A federal judge in Riverside has ended the criminal case against Carlos Jimenez, the Ontario man who was shot by a federal officer during an immigration enforcement stop just over a year ago. On November 3, 2026, U.S. District Judge Kenly Kiya Kato dismissed with prejudice the charge of assault on a federal officer against Jimenez, 26, according to reporting by The Orange County Register. A dismissal with prejudice means the charge — which carried up to 20 years in federal prison — can never be brought again.

Source: The Orange County Register via WiseVoter

The morning of October 30, 2025

The case began at about 6:30 a.m. on October 30, 2025, on South Vineyard Avenue in Ontario, in San Bernardino County. According to the federal criminal complaint filed in the Central District of California, an ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations deportation officer and two U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers were conducting a planned immigration enforcement operation and had stopped a Honda Accord with three occupants. Jimenez, who lived nearby at the Country Meadows Mobile Home Park on East Riverside Drive and was driving to his job in Baldwin Park, came upon the stop and got into an exchange with the officers.

Source: U.S. District Court criminal complaint, Case 5:25-mj-00674

What happened next is disputed, and both accounts have been on the record from the start. Federal authorities alleged that Jimenez reversed his vehicle toward the officers; the Department of Homeland Security said an officer fired in self-defence, fearing he would be struck. The bullet shattered the rear passenger window and struck Jimenez in the back of the shoulder, where it remains lodged because of medical complications, his lawyers say. Jimenez's attorney Greg Jackson, of the Simon Law Group, said Jimenez was following an officer's instruction to leave, manoeuvring to drive away — not attacking anyone — and that the evidence would show the initial federal statements “were not based on the truth.” After the shooting, Jimenez drove home, called 911, and was taken by his wife to Kaiser Permanente in Ontario and then by ambulance to Riverside Community Hospital, a trauma centre, where the FBI arrested him, according to Jackson's account reported by the Press-Enterprise.

How the prosecution unravelled

Jimenez was charged by complaint on October 31, 2025, under 18 U.S.C. § 111 (assault on a federal officer) and later indicted. His case, however, steadily weakened. Judge Kato ordered the U.S. Attorney's Office to provide more complete evidence, and the San Bernardino County Sentinel reported that an internal Department of Homeland Security review had concluded the officer who fired, Eusebio Ortiz, overreacted during the encounter as the task force was assembling for a morning raid on a South Ontario residence. In May 2026, the U.S. Attorney's Office agreed to dismiss the charge with prejudice after October 31, 2026 — one year and a day after the shooting — if Jimenez committed no crimes and met conditions including staying employed and not using drugs. The arrangement did not require Jimenez to withdraw or dismiss his $35 million civil claim against the federal government over the shooting. Judge Kato postponed the trial to December 7 to let the agreement take effect; the formal dismissal followed on November 3. The Justice Department has not publicly explained why it resolved the case as it did.

Source: San Bernardino County Sentinel

The shooting drew scrutiny in the Inland Empire at the time. Rep. Norma Torres, whose 35th Congressional district includes Ontario, wrote to ICE and the FBI seeking answers about the stop, and Jimenez's lawyers have signalled that the civil claim — over both the shooting and his medical care — will now proceed without the criminal case hanging over it.

Why the case matters beyond Ontario

Ontario sits in the Inland Empire, a logistics and warehousing corridor where a large share of workers — including many Punjabi truck drivers and warehouse workers across San Bernardino and Riverside counties — commute the same early-morning roads on which the October 2025 stop took place. The dismissal is the latest in a series of Inland Empire immigration-stop cases to collapse: the same law firm also represented Francisco Longoria, pulled over by immigration officers in San Bernardino in August 2025, whose assault charge was likewise dropped. For residents, the legal point is narrow but important: the criminal allegation against Jimenez is closed permanently, while the disputed question of whether the shooting itself was justified now moves to the civil courts.

What happens next

There will be no trial: the December 7 date set under the diversion arrangement is moot, and the prosecution cannot be revived. What remains live is Jimenez's $35 million claim against the federal government, the bullet still in his shoulder, and the record of a case in which — after a judge demanded fuller evidence and an internal review faulted the officer's reaction, according to the Sentinel's reporting — the government chose dismissal over a courtroom test of its account.