The fatal shooting of a 37-year-old woman in Minneapolis by a federal immigration agent has sparked fierce and immediate outcry from local officials.
“I have a message for ICE: Get the f-ck out of Minneapolis. We do not want you here,” the city’s mayor, Jacob Frey, said at a Wednesday afternoon press conference with other city officials. “Your stated reason for being in this city is to create some kind of safety, and you are doing exactly the opposite. People are being hurt. Families are being ripped apart … and now somebody is dead.”
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The woman was shot while in her vehicle amid the ongoing immigration crackdown in Minneapolis. Video shared on social media shows agents approaching a car and one attempting to open the driver’s side door. The car then briefly reverses before beginning to drive away, and another officer appears to draw his firearm and fire multiple shots toward it.
Officials have not yet publicly identified the woman. Police said she appears to be white and a U.S. citizen.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement that the ICE agents were acting in self-defense.
“Today, ICE officers in Minneapolis were conducting targeted operations when rioters began blocking ICE officers and one of these violent rioters weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them—an act of domestic terrorism,” DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said. “An ICE officer, fearing for his life, the lives of his fellow law enforcement and the safety of the public, fired defensive shots.”
Local and state officials, however, have rejected that explanation. Frey, noting he had seen video of the incident, said that the assertion that the shooting was an act of self-defense is “bullsh-t”
“I myself saw a video of the shots being fired as the car was driving away,” Frey said at the press conference. When asked again by media whether the driver was driving towards an ICE officer on foot, Frey said it did not appear to be the case. “What I can tell you is the narrative that this was just done in self-defense is a garbage narrative that is not true. It has no truth, and it needs to be stated very clearly.”
Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz similarly pushed back against DHS.
“I’ve seen the video. Don’t believe this propaganda machine,” the governor wrote on X, responding to a post about the shooting from the department. “The state will ensure there is a full, fair, and expeditious investigation to ensure accountability and justice.”
Minneapolis City Council member Jason Chavez told ABC News that the victim “was an observer” and was “watching out for our immigrant neighbors.”
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara, also present at the press conference, said that the woman in the car was blocking ICE vehicles.
“At some point, a federal law enforcement officer approached her on foot, and the vehicle began to drive off,” O’Hara said. Two shots were fired, and the vehicle then veered and crashed into the side of the roadway. The woman, who suffered a gunshot wound to the head, was rushed to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Frey, a Democrat, has been vocal in arguing that ICE officers in the city have sewn “chaos” rather than order. Democratic Sen. Tina Smith joined him in saying that federal immigration agents should leave Minneapolis in a social media post following the shooting, saying ICE should depart “now for everyone’s safety.”
The post Minneapolis Mayor Demands ICE Leave the City After Agent Fatally Shoots Woman appeared first on TIME.
