Mayor slams ‘reckless’ ICE killing of woman

Videos taken by bystanders and shared on social media show a police officer approaching the SUV, stopping in the middle of the road, asking the driver to open the door and holding the door handle. The SUV begins to pull forward, and a different ICE officer standing in front of the vehicle draws his gun and immediately fires at least two shots at the SUV at close range, jumping back as the vehicle moves toward him.

It was not clear from the videos whether the vehicle contacted the officer or not. The SUV then crashed into two parked vehicles on the nearby sidewalk and came to a stop. Eyewitnesses expressed shock at what they saw and shouted obscenities.

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the woman gave no indication at the time of the shooting that she was trying to harm anyone and that she was shot in the head. He said preliminary investigations showed his vehicle was obstructing traffic as a federal officer approached on foot.

“The vehicle started moving,” he said. “At least two shots were fired. The vehicle then crashed on the side of the road.”

President Donald Trump said in a social media post that he had watched video footage of the incident and criticized the woman who was shot, saying she “behaved very erratically, obstructed and resisted” and “then violently, willfully and viciously” ran over the ICE officer.

“The situation is being fully investigated, but these events are occurring because the Radical Left threatens, attacks, and targets our Law Enforcement and ICE Agents every day,” Trump wrote. “They are just trying to do the job of MAKING AMERICA SAFE.”

A dark-colored SUV with a bullet hole in the windshield and blood splattered on the headrest was seen crashing into a pole on a snowy street following the shooting.

Venus de Mars, who lives near the scene of the crash, said she saw paramedics perform CPR on a woman who had collapsed next to a snowbank near the crashed car. A short time later, they put him in an ambulance that drove away without sirens blaring.

“There have been a lot of ICE events, but nothing like this,” Mars said. “I’m so angry. I’m so angry and I feel helpless.”

The clash drew protesters to the streets near the scene; some of them were met by heavily armed federal agents wearing gas masks who fired chemical irritants at the demonstrators.

Addressing the media, Frey criticized Noem’s description of the shooting as part of a crackdown on immigrants in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, where more than 2,000 police officers are federally assigned, and told ICE officers to “get the hell out of Minneapolis.”

“They are not here to provide security in this city. What they are doing is not providing security in America. What they are doing is causing chaos and insecurity,” Frey said. “They’re tearing families apart. They’re sowing chaos on our streets, and in this case, they’re literally killing people.”

But he urged residents to remain calm, as did state Gov. Tim Walz, who criticized the crackdown on immigrants but urged people to protest peacefully.

“Don’t take the bait,” he said. “Don’t let them station federal troops here. Don’t let them invoke the Insurrection Act. Don’t let them declare martial law.”

He said the attack was “completely foreseeable” and “completely preventable”.

The shooting marks a dramatic escalation in the latest in a series of immigration enforcement operations in major American cities under the Trump administration. The woman is at least the fifth person killed in several states since 2024.

The Twin Cities have been on edge since DHS announced the launch of the operation Tuesday. More than 2,000 agents and officers were expected to participate in the crackdown, which was linked in part to allegations of fraud by Somali residents regarding child care and other social services.

Following the shooting, protesters at the scene directed their anger at local and federal officials, including Gregory Bovino, a senior U.S. Customs and Border Patrol official who has been the subject of crackdowns in Los Angeles, Chicago and elsewhere.

In a scene reminiscent of crackdowns in Los Angeles and Chicago, bystanders heckled officers and blew whistles that have become ubiquitous during operations.

“Shame! Shame! Shame!” and “ICE get out of Minnesota!” They chanted loudly from behind police tape.

During her visit to Texas, Noem confirmed that DHS had deployed more than 2,000 officers to the Twin Cities and had already made “hundreds upon hundreds” of arrests.

Immigration agents have been involved in other similar shootings during the Trump administration crackdown.

Last year, during “Operation Midway Blitz” in Chicago, during which Trump increased sanctions against immigrants, ICE agents shot and killed 38-year-old Mexican citizen Silverio Villegas Gonzalez. Gonzalez, a cook and father of two with no criminal record, was shot in his car after agents attempted to arrest him.

In a statement from DHS, it was stated that Gonzalez directed his car towards the agents, dragged a police officer and caused him to shoot because he feared for his life. Police body camera footage obtained by Reuters complicated this narrative; The ICE agent said his injuries were “nothing significant.”

Border Patrol agents also shot a woman in Chicago in October. DHS said the attack was in self-defense after the woman, Marimar Martinez, crashed into the agents’ vehicle. But his lawyer said video footage showed agents crashing into his car before opening fire.

In December, ICE agents opened fire on a van carrying two people they targeted for arrest, leaving one of them with gunshot wounds. The men drove the van into ICE officers, prompting them to shoot in self-defense, DHS said in a statement.

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For nearly a year, immigrant rights advocates and neighborhood activists in the Twin Cities have been preparing to take action if enforcement against immigrants increases. They have set up very active online networks, from houses of worship to trailer parks, scanning license plates for possible federal vehicles and purchasing whistles and other noise-making devices to alert neighborhoods to any enforcement presence.

On Tuesday night, the Immigration Advocacy Network, a coalition of immigrant-serving groups in Minnesota, held a training session for about 100 people willing to take to the streets to monitor the federal enforcement operation.

“I feel like I’m a regular person and I have the ability to do something, so I need to do it,” Mary Moran told KMSP-TV.

AP, Reuters

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