Minneapolis mayor says ICE officer’s killing of a motorist was ‘reckless’ and wasn’t self-defense

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a Minneapolis motorist on Wednesday during the Trump administration’s latest immigration crackdown on a major American city — a shooting that federal officials claimed was an act of self-defense but that the city’s mayor described as “reckless” and unnecessary.

The shooting happened in a residential neighborhood south of downtown Minneapolis, just a few blocks from some of the oldest immigrant markets in the area and a mile (1.6 kilometers) from where George Floyd was killed by police in 2020.

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 and the federal deployment of more than 2,000 officers as part of the immigration crackdown in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

“They are not here to cause safety in this city. 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 federal agents to leave the city. “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 bullshit,” the mayor said.

The shooting marks a dramatic escalation of the latest in a series of immigration enforcement operations in major American cities under the Trump administration. It’s at least the fifth person killed in a handful of states since 2024.

The Twin Cities have been on edge since DHS announced Tuesday that it had launched the operation, with more than 2,000 agents and officers expected to participate in the crackdown tied in part to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents.

A large throng of protesters gathered at the scene after the shooting, where they vented their anger at the local and federal officers who were there, including Gregory Bovino, a senior U.S. Customs and Border Patrol official who has been the face of crackdowns in Los Angeles, Chicago and elsewhere.

In a scene that hearkened back to the Los Angeles and Chicago crackdowns, bystanders heckled the officers and blew whistles that have become ubiquitous during the operations.

“Shame! Shame! Shame!” and “ICE out of Minnesota!” they loudly chanted from behind the police tape.

During her Texas visit, Noem confirmed that DHS had deployed more than 2,000 officers to the Twin Cities and already made “hundreds and hundreds” of arrests.

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.

“I feel like I’m an ordinary person, and I have the ability do something so I need to do it,” Mary Moran told KMSP-TV.

Dell’Orto reported from St. Paul, Minnesota. Associated Press reporters Ed White in Detroit, Valerie Gonzalez in Brownsville, Texas, and Mark Vancleave in Las Vegas contributed.