Minneapolis family says ICE threw flashbangs, tear gas near and under car with their six kids inside

The Jacksons say they were on their way home from their son’s basketball game when they got caught between ICE agents and protesters.

MINNEAPOLIS — A Minneapolis family says they were on their way home Wednesday when they were caught between ICE agents and protesters.

Shawn and Destiny Jackson say they and their six children were on their way home from their son’s basketball game, and stopped to get groceries. After they left the store, they say they turned onto Lyndale, taking their normal route home.

“We started to see lights and stuff,” Shawn Jackson said.

“Even trying to leave, I couldn’t go backwards, forward, it was like I was just stuck.”

They say that as the situation turned chaotic, crowd deterrents were used around them, including tear gas and flashbangs.

“The one that actually exploded up under the car, I watched them throw it, I seen the sparks, and it went, I was looking out the window, and just seen the sparks coming, and it hit the ground and it rolled,” Destiny Jackson said.

“Literally, all we heard was boom, and our car went up and we came down, and every air bag deployed out of the car.”

Destiny says Shawn tried to start the car, but it wouldn’t budge. She says they then tried to escape from the car.

“I was screaming to my other, my oldest son, Shawn, I’m like, ‘get out, get out,’ like, ‘I can’t, mom, and I can’t breathe,'” she said.

Destiny says bystanders took them into a nearby house when she realized their youngest, just six months old, was still in the car.

“I was screaming, I’m like, ‘I have more kids out there, I have more kids out there,'” she said. “And people were screaming and running to my car, trying to grab the rest of my kids.”

“He was the last person to come in, he was just like, lifeless, like, he had like, foam, like, around his mouth, and you can, he had tears coming out of his eyes,” Destiny continued.

“I was giving him mouth-to-mouth, and people were calling EMS, trying to help.”

Destiny says an ambulance eventually came, taking them to the hospital.

“While we were in the ambulance, they were still throwing those bombs,” Destiny said. “And I remember the ambulance people were just telling my kids, like, ‘it’s okay, you’re safe in here.'”

The Jacksons say they were taken to the hospital, and are all now okay physically, but are just beginning to cope with the mental toll of what happened.

“My 11-year-old, who is autistic, keeps talking about it,” Destiny said. “He was talking about it all night. I couldn’t sleep because I was scared.”

The family says their car is ‘completely gone’ after the airbags deployed. There’s a fundraiser that you can access here to help cover the cost of a new vehicle.