ICE Says Agent Killed Protester in Minneapolis

An immigration crackdown in Minneapolis turned deadly Wednesday when a federal immigration officer fatally shot a woman. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and eyewitnesses have given sharply different accounts of the shooting in a south Minneapolis neighborhood, Fox 9 reports. ICE said its officers were carrying out "targeted operations" when "rioters" blocked their vehicles and one woman "weaponized her vehicle" in what the agency called an attempt to run officers down—describing it as "an act of domestic terrorism." ICE said an officer, "fearing for his life" and the safety of others, fired "defensive shots," killing the driver.

Some officers were injured but are expected to recover, the agency said. A witness, Emily Heller, offered a very different picture. She told MPR News she woke to a commotion and saw what appeared to be a protest blocking traffic. Heller said agents told a woman in a car to "get out of here." "She was trying to turn around, and the ICE agent was in front of her car, and he pulled out a gun and put it right in—like, his midriff was on her bumper—and he reached across the hood of the car and shot her in the face like three, four times," Heller said.

Heller said the car then lurched forward, traveled roughly 100 feet, and crashed into a utility pole and other vehicles, with the woman slumped over inside. Other witnesses tell Fox 9 that the vehicle wasn't moving toward ICE agents when the agent opened fire. The witnesses say a doctor at the scene tried to help the woman but ICE agents refused to let the doctor in. An ambulance that arrived 15 minutes later was blocked by ICE vehicles, the witnesses say. In a post on X, Sen. Tina Smith said: "A US citizen has apparently been shot by ICE agents in Minneapolis. I'm gathering information, but the situation on the ground is volatile. ICE should leave now for everyone's safety."

The shooting comes a day after the Department of Homeland Security announced what it called the largest operation in its history in Minnesota, saying it had surged 2,000 federal officers to the Twin Cities and made more than 1,000 arrests. Gov. Tim Walz had already condemned the scale of the sweep. In a post on X after the shooting, Mayor Jacob Frey said: "The presence of federal immigration enforcement agents is causing chaos in our city. We're demanding ICE to leave the city immediately." The AP reports that a large crowd of protesters gathered at the scene of the shooting, chanting "Shame! Shame! Shame!" from behind police tape.