State and local officials in Minneapolis are outraged after an immigration and customs enforcement agent fatally shot a woman there. Federal officials accused that woman of trying to run over officers with a vehicle, claiming the shooting was in self-defense. The city’s mayor says the video tells a different story. Liz Landers reports. A warning, the video in this story is disturbing.
Amna Nawaz:
Welcome to the “News Hour.”
State and local officials in Minneapolis are outraged tonight after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed a woman there. Federal officials accuse that woman of trying to run over officers with a vehicle, claiming the shooting was in self-defense.
Geoff Bennett:
The city’s mayor says the video tells a different story.
Liz Landers starts our coverage.
And a warning:
The video in this report is disturbing.
Liz Landers:
The incident unfolded in seconds, a maroon SUV approached by a federal law enforcement vehicle, agents telling the female driver to get out of her car, pulling on the door handle. The SUV reverses, then moves forward.
(Gunshots)
Liz Landers:
Shots are fired, and the vehicle barrels into parked cars across the street.
Shocked bystanders rushed to the car to try and provide aid. The driver, who Minnesota officials identified as a 37-year-old woman, was killed.
Woman:
Dude, you shot her!
Liz Landers:
A Minnesota senator said she was a U.S. citizen.
At an event along the Texas border, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the ICE agent acted in necessary self-defense.
Kristi Noem, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary:
It was an act of domestic terrorism. A woman attacked them and those surrounding them and attempted to run them over and ram them with her vehicle. An officer of ours acted quickly and defensively shot to protect himself and the people around him.
Liz Landers:
The president also weighed in from social media. “It is a horrible thing to watch,” Trump said. “The woman screaming was obviously a professional agitator and the woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully and viciously ran over the ICE officer.”
No officer appeared to be run over, but some who saw the video from a different angle, including the president, argued the ICE officer’s life was in danger from the vehicle. A witness who saw the shooting unfold said he saw it differently.
Aidan Perzana, Witness:
My interpretation at the time and still is that the person was trying to get away, and there was definitely space to get — to drive forward without hitting anybody. I did not think that — at the time, I did not even think there was a risk of her hitting anybody.
Jacob Frey (D), Mayor of Minneapolis, Minnesota: There’s sowing chaos on our streets and, in this case, quite literally killing people.
Liz Landers:
Minneapolis’s Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey shared that doubt.
Jacob Frey:
They are already trying to spin this as an action of self-defense. Having seen the video myself, I want to tell everybody directly, that is bull (expletive deleted).
Liz Landers:
Today’s shooting comes as Minnesota faces a massive immigration crackdown, with plans to deploy some 2,000 agents and officers. DHS called it — quote — “the largest immigration operation ever,” and it is tied in part to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents.
Minnesota has the biggest Somali-American population in the country. Mayor Frey had these words for the growing immigration enforcement presence in the city.
Jacob Frey:
And I have a message for ICE. To ICE, get the (expletive deleted) out of Minneapolis.
Protesters:
Shame! Shame! Shame!
Liz Landers:
Hundreds gathered at the scene and angry protesters heckled agents,the residential neighborhood where the shooting occurred just a mile or so from where George Floyd was killed by police in 2020.
Minneapolis has long been a target of President Trump since that time, during his first term, when riots and protests broke out in the city after Floyd’s murder. Minnesota’s Governor Tim Walz said this was a pattern from the Trump administration.
Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN):
Do not take the bait. Do not allow them to deploy federal troops into here. Do not allow them to invoke the Insurrection Act. Do not allow them to declare martial law. Do not allow them to lie about the security and the decency of this state.
