ICE officer kills Minneapolis driver in latest immigration operation

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot a Minneapolis driver Wednesday in the Trump administration’s latest crackdown on a major U.S. city — a shooting that federal officials said was an act of self-defense but that the mayor called reckless and unnecessary.

The 37-year-old woman was shot to death in front of a family member during a traffic stop in a snowy residential neighborhood south of downtown Minneapolis, just blocks from some of the oldest immigrant markets and about a mile from where George Floyd was killed by police in 2020. Her killing quickly drew a crowd of hundreds of angry protesters.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, during her visit to Texas, described the incident as an “act of domestic terrorism” perpetrated against ICE agents by a woman who “attempted to run them over and ram them with her vehicle. One of our agents acted quickly and defensively, shooting, to protect himself and the people around him.”

Emergency medical technicians carry a person on a stretcher to the scene of a shooting in Minneapolis on Wednesday.

(Ellen Schmidt / Associated Press)

But Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called the characterization “rubbish” and criticized the federal deployment of more than 2,000 agents to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul as part of the immigration crackdown.

“What they are doing is not keeping America safe. What they are doing is causing chaos and distrust,” Frey said, calling on immigration agents to leave. “They’re tearing families apart. They’re wreaking havoc on our streets and, in this case, they’re literally killing people.

“They are already trying to pass this off as an action of self-defense. Having seen the video myself, I want to tell everyone directly that this is bullshit,” the mayor said.

Frey said he had a message for ICE: “Get out of Minneapolis. »

Police tape surrounds a vehicle believed to be involved in a shooting by an ICE agent on Wednesday.

(Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

A shooting filmed

Videos taken by passers-by with different viewpoints and posted on social media show a police officer approaching an SUV stopped in the middle of the road, demanding that the driver open the door and grab the handle. The Honda Pilot begins to move forward, and another ICE agent standing in front of the vehicle draws his gun and immediately fires at least two shots at the vehicle at point-blank range, jumping back as the vehicle moves toward him.

The videos do not make it possible to know whether the vehicle came into contact with the police officer. The SUV then crashed into two cars parked on a nearby sidewalk before coming to a stop. Witnesses shouted obscenities, expressing shock at what they had seen.

After the shooting, emergency medical technicians attempted to help the woman.

“She was driving away and they killed her,” said resident Lynette Reini-Grandell, who was recording video outside with her phone.

The shooting marked a dramatic escalation in the latest in a series of immigration enforcement operations in major cities under the Trump administration. The death of the Minneapolis driver, whose name was not immediately released, was at least the fifth linked to the immigration crackdown.

The Twin Cities have been under tension since DHS announced Tuesday the launch of the operation, which is at least partly linked to fraud allegations involving Somali residents. Noem confirmed Wednesday that DHS had deployed more than 2,000 agents to the area and said it had already made “hundreds and hundreds” of arrests.

Protesters react after being hit with chemical spray at the scene of a shooting in Minneapolis.

(Alex Kormann/Minnesota Star Tribune via AP)

A large crowd of protesters gathered at the scene after the shooting, where they expressed anger at local and federal agents present, including Gregory Bovino, a senior U.S. Customs and Border Patrol official who has been the face of the crackdown in Los Angeles, Chicago and elsewhere.

In a scene reminiscent of the crackdowns in Los Angeles and Chicago, passers-by heckled the police, chanting “Shame!” Shame ! Shame ! and “ICE out of Minnesota” and blew whistles that have become omnipresent during operations.

Driver-involved shootings during immigration operations have been a problem since raids began in Southern California.

In August in San Bernardino, masked Customs and Border Protection agents opened fire on a truck they had stopped on a street. One video showed an officer demanding that the driver roll down his window. When he refused, an officer broke the window, the truck left and shots rang out.

When the driver returned home, the family reported the incident to the police. Federal authorities say an officer was injured when the driver tried to “run them over.” But the witnesses and the video disputed certain aspects of the official version.

In October, a well-known TikTok personality was shot and killed by an officer during a standoff in Los Angeles. The U.S. Attorney said the man rammed his vehicle into law enforcement vehicles in front and behind him, “spinning the tires, spewing smoke and debris into the air, causing the car to fishtail and causing the officers to become concerned for their safety.” But the videos showed a much more complex view of the situation. A federal judge recently dismissed charges against the driver, finding that he was denied access to an attorney while in immigration detention.

The governor calls for calm

In Minnesota on Wednesday, Gov. Tim Walz said he was prepared to deploy the National Guard if necessary. He said a member of the driver’s family was present to witness the killing, which he described as “predictable” and “preventable”. He also said that, like many, he was outraged by the shooting, but called on people to maintain peaceful protests.

“They want a show. We can’t give it to them. We can’t,” the governor said at a news conference. “If you protest and express your 1st Amendment rights, do it peacefully, like you always do. We can’t give them what they want.”

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara briefly described the shooting to reporters but, unlike federal officials, gave no indication that the driver was trying to harm anyone. He said she was shot in the head.

“This woman was in her vehicle and blocking the road on Portland Avenue. … At one point, a federal law enforcement officer approached her on foot and the vehicle began to drive away,” the chief said. “At least two shots were fired. The vehicle then crashed onto the side of the road.”

There have been calls on social media for charges to be brought against the police officer who shot the driver. Commissioner Bob Jacobson of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety said state authorities would investigate the shooting with federal authorities.

“Keep in mind that this is an investigation that is also in its early stages. So any speculation about what happened would be just that,” Jacobson told reporters.

The shooting happened in the district of Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, who called it “state violence,” not law enforcement.

For nearly a year, migrant rights advocates and activists in Twin Cities neighborhoods have been preparing to mobilize in the event of a surge in immigration enforcement. From places of worship to mobile home parks, they have set up active online networks, scanned the license plates of possible federal vehicles, and purchased whistles and other loud devices to alert neighborhoods of any police presence.

Sullivan and Dell’Orto write for the Associated Press. Dell’Orto reported from St. Paul, Minnesota. AP writers Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis, Ed White in Detroit, Valerie Gonzalez in Brownsville, Texas, and Mark Vancleave in Las Vegas and Times staff contributed to this report.