Dozens arrested and one police officer injured in Minneapolis protests

At least 29 people were arrested during protests over the death of a woman shot by a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Minneapolis.

City officials said that a police officer was also injured as a result of “ice pieces being thrown at them” during the demonstrations in which 1,000 people took to the streets on Friday night.

Protests against immigration enforcement took place across the US after 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good was shot in her car on Wednesday.

The Trump administration said the agent who fired the gun acted in self-defense. Local authorities insisted the woman posed no danger.

Minneapolis Police declared an unlawful assembly Friday night after protesters gathered outside the city’s Canopy Hotel, where some ICE agents are believed to be staying.

The Minneapolis police department said in a statement that “some individuals forced their way into the hotel through the alley entrance.”

Videos posted online show protesters shining bright lights, whistling and beating drums in the area.

Police said “more than 1,000” demonstrators were in the area and some threw ice, snow and rocks at officers, police vehicles and other vehicles, but no serious injuries were reported.

One law enforcement officer was slightly injured but did not require any medical attention, according to the BBC’s US partner CBS News.

Authorities said another hotel in the city was also targeted, with its windows and graffiti damaged.

At a news conference Saturday, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey applauded the majority of protesters, whom he said were peaceful, but noted that people who destroy property or harm others will be arrested.

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said 29 people arrested Friday night were later released.

O’Hara said that by 01:00 local time (07:00 GMT) the crowd had dispersed and his officers had mounted a “disciplined and measured response”.

Many Minnesotans are upset with ICE’s presence in the state, and O’Hara said his department receives dozens of calls a day about the federal agency’s operations.

On Saturday, three congressmen from Minnesota also attempted to tour an ICE facility in Minneapolis. The women said they were initially allowed in, but were later told they had to leave.

Democratic Congress members Ilhan Omar, Kelly Morrison and Angie Craig said ICE and the Department of Homeland Security are preventing members of Congress from carrying out their duties to oversee operations there.

“They don’t care if they violate federal law,” Craig said.

“The public deserves to know what’s going on at ICE facilities,” Omar said on X.

New protests are planned this weekend in Minneapolis, Texas, Florida, Washington DC and elsewhere in the US, according to Indivisible, an organization founded to resist the Trump administration.

On Wednesday, Good was shot and killed in his car.

Videos of the incident show ICE agents approaching a car in the middle of the street and ordering the woman behind the wheel to get out of the SUV. One of the agents pulls the driver’s side door handle.

As the vehicle tries to move, one of the agents in the front of the car points his gun at the driver and several gunshots are heard.

The vehicle then moved away from the police and crashed into the side of the street.

Good’s wife told local media that the two went to the scene of immigration enforcement to support their neighbor.

The officer who shot at Good was Jonathan Ross, a veteran ICE agent who had previously been injured in the line of duty when he was struck by a car.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claimed the ICE agent shot Good multiple times because he tried to run over the officer in his car.

But Minneapolis Mayor Frey, a Democrat, said that version of events was a false narrative and said it was clear he was trying to leave the scene, not attack an agent.

The FBI is investigating the incident.

On Friday, Minnesota authorities said they would open an investigation into the shooting after saying they were excluded from the federal investigation.

The announcement came a day after the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said the FBI had initially promised a joint investigation, then reversed course. The US vice president said the investigation was a federal matter.