Witness Who Filmed Minneapolis ICE Shooting Refutes Trump-Backed Self-Defense Claim: ‘Absolutely Not What Happened’
Emily Heller, the eyewitness who caught Wednesday’s Minneapolis ICE shooting on camera, denied President Donald Trump’s claim that the agent acted in “self-defense.”
The witness spoke with CNN’s Erin Burnett after an ICE officer fatally shot a 37-year-old woman in Minneapolis, Minn., and shared a strikingly different account than the one shared by the Trump administration.
“This agent was clearly scared because he had just killed someone,” Heller said. “And it was very clear to everyone who witnessed all of this that he wasn’t going to make it.”
When asked to respond to Trump’s take on the situation, in which he accused the victim of being “violent, deliberate and malicious” [running] About the ICE officer,” Heller said the only reason he spoke out was to counter the lies being spread about the incident.
“That’s the only reason I’m here,” he continued. “I don’t think I’m the most outspoken person. I don’t want to be here, but I knew it would be twisted and that it would be ‘self-defense’ – and that’s definitely not what happened. My life has been changed forever by witnessing this, and I can’t let this narrative of this being self-defense go any further.”
Heller added that he and his neighbors felt “traumatized” by the shooting and were “completely at peace” during the victim’s encounter with ICE, in which he protested their presence by blocking traffic.
“They were yelling at him to move, move, move. They then aggressively approached his vehicle and tried to open his door,” Heller recalled. “And then, that’s when he got scared and flipped his vehicle over to spin his tires to try to escape. That’s when an ICE agent pulled up in front of his vehicle and said, ‘Stop.’ And then he shot him pointlessly through the windshield.”
Watch highlights from Heller’s interview above and below.
Heller’s account of the shooting is quite different from what he shared.
United States Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem at a news conference early Wednesday.
“He then weaponized his vehicle and attempted to run over a law enforcement officer. This appears to be an act of domestic terrorism, an attempt to kill or cause bodily harm to the agents,” Noem said. “The IYM officer opened fire for defensive purposes, fearing for the safety of himself, other officers around him and the public. He used his training to save his own life and the lives of his colleagues.”
Trump took a similar approach to the situation on Truth Social: don’t write“The screaming woman was clearly a professional agitator and the woman driving was very erratic, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who appeared to have shot her in self-defense. Judging by the attached clip, it is hard to believe she is alive but is currently recovering in hospital.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) responded harshly to the administration’s statements about the incident, saying Homeland Security officials’ statements on the matter “do not appear to reflect the video evidence and testimony on the ground.”
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