A 37-year-old woman was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in southeast Minneapolis Wednesday morning as officers were conducting a deportation raid in the city.
The shooting, which occurred days after the Department of Homeland Security deployed an additional 2,000 federal agents to the city, drew immediate outrage from officials who blasted the operation. Dozens descended on the scene of the shooting to protest the killing in the immediate aftermath.
Videos of the incident showed the woman sitting in her vehicle, blocking ICE agents. As agents surrounded her, the woman began to slowly move her SUV away from them. An agent at the front bumped then fired through the windshield as she drove away. Moments later, she crashed into another car, and witnesses started to berate the cops, calling it a “murder.” Department of Homeland Security officials painted a different picture, calling the woman a “violent rioter” who tried to run over authorities – in an “act of domestic terrorism.”
“Having seen the video myself, I want to tell everybody directly – that is bulls***,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said during a press conference. “This was an agent recklessly using power, resulting in somebody dying.”
Frey, visibly angry, demanded ICE “get the f*** out of Minneapolis.”
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz also rebuked the administration’s narrative, saying he had seen the video.
“Don’t believe this propaganda machine. The state will ensure there is a full, fair, and expeditious investigation to ensure accountability and justice,” Walz wrote.
While details of the incident were still unfolding Wednesday afternoon, Trump administration officials appeared to double down on the assertion that the woman was attempting to kill ICE agents.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem described the event as a vehicle ramming incident that led to a shooting. In brief remarks from Texas, Noem claimed officers were trying to push out their vehicles from the snow when the “woman attacked them and those surrounding them.”
The confrontation enraged members of the community. Protesters in the area gathered to condemn the federal law enforcement agents for firing gunshots at the woman. Some threw snowballs at the agents’ vehicles – leading federal agents to deploy chemical irritants, similar to pepper spray.
Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar accused DHS of “lying” about the events of the shooting.
“There was no attempt to run the officer over and no ICE agents appear to be hurt. Get out of our city,” Omar wrote on X.
California Rep. Sara Jacobs rebuked the administration’s narrative, calling it a “murder.”
Multiple shootings have occurred around the country resulting from the aggressive immigration enforcement operations that have taken place in Chicago, Los Angeles, Phoenix and other cities. Local and state leaders have called on the Trump administration to temper immigration operations because the large presence of armed law enforcement can heighten tensions in communities, leading to more violent incidents.
But rather than scaling down operations, President Donald Trump deployed National Guard members to cities to assist in protecting federal law enforcement during immigration enforcement.
The immigration raids are part of Trump’s mass deportation agenda, in which he’s seeking to remove large swaths of immigrants from the country.
Source: independent.co.uk