Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara confirmed on Saturday that a man was shot and killed by Department of Homeland Security agents. The killing was captured on video by bystanders. In the footage, about half a dozen agents are seen wrestling an individual to the ground, before shooting him multiple times, appearing to continue to fire even after the individual collapses.
The victim of the shooting has not been identified, but O’Hara described him as a 37 year old Minneapolis resident, who they “believe” to be a U.S. Citizen at a Saturday press conference. The individual sustained “multiple gunshot wounds,” and was pronounced dead at Hannapin County Medical Center.
O’Hara added that they believe the victim was a “lawful gun owner” with no existing criminal record, and that local law enforcement had received little information about the incident from the federal agencies involved. Open and concealed carry is legal in Minnesota if the individual has a permit and complies with gun safety requirements.
The killing took place as the state continues to reel from the killing of Renee Good, another U.S. citizen who was shot and killed by ICE agents earlier this month. In the aftermath of the shooting, Trump administration officials claimed that Good was a “domestic terrorist,” who had attempted to harm agents with her vehicle, and refused to open a civil rights investigation into the shooting.
Despite details of Saturday’s shooting remain sparse, DHS and federal officials are implementing a similar strategy in their defense of the killing.
Shortly after the incident took place, Fox News disseminated an image of a handgun alleged by DHS to have belonged to the victim. The provenance of the weapon has not been independently confirmed, and it is not immediately clear that the victim is brandishing a weapon in video of the shooting.
The Department of Homeland Security released a statement claiming that an officer “fearing for his life” had shot the individual, and that the incident “looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”
According to the Star Tribune, ICE agents attempted to order local law enforcement responding to the scene away from the area. O’Hara reportedly refused, and instructed local agents to “preserve the scene.” Protesters who gathered near the scene of the shooting clashed with federal agents, who conducted several arrests.
In a press conference, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey renewed his call for ICE and DHS to withdraw from the city. “How many more residents, how many more Americans, need to die or get badly hurt for this operation to end,” he said. “How many more lives need to be lost before this administration realizes that a political and partisan narrative is not as important as American values?”
“I’m done being told that our community members are responsible for the vitriol in our streets,” he added. “I’m done being told that our local elected officials are solely responsible for turning down the temperature. Just yesterday, we saw 15,000 people peacefully protesting in the streets, speaking out, standing up for their neighbors. Not a single broken window, not a single injury.”
In a statement issued on social media, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz wrote that “the President must end this operation. Pull the thousands of violent, untrained officers out of Minnesota. Now.”
In a separate statement Walz added that he “told the White House the state must lead the investigation. Let state investigators secure justice. As we process the scene, stay peaceful and give them space. The State has the personnel to keep people safe – federal agents must not obstruct our ability to do so.”
According to the Star Tribune, several witnesses to the incident have been detained at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, the headquarters of ICE operations in the Minneapolis area.
