An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a Minneapolis driver on Wednesday during the Trump administration’s latest immigration crackdown on a major American city — a shooting that federal officials said was an act of self-defense but that the city’s mayor described as “reckless” and unnecessary. The woman was shot in a residential neighborhood south of downtown Minneapolis, just a few 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 angry protesters.Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, during a visit to Texas, described the incident as an “act of domestic terrorism” carried out against ICE officers by a woman who “attempted to run them over and rammed them with her vehicle. An officer of ours acted quickly and defensively, shot, to protect himself and the people around him.”But Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey blasted that characterization as “garbage” and criticized the federal deployment of more than 2,000 officers to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul as part of the immigration crackdown. 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”What they are doing is not to provide safety in America. What they are doing is causing chaos and distrust,” Frey said, calling on the immigration agents to leave. “They’re ripping families apart. They’re sowing chaos on our streets, and in this case, quite literally killing people.””They are already trying to spin this as an action of self-defense. Having seen the video myself, I wanna tell everybody directly, that is bull****,” the mayor said.Videos taken by bystanders with different vantage points and posted to social media show an officer approaching an SUV stopped across the middle of the road, demanding the driver open the door and grabbing the handle. The SUV begins to pull forward and a different ICE officer standing in front of the vehicle pulls his weapon and immediately fires at least two shots into the SUV at close range, jumping back as the vehicle moves toward him.Video below: Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey says federal agents are “sowing chaos on our streets”It was not clear from the videos if the vehicle made contact with the officer. The SUV then sped into two cars parked on a curb nearby before crashing to a stop. Witnesses screamed obscenities, expressing shock at what they’d seen.President Donald Trump called the videos of the incident “a horrible thing to watch.””The woman screaming was, obviously, a professional agitator, and the woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense,” Trump posted on social media. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said hours after the shooting that he’s prepared to deploy the National Guard if necessary. He also said that like many, he is outraged about the killing, which he described as “predictable” and “avoidable.” But he called on protesters to remain peaceful.Video above: Witness describes Minneapolis shooting involving ICE officer”They want a show. We can’t give it to them. We cannot,” the governor said during a news conference. “If you protest and express your First Amendment rights, please do so peacefully, as you always do. We can’t give them what they want.”The shooting marks a dramatic escalation of the latest in a series of immigration enforcement operations in major cities under the Trump administration. The death of the Minneapolis woman, whose name wasn’t immediately released, was at least the fifth linked to immigration crackdowns.The Twin Cities have been on edge since DHS announced Tuesday that it had launched the operation, which is at least partly tied to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents. During her Texas visit, Noem confirmed that DHS had deployed more than 2,000 officers to the area and said they had already made “hundreds and hundreds” of arrests.Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara briefly described the shooting to reporters but, unlike federal officials, gave no indication that the 37-year-old driver was trying to harm anyone. He said she had been shot in the head.“This woman was in her vehicle and was blocking the roadway on Portland Avenue. … At some point a federal law enforcement officer approached her on foot and the vehicle began to drive off,” the chief said. “At least two shots were fired. The vehicle then crashed on the side of the roadway.”There were calls on social media to prosecute the officer who shot the driver. But Daniel Borgertpoepping, a spokesperson for the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, said such decisions wouldn’t be made until an investigation is finished.“We have jurisdiction to bring charges, as do the feds. It’s a little bit of a complicated interplay but the bottom line is yes, we have jurisdiction to bring criminal charges,” Borgertpoepping said.For nearly a year, migrant rights advocates and neighborhood activists across the Twin Cities have been preparing to mobilize in the event of an immigration enforcement surge. From houses of worship to mobile home parks, they have set up very active online networks, scanned license plates for possible federal vehicles and bought whistles and other noisemaking devices to alert neighborhoods of any enforcement presence.On Tuesday night, the Immigration Defense Network, a coalition of groups serving immigrants in Minnesota, held a training session for about 100 people who were willing to hit the streets to monitor the federal enforcement operation.
MINNEAPOLIS —
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a Minneapolis driver on Wednesday during the Trump administration’s latest immigration crackdown on a major American city — a shooting that federal officials said was an act of self-defense but that the city’s mayor described as “reckless” and unnecessary.
The woman was shot in a residential neighborhood south of downtown Minneapolis, just a few 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 angry protesters.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, during a visit to Texas, described the incident as an “act of domestic terrorism” carried out against ICE officers by a woman who “attempted to run them over and rammed them with her vehicle. An officer of ours acted quickly and defensively, shot, to protect himself and the people around him.”
Stephen Maturen/Getty Images
Members of law enforcement work the scene following a suspected shooting by an ICE agent during federal law enforcement operations on Jan. 7, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
But Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey blasted that characterization as “garbage” and criticized the federal deployment of more than 2,000 officers to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul as part of the immigration crackdown.
“What they are doing is not to provide safety in America. What they are doing is causing chaos and distrust,” Frey said, calling on the immigration agents to leave. “They’re ripping families apart. They’re sowing chaos on our streets, and in this case, quite literally killing people.”
“They are already trying to spin this as an action of self-defense. Having seen the video myself, I wanna tell everybody directly, that is bull****,” the mayor said.
Videos taken by bystanders with different vantage points and posted to social media show an officer approaching an SUV stopped across the middle of the road, demanding the driver open the door and grabbing the handle. The SUV begins to pull forward and a different ICE officer standing in front of the vehicle pulls his weapon and immediately fires at least two shots into the SUV at close range, jumping back as the vehicle moves toward him.
Video below: Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey says federal agents are “sowing chaos on our streets”
It was not clear from the videos if the vehicle made contact with the officer. The SUV then sped into two cars parked on a curb nearby before crashing to a stop. Witnesses screamed obscenities, expressing shock at what they’d seen.
President Donald Trump called the videos of the incident “a horrible thing to watch.”
“The woman screaming was, obviously, a professional agitator, and the woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense,” Trump posted on social media.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said hours after the shooting that he’s prepared to deploy the National Guard if necessary. He also said that like many, he is outraged about the killing, which he described as “predictable” and “avoidable.” But he called on protesters to remain peaceful.
Video above: Witness describes Minneapolis shooting involving ICE officer
“They want a show. We can’t give it to them. We cannot,” the governor said during a news conference. “If you protest and express your First Amendment rights, please do so peacefully, as you always do. We can’t give them what they want.”
The shooting marks a dramatic escalation of the latest in a series of immigration enforcement operations in major cities under the Trump administration. The death of the Minneapolis woman, whose name wasn’t immediately released, was at least the fifth linked to immigration crackdowns.
The Twin Cities have been on edge since DHS announced Tuesday that it had launched the operation, which is at least partly tied to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents. During her Texas visit, Noem confirmed that DHS had deployed more than 2,000 officers to the area and said they had already made “hundreds and hundreds” of arrests.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara briefly described the shooting to reporters but, unlike federal officials, gave no indication that the 37-year-old driver was trying to harm anyone. He said she had been shot in the head.
“This woman was in her vehicle and was blocking the roadway on Portland Avenue. … At some point a federal law enforcement officer approached her on foot and the vehicle began to drive off,” the chief said. “At least two shots were fired. The vehicle then crashed on the side of the roadway.”
There were calls on social media to prosecute the officer who shot the driver. But Daniel Borgertpoepping, a spokesperson for the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, said such decisions wouldn’t be made until an investigation is finished.
“We have jurisdiction to bring charges, as do the feds. It’s a little bit of a complicated interplay but the bottom line is yes, we have jurisdiction to bring criminal charges,” Borgertpoepping said.
For nearly a year, migrant rights advocates and neighborhood activists across the Twin Cities have been preparing to mobilize in the event of an immigration enforcement surge. From houses of worship to mobile home parks, they have set up very active online networks, scanned license plates for possible federal vehicles and bought whistles and other noisemaking devices to alert neighborhoods of any enforcement presence.
On Tuesday night, the Immigration Defense Network, a coalition of groups serving immigrants in Minnesota, held a training session for about 100 people who were willing to hit the streets to monitor the federal enforcement operation.
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