A federal immigration officer shot a man in the leg during an enforcement operation in north Minneapolis on Wednesday evening, triggering fresh protests in a city already reeling from last week’s killing of Renee Nicole Good by a federal agent, according to a Guardian report.
The shooting occurred around 7 pm local time, according to witnesses. Several hundred protesters confronted agents who sealed off the area and deployed smoke and other crowd control weapons.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told a news conference at City Hall on Wednesday night that protesters were engaging in unlawful behaviour and urged everyone gathered at the shooting scene in north Minneapolis to disperse.
Mayor Jacob Frey condemned immigration enforcement tactics but called on demonstrators to leave. He said he had witnessed conduct from ICE that was disgusting and intolerable, but told protesters they cannot counter Donald Trump’s chaos with more chaos and urged them to stop taking the bait, saying they were not helping undocumented immigrants in the city.
Multiple sources within legal aid and mutual aid networks said they believed a pregnant woman requiring medical care was unable to reach a doctor.
O’Hara said he could not confirm whether a pregnant person had been injured. Emergency responders received a call from a woman in the basement of the building where the raid occurred regarding an anxiety attack, he said.
The city of Minneapolis said in an online statement that a man was shot and transferred to a local hospital with apparent non-life-threatening injuries.
The Minnesota Star Tribune first reported the incident locally, which unfolded as the city continued grappling with the aftermath of Good’s killing by a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent last week.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a Guardian request about the incident. In a statement posted on X, the agency said federal law enforcement officers were conducting a targeted traffic stop in Minneapolis at 6:50pm Central Time of an illegal alien from Venezuela.
The agency accused their target of resisting and attacking, claiming two other individuals came out of a nearby flat and also attacked the officer, who fired a defensive shot to defend his life.
The Guardian has not verified any details in the DHS statement. After Good’s shooting last week, DHS claimed she had attacked the federal agent who shot her, seemingly contradicting video evidence showing she was driving away from the officer.
About 3,000 immigration officers are operating in Minnesota or en route to deploy in the state, according to federal officials.
The Trump administration has described the operation as the largest in the Department of Homeland Security’s history.
The massive militarised operation has transformed daily life in the region. Residents have mobilised volunteer teams to patrol streets for immigration officers, observe arrests and provide legal aid. Formal and informal volunteer networks have also helped deliver food to families afraid to leave their homes and transport children to and from schools.
Since Good was killed on 7 January, protests against the administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement have erupted across the US. Officers have used aggressive crowd control tactics against demonstrators, including teargas, pepper balls and stun grenades, whilst administration officials have repeatedly defended agents, saying they work under federal immunity protection.
Tensions in the city remain high. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz issued a call to action to Minnesotans in an address earlier Wednesday, urging citizens to record the atrocities committed by ICE agents in the state to bank evidence for future prosecution.
Armed, masked, undertrained ICE agents are going door-to-door, ordering people to point out where their neighbours of colour live, he said, calling it a campaign of organised brutality against the people of Minnesota by their own federal government.
Walz called on Minnesotans to carry their phones at all times to help establish a record of exactly what’s happening in communities. He also told residents that accountability is coming, in the voting booth and in court.
(information from The Guardian/image source: AP/John Locher)
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