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Congresswoman Ilhan Omar was sprayed with an unidentified substance by a man with a syringe on Tuesday as she gave her first in-person town hall of the year in Minneapolis, during which she called for ICE to be abolished “for good” and DHS secretary Kristi Noem to resign.
Omar had only been speaking for a few minutes when a man in the audience got up and began to shout, while spraying her with the liquid. People at the meeting said the liquid had an acidic smell.
Omar walked toward the man after the alleged assault, but he was then swiftly tackled to the ground by a security guard. People inside the North Minneapolis community center gasped as the scene unfolded.
Some, such as Minneapolis council member LaTrisha Vetaw, pleaded with Omar to end the town hall early to get checked, due to concerns for her safety because of the unidentified liquid . Omar refused to stop. “Ten minutes, I beg you … please don’t let them have the show,” she told the security team.
After the alleged attacker was subdued, there was applause from the room as he was escorted out. “Here is the reality that people like this ugly man don’t understand, is that we are Minnesota strong,” the congresswoman said.
“I learned at a young age that you don’t give into threats.”
The man was then arrested and booked into Hennepin county jail for third-degree assault, and forensics were called to the scene, Minneapolis police spokesperson Trevor Folke said. Jail records identified the man as Anthony James Kazmierczak, 55.
As she left the town hall, Omar told reporters: “I’ve survived war. And I’m definitely going to survive intimidation and whatever these people think they can throw at me, because I’m built that way.”
She later posted on social media that she was OK, adding: “I don’t let bullies win. Grateful to my incredible constituents who rallied behind me.”
Omar is among a wave of Democratic politicians to react with outrage and horror to the Saturday shooting of 37-year-old VA nurse Alex Pretti, the second fatal shooting of a US civilian by federal law enforcement in Minneapolis.
The fatal shootings have resulted in calls from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers for Noem to resign.
The Minneapolis mayor, Jacob Frey, condemned Tuesday’s attack on Omar as “unacceptable,” writing on social media: “we can disagree without putting people at risk”.
Jasmine Crockett, the Democratic representative from Texas, said in a social media post that she was “disgusted” and “outraged”, writing: “Let’s be clear: nonstop hate and dangerous rhetoric from [Donald] Trump and his allies has fueled this type of violence.” Republican congresswoman Nancy Mace said she was “deeply disturbed” by the news. “Regardless of how vehemently I disagree with her rhetoric – and I do – no elected official should face physical attacks. This is not who we are,” she wrote in a post on X, alongside a video of the attack.
Omar has long been a political target of the US president, who in recent months has renewed his xenophobic attacks, calling in a post on his Truth Social network for her to be “sent back to Somalia”. She arrived in the US as a refugee aged 12 and became a citizen more than 25 years ago.
Last month, Omar told the Guardian that during the four years of Joe Biden’s presidency she received almost no death threats. “Now they are back up, and so there is a clear correlation between [Trump’s] presidency and the political violence that we see and the political danger that a lot of members of Congress and electeds feel across the country,” she said.
The US Capitol police (USCP) said a statement that the alleged assault on Omar was “an unacceptable decision that will be met with swift justice.” “We are now working with our federal partners to see this man faces the most serious charges possible to deter this kind of violence in our society.”
According to the latest data, the USCP investigated 14,938 concerning “statements, behaviors, and communications” directed at members of Congress, their families and their staff in 2025 – the third year in a row that this number has continued to climb.
