Minnesota Leaders Call For Ice To Leave The State After Agent Shoots, Kills Woman

Minnesota state and local leaders condemned Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s deployment in the state, after federal officials said an officer shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis when a group of people gathered to protest an immigration-related operation on Wednesday.

The deadly shooting comes as the Trump administration has surged the presence of federal law enforcement officials in Minnesota in recent weeks, deploying over 2,000 ICE agents in response to allegations of government program fraud involving some Somali Americans.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, said at a Wednesday afternoon press conference that he had issued a warning order to prepare the Minnesota National Guard for a possible deployment. He urged Minnesotans to protest peacefully while directly blaming the Trump administration for not coordinating with local officials regarding immigration enforcement.

“What we’re seeing are the consequences of governance designed to create fear, headlines and conflict. It’s governing by reality TV, and today, that recklessness cost someone their life,” he said.

An ICE agent fired several shots at the woman’s vehicle after it apparently blocked a roadway on Portland Avenue, after which the vehicle crashed on the side of the road, according to local and federal officials.

After the shooting, Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey said immigration agents were “causing chaos in our city.” In a Wednesday afternoon press conference, he accused ICE of “recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying” and urged agents to leave the city.

“They are already trying to spin this as an action of self defense. Having seen the video myself, I want to tell everybody directly that is bullshit,” Frey said. Minnesota Reformer, an outlet covering the state, obtained what it described as eyewitness footage from the shooting — which appeared to show an officer shooting and killing the driver — but POLITICO has not independently confirmed the veracity of the footage.

Democratic Sen. Tina Smith echoed Frey’s calls for ICE to abandon its presence in Minneapolis, writing in a social media post that “ICE should leave now for everyone’s safety.”

In a social media post, President Donald Trump called the video of the incident "a horrible thing to watch" and accused "the Radical Left" of targeting law enforcement officers.

"The woman screaming was, obviously, a professional agitator, and the woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense," Trump wrote.

He said the officer involved is currently recovering in the hospital.

Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that “an ICE officer, fearing for his life, the lives of his fellow law enforcement and the safety of the public, fired defensive shots” after the woman tried “to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them.”

Preliminary information indicated that the woman was blocking the roadway with her vehicle and began to drive off after a federal law enforcement official approached her, at which point at least two shots were fired, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said.

O’Hara also said there was no information indicating that the woman was the target of any law enforcement investigation or activity. Law enforcement officials did not immediately release information about her identity.

During a press conference in Brownsville, Texas, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused the woman of committing “an act of domestic terrorism.”

“An officer of ours acted quickly and defensively shot to protect himself and the people around him, and my understanding is that she was hit and is deceased,” Noem said.

During his press conference, Walz criticized Noem and other federal officials for prematurely speculating on the woman’s motive, adding that law enforcement had not yet definitively identified the woman. He said he had reached out to Noem regarding the shooting but had not yet heard back.

“It’s unprecedented that we have the federal government already determining exactly was happening and the motive of an individual,” Walz said. “We don’t even know the name, and they don’t even know the name, and that’s very difficult.”

Gregory Svirnovskiy and the Associated Press contributed to this report.