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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.”
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 and Sen. Amy Klobuchar 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.”
"We need full transparency and an investigation of what happened, and I am deeply concerned that statements made by DHS do not appear to reflect video evidence and on-the-ground accounts," Klobuchar said in a social media post. "While our immigration enforcement should be focused on apprehending and prosecuting violent criminals to make our communities safer, these ICE actions are doing the opposite and making our state less safe."
Minneapolis City Council member Jason Chavez told ABC News that the victim “was an observer” and was “watching out for our immigrant neighbors.”
President Donald Trump, meanwhile, claimed in a post on Truth Social, without evidence, that the woman who was shot was “a professional agitator." Although video seems to show the car driving past the ICE agent who fired shots at the vehicle and the agent walking away, Trump said that "it is hard to believe he is alive."
"The situation is being studied, in its entirety, but the reason these incidents are happening is because the Radical Left is threatening, assaulting, and targeting our Law Enforcement Officers and ICE Agents on a daily basis," the President said.
Other Republican lawmakers also spoke in defense of ICE following the shooting.
"ICE agents are enforcing America’s laws and delivering exactly what Kentuckians voted for: a secure border and the deportation of dangerous illegal criminals," Kentucky Rep. Andy Barr wrote on X, "Targeting ICE agents will never end well for anyone who tries."
Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles accused both Frey and his home-state Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell, both Democrats, of putting ICE officers in "danger."
"It’s deeper than rhetoric, its political decisions intended to betray ICE and Federal partners," Ogles said. "ICE agents are in danger because of them. Illegal aliens are NOT our friends."
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara, also present at the press conference with local officials on Wednesday, 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, according to the chief.
Frey has been vocal in arguing that ICE officers in the city have sowed “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, writing that ICE should depart “now for everyone’s safety.”
In a press conference in the afternoon, Gov. Walz said that the state did not need "any further help from the federal government."
"To Donald Trump and Kristi Noem: you've done enough," he continued, calling the events "totally predictable" and "totally avoidable." He said he understands that Minnesotans will want to protest, which he called a "patriotic duty," but called for them to do so peacefully. "It needs to be done safely," he said. Protestors have already begun organizing in Minneapolis.
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