An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who allegedly pointed his gun at two people on a congested Minneapolis highway in February has been charged with two counts of second-degree assault, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said at a news conference Thursday.
The prosecutor said on Feb. 5, during the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement effort in the Twin Cities, ICE agent Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr. was seen driving illegally on the shoulder of Highway 62 trying to bypass traffic.
Another driver briefly swerved into Morgan’s path in an attempt to slow down the agent as he drove on the shoulder, according to the criminal complaint. Once the driver steered the vehicle back to its proper lane, Morgan allegedly sped up alongside the car and brandished his weapon.
Morgan told investigators he had shouted “Police!” during the altercation, according to the complaint, but the driver and a passenger in the vehicle — who were not identified — could not hear him. The people in the vehicle that swerved into Morgan’s path were not associated with ICE protests in the city and were out shopping, Moriarty said.
Because there were no markings on Morgan’s vehicle and he was not in uniform, the two people were not aware he was a federal agent, according to the complaint. They assumed he was just a “crazy person driving down the road aiming guns at people,” they told investigators.
“Mr. Morgan’s conduct was extremely dangerous,” Moriarty said during the news conference. “Driving while pointing a weapon out of your moving vehicle at the victims who are in another moving vehicle could have led to yet another disastrous incident in a community that has already suffered too many.”
A warrant issued for Morgan says he is a resident of Temple Hills, Maryland, and efforts to reach him were not successful. He has not turned himself in, Moriarty said.
The Department of Homeland Security — which oversees ICE — did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Morgan was the first officer to be charged for his actions during the Minneapolis immigration crackdown, which saw more than 3,000 federal agents descended upon the Twin Cities, arresting more than 4,000 and sparking violent clashes with those protesting the operation.
Moriarty has alleged that the federal agencies have repeatedly stymied her office’s attempts to access evidence in the deaths of Renée Good and Alex Pretti — both shot to death by federal personnel in January. Moriarty said her office is also seeking access to evidence in the shooting of a third man, Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, who survived. (Two immigration officers were suspended after Sosa-Celis was shot and are facing a criminal investigation into whether they lied under oath about the incident.)
Moriarty said her office was able to pursue Morgan’s case first because the alleged incident was more straightforward. The case was first investigated by the Minnesota State Patrol after the alleged victims called 911, Moriarty said.
“Virtually none of the obstacles around evidence collection that exist for the January shootings exist in this case,” she said.
In addition, she said her office is investigating 17 other cases of alleged misconduct by federal personnel during the crackdown, including allegations that former Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino threw a gas canister into a crowd of protesters.
Razzan Nakhlawi contributed to this report.
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