Councilmember Michael Cacciotti may be the strongest advocate for the clean-air alternatives.

    The genesis of the plan had its start two decades ago, Cacciotti said, after he read studies about the harm of air pollution and decided to trade in his sports car, asking car dealers, “What’s the cleanest car you have available?”

    Cacciotti, who is also the vice chair of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, said he bought a Toyota Prius that is still running strong after 20 years and 188,000 miles. It recently needed its very first change of brakes and rotors — a testament to how little maintenance hybrid and electric cars require, he said.

    Protecting public health, Cacciotti said, was a driving factor for the change. Police cars idle, while cops write tickets at traffic stops or respond to emergency calls. During that time, gas-powered cars release emissions that impact the health of children and elders and worsen the climate crisis. “We can’t ignore these things,” he said.

    Now that the infrastructure for electric city vehicles is in place, Cacciotti said, he is looking into replacing the city’s fire trucks with zero-emission versions in the next few years.

    But South Pasadena is not the first to turn to zero-emission vehicles. The city of Irvine recently added a Cybertruck to its fleet, though it won’t be used on patrol, and Anaheim added Teslas in a pilot program in April.

    Meanwhile, tune-ups, oil changes and spark plug replacements are now things of the past at the South Pasadena Police Department. Lower long-term maintenance costs are part of the savings plan.

    In preparing the project over the last four years, Abdalla said, city officials had to reconsider crashes involving police cars.

    The Tesla Model Y and Model 3 are some of the safest vehicles on the market, boasting the highest rating possible from the Insurance Institute of Higher Safety.

    “We reached this decision because we wanted the safest and most capable vehicle for the job,” the South Pasadena Police Department wrote in an X post.

    The department’s announcement earned a handshake emoji from Tesla’s North American X account.

    But Tesla’s safety features, like lane assistance and emergency stopping, might work against patrol officers when they are chasing a suspect and must navigate through traffic at high speeds or perform a maneuver to bump a fleeing car, forcing it to spin out or stop.

    For maneuvers that involve bumping fleeing cars, Abdalla said, it’s hard to test because it would require crashing a car. Lane assistance can be turned off in the Tesla’s settings, and the department has run into no issues since testing the first police Tesla last December.

    Abdalla said he is optimistic that the experiment will be a success.

    “It’s been years of work,” he said, “and it’s exciting to see it come to fruition.”

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    Sandra McDonald

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  • Malibu gets a 3-officer CHP task force to patrol deadly stretch of PCH

    Malibu gets a 3-officer CHP task force to patrol deadly stretch of PCH

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    After the horrific Oct. 17 crash on Pacific Coast Highway that killed four Pepperdine students, the Malibu community pleaded with its City Council to do more to stop speeding drivers whose recklessness often ends in injuries and fatalities.

    The city’s latest effort to improve safety on the scenic but perilous 21-mile stretch of PCH is to add a dedicated task force to patrol the roadway over the next year and a half.

    In January, the City Council approved a contract with the California Highway Patrol to establish the three-officer unit to patrol Pacific Coast Highway within city limits. The contract will expire in June 2025.

    Deadly crashes have plagued Malibu for decades. A Times analysis after the October crash found there were 170 deaths and serious injuries to drivers, passengers, cyclists and pedestrians between 2011 and 2023.

    PCH is a state highway, so it falls under Caltrans jurisdiction, which limits the changes the city can make to the roadway. But in the last three months, Caltrans has begun construction on a new traffic signal synchronization project that allows the agency to remotely control traffic signals on the highway, synchronize their timing and adjust them to lower traffic speeds and reduce congestion.

    In November, the Malibu City Council declared a local emergency, which allowed the city manager to quickly approve a short-term contract with the CHP to immediately bolster patrols. Those patrols are ending this month, just as the longer-term task force kicks in.

    There are still projects in the pipeline. A $4.2-million Caltrans contract approved by the state in December will allow the agency to establish speed feedback signs and speed limit markings on pavement, replace safety corridor signs and enhance striping on curves.

    The California Highway Patrol stopped patrolling PCH in Malibu in 1991 when the city incorporated, and Malibu contracted for law enforcement with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Now, the additional patrols are welcomed by city officials and law enforcement at a time when many in the community feel at their wits’ end.

    “We’re always happy to have more enforcement, especially when we have people dying on our streets,” said Jennifer Seetoo, captain of the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department’s Malibu/Lost Hills station.

    Seetoo told The Times on Tuesday that she believes the “three E’s, and that is enforcement, education and engineering,” are needed to make the highway safe.

    The new CHP task force is an essential aspect of enforcement, Seetoo said, but she wants speed cameras, too.

    In October, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a speed camera pilot program, but Malibu wasn’t among the cities where cameras would be installed. State Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica) and Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin (D-Thousand Oaks), however, are working on legislation to get the cameras in Malibu, Seetoo said.

    Meanwhile, traffic safety on PCH continues to be top of mind for residents and top of the agenda for council members.

    At the most recent City Council meeting, residents who spoke said spreading awareness is vital in protecting the neighborhood.

    “If this is a war on recklessness,” said one commenter, “we need to be targeting hearts and minds.”

    Some suggested posting signs: “This place is worth going slow,” “Slow down, you’re already here,” “Locals can tell you’re a tourist by your speeding.”

    Only Caltrans-approved signs can be attached to power poles, however. Councilmember Paul Grisanti suggested that businesses and homeowners along the highway allow large signs to be posted on their buildings to snag people’s attention.

    Another commenter proposed that four volunteer motorists put signs on the backs of their cars emphasizing the speed limit and then drive side by side on each side of the highway.

    The community’s passion on the topic is evident.

    And, Seetoo told The Times, residents are cautiously optimistic.

    After the death of 13-year-old Emily Shane — who was struck by a speeding driver as she walked along PCH in 2010 — “the community rallied and wanted change,” Seetoo said. “And nothing happened, and I feel like this is the first time that things are actually happening.”

    Times staff writer Terry Castleman contributed to this report.

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    Karen Garcia

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  • Supermom In Training: $100 Birthday Party Series – Toddlers

    Supermom In Training: $100 Birthday Party Series – Toddlers

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    Birthday parties can be no fun for busy overextended parents. I’m excited to bring you my $100 Birthday Party Series with great ideas for themes, menus, decorations and even gifts for all age groups, all for under $100. Come back every week for more birthday party suggestions.

    Another wonderful milestone, another party to plan. Don’t worry – I’ve got you!

    Here’s how to put together the perfect toddler party for less than $100.

    First off, it’s gotta be a home party. You won’t be able to stay within budget if you host it anywhere. If the party is in the warmer weather you can keep things outdoors. Otherwise, clear as much space as you can in your living spaces, set up some extra chairs, grin and bear it indoors.

    Start with e-vites – you can use a free website to send out your invitations as well as track RSVPs, which is perfect for busy parents. 

    Go with a theme that also makes it easy to come up with a corresponding menu. For example, if it’s a Paw Patrol bash, make finger sandwiches and cookies in the shape of bones, or top cupcakes with bone-shaped candy (you can find those at Bulk Barn). For a LOL ‘do, use lots of pinks and purples by making colourful fruit skewers, topping cupcakes baked in ice cream cones with sprinkles, or offering pink yogurt parfaits. Instead of spending an astronomical amount of money on custom-made desserts, print out a few small Paw Patrol/LOL logos and pictures, and use those instead. 

    You can even print the same images onto full label sheets and then cut them out to stick onto paper cups, plastic utensil holders, and goodie bags. It will be MUCH cheaper than buying all the copyrighted party supplies.

    This is a great age to add a game or activity to the party – nothing too complicated or expensive, but a fun way to add an element of entertainment to it all. If space permits or the party is being held outdoors, obstacle courses can be fun, or anything involving lots of balloons (put prizes inside and let them all pop them). If it’s a colder month and you’re stuck indoors, play hot potato, pin the tail, or do an Easter egg-style hunt involving something fun, like treats, which they can put into a bag and take home as a goody bag.

    Food should be the basics, as toddlers can be picky, so stick to pick-plates such as cheese and crackers, veggies and humus or dip, fruit, cold cuts, tomato pizza, baguette, etc.

    Happy birthday!

    A full-time work-from-home mom, Jennifer Cox (our “Supermom in Training”) loves dabbling in healthy cooking, craft projects, family outings, and more, sharing with readers everything she knows about being an (almost) superhero mommy.

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