ICE officers reportedly shot and killed a driver in Minneapolis on Wednesday, Jan. 7 — an incident Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith said involved a U.S. citizen — one day after federal authorities launched large-scale immigration raids in the city.
A Washington Post reporter relayed a witness account from the scene. The witness, Emily Heller, said she awoke to a commotion near 33rd and Portland and saw a car blocking traffic on Portland Avenue, which appeared to be connected to a protest against federal law enforcement activity.
According to the account, Heller said ICE agents told the driver, a woman, to “get out of here.” Heller said the driver tried to turn around as an agent stood in front of the vehicle. The witness said the agent pulled out a gun and fired several times at close range, striking the woman. The account added that the vehicle then moved forward roughly 100 feet before crashing into a utility pole and other vehicles, and that the driver appeared slumped over inside.
The Department of Homeland Security provided a different version of events in a statement posted on X.
“Today, ICE officers in Minneapolis were conducting targeted operations when rioters began blocking ICE officers and one of these violent rioters weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them—an act of domestic terrorism,” the statement said.
It continued: “An ICE officer, fearing for his life, the lives of his fellow law enforcement and the safety of the public, fired defensive shots. He used his training and saved his own life and that of his fellow officers. The alleged perpetrator was hit and is deceased. The ICE officers who were hurt are expected to make full recoveries.”
DHS also blamed what it described as escalating threats against officers, citing “a 1,300% increase in assaults” and “an 8,000% increase in death threats,” and said it would release more information as it became available.
Video described as showing the encounter appears to show one officer trying to open the driver’s side door of a dark SUV. As the vehicle begins moving forward and turning away, another officer near the front of the SUV fires multiple times at close range into the open driver’s side window.
Minneapolis officials acknowledged the shooting in their own post on X, saying they were working to confirm details. The statement added that the federal immigration enforcement presence was “causing chaos in our city and making our community less safe.”
Sen. Smith wrote Wednesday that she was gathering information and described conditions as volatile, adding that ICE should leave “for everyone’s safety.” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey also addressed the situation at a press conference, delivering a blunt message to federal agents: “Get the f— out of Minneapolis. We do not want you here.”
The shooting came a day after DHS publicly signaled the start of enforcement activity in the city with a post on X that read, “GOOD MORNING MINNEAPOLIS!”
Minneapolis has drawn heightened attention amid intensifying rhetoric from President Donald Trump and his administration about Somali immigrants. The Minneapolis–St. Paul area is home to the largest Somali population in the United States, and it elected Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar — the first Somali-American congresswoman in U.S. history and a frequent target of Trump’s criticism — in 2019.
During a televised Cabinet meeting on Dec. 2, Trump criticized Omar and Somali immigrants broadly.
“Ilhan Omar is garbage. Her friends are garbage,” Trump said. “These aren’t people that work. These aren’t people that say, ‘Let’s go, come on, let’s make this place great.’ These are people that do nothing but complain.”
He continued: “You know, if they came from paradise, and they said, ‘This isn’t paradise,’ but when they come from hell and they complain and do nothing but b—-, we don’t want them in our country. Let them go back to where they came from and fix it.”
