A 37-year-old woman was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minnesota, sparking sharply conflicting accounts of the incident from local, state and federal officials.
The fatal shooting occurred on a street in Minneapolis on Wednesday morning, where numerous immigration officers were present, following a recent influx of federal agents to the city, according to the City of Minneapolis.
Video footage of the incident shows an ICE officer confronting a driver before firing several shots at the vehicle as it peeled off.
Officials from the Trump administration described the shooting as an act of self-defense and alleged that the victim had engaged in “domestic terrorism.” In contrast, the Minneapolis mayor condemned the agent’s actions as reckless and called on federal immigration authorities to withdraw from the city.
Here is what we know so far.
Who was the person killed?
The identity of the deceased woman has not been made public.
Minneapolis City Council member Jason Chavez told ABC News that she was an American citizen. He said she was acting as “an observer” who was “watching out for our immigrant neighbors.”
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said during a press conference that the woman was white and middle-aged. It was later revealed that she was 37 years old. The police chief added that there was no indication she was the subject of an immigration enforcement investigation.
He noted that she appeared to be in her car blocking the street.
What happened?
The fatal shooting took place at 34th Street and Portland Avenue, according to the City of Minneapolis.
A video of the incident shared with local media shows masked officers approaching a red car stopped in the middle of the icy road.
An officer can be heard instructing the driver to “get out of the f***ing car” before the driver backs up and starts to drive away. An officer who had just stood in front of the vehicle then fired a series of shots before the car crashed into another vehicle a few dozen feet away.
As people scream and shout at the immigration officials, several people are seen walking towards the car.
Photos shared on social media appear to show an airbag covered in blood inside the crashed vehicle.
Several police officers responded to the scene and helped transport the woman to a hospital, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in a press conference. But she was pronounced dead.
Reactions from officials
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, described the shooting as defensive in nature.
“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,” she said in a statement.
“An ICE officer, fearing for his life, the lives of his fellow law enforcement and the safety of the public, fired defensive shots,” McLaughlin added. “He used his training and saved his own life and that of his fellow officers.”
She characterized the shooting as a consequence of the “demonization of our officers.”
In a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Mayor Frey offered a strikingly different account of what happened.
“They are already trying to spin this as an action of self defense,” Frey, a Democrat, told reporters. “Having seen the video myself, I want to tell everybody directly: that is bulls***. This was an agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying.”
“We’ve dreaded this moment since the early stages of ICE’s presence in Minneapolis,” Frey added. “They are not here to cause safety in this city… what they are doing is causing chaos and distrust.”
A number of other elected officials quickly reacted to the deadly incident, with many Democrats condemning ICE.
“I’m following news of a reported shooting of a legal observer by ICE agents in South Minneapolis,” Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar wrote in a post on X. “ICE must stop terrorizing our communities and leave our city.”
“This is not the first time Trump’s ICE has shot at civilians,” Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal wrote in a post. “We need ICE out of our cities and communities.”
Meanwhile, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller described the incident as “domestic terrorism.”
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem echoed this view, telling Fox News, “It was an act of domestic terrorism. I.C.E. Officers got stuck in the snow. They were attempting to push out their vehicle, and a woman attacked them, and those surrounding them, and attempted to run them over.”
Influx of federal agents
The fatal shooting comes shortly after the Trump administration announced it was deploying additional ICE agents to the Minneapolis area.
“While for the safety of our officers we do not get into law enforcement footprint, DHS has surged law enforcement and has already made more than 1,000 arrests of murderers, rapists, pedophiles, and gang members,” DHS told The Independent in an email on Tuesday.
The surge, which began this weekend, is expected to involve as many as 2,000 agents from multiple agencies, law enforcement sources told CBS News.
The influx of federal agents comes amid an ongoing federal investigation into fraud within Minnesota’s social services programs, which culminated in Governor Tim Walz announcing he would not seek reelection on Monday.
