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Officials in Minneapolis reported a shooting involving federal agents on Wednesday, with local sources claiming that a female driver who was observing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents was shot in the face.
Federal authorities have been conducting a major immigration enforcement operation in the Minnesota city in recent days tied in part to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents.
Live video posted online showed a large presence of federal officers, local officers, yellow police tape and cars that had been in a crash. Commander Gregory Bovino, of US Customs and Border Protection was in the group.
Jacob Frey, the Democratic mayor of Minneapolis, posted on X that he was “aware of a shooting involving an ICE agent at 34th Street & Portland” before condemning ICE’s presence in Minneapolis.
“The presence of federal immigration enforcement agents is causing chaos in our city. We’re demanding ICE to leave the city immediately. We stand rock solid with our immigrant and refugee communities,” he wrote.
The Somalia-born Democratic Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar posted on Bluesky that the person shot was “a legal observer” of ICE operations in south Minneapolis.
“I’ll continue to monitor the situation closely and will update as soon as I receive information. ICE must stop terrorizing our communities and leave our city,” she wrote.
Tim Walz, the Democratic Minnesota governor, said he was also trying to establish the circumstances.
“My public safety team is working to gather information on an ICE related shooting this morning,” he posted to X. “We will share information as we learn more. In the meantime, I ask folks to remain calm.”
Video posted to social media showed two vehicles that appeared to have collided. The driving wheel airbag of one the vehicles had deployed and appeared to show blood on it.
In the footage, bystanders can been seen and heard blowing whistles and taunting the federal agents, telling them to go home. A woman said she spoke to an eyewitness who told her the person shot was a woman who “took off” from federal agents.
“They shot her through the windshield. They shot her in the face,” the woman said.
The condition of the person shot is not known, and no other details were immediately available. The Guardian has been unable to verify the authenticity of the videos.
Jon Collins, a reporter for MPR News, posted to Bluesky that protesters stopped ICE agents after the shooting and were pepper sprayed.
“ICE tear gassed a lot of people as they drove down the alley. People were stuck in alley and hit hard. Some people are still getting medical treatment,” he wrote.
The Department of Homeland Security said on Tuesday that it had launched an extraordinary immigration enforcement operation, with 2,000 agents and officers expected in the Minneapolis and St Paul area for a crackdown tied in part to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents.
The Immigration Defense Network, a coalition of groups serving immigrants in Minnesota, held a training session Tuesday night for about 100 people who are willing to hit the streets to monitor the federal enforcement.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
