A federal officer has shot a man in the leg during an enforcement operation in north Minneapolis, sparking protests in a city still on edge after the killing of Renee Nicole Good by a federal agent last week.
The shooting occurred about 7pm local time, according to witnesses. Several hundred protesters gathered at the scene on Wednesday night facing off with agents who blocked off the area and used smoke and other crowd control weapons.
In a news conference at Minneapolis City Hall on Wednesday night, police chief Brian O’Hara said protestors were “engaging in unlawful behavior” and urged everyone who had gathered at the shooting scene in north Minneapolis to leave.
The Minneapolis mayor, Jacob Frey, said: “I’ve seen conduct from ICE that is disgusting and intolerable.” But he urged protestors out Wednesday night to go home. “We cannot counter Donald Trump’s chaos with more chaos … Anyone who is taking the bait tonight, stop,” he said. “You are not helping the undocumented immigrants in our city.”
Multiple sources in networks of legal aid and mutual aid groups said they believed a pregnant woman needing medical attention was not able to get access to a physician.
O’Hara said he could not confirm whether a pregnant person had been hurt. He that the emergency responders had gotten a call from a woman in the basement of building where the raid occurred due to an “anxiety attack”.
Law enforcement officers gather at the scene of a shooting incident in Minneapolis on Wednesday. Photograph: Seth Herald/Reuters
In a statement posted online, the city of Minneapolis said a man was shot and “was transferred to a local hospital with apparent non-life-threatening injuries”.
The incident, first reported locally by the Minnesota Star Tribune, occurred as the city continued to reel in the aftermath of the killing Good by a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent last week.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request from the Guardian about the incident. In a statement posted on X, the agency said: “At 6:50 PM CT, federal law enforcement officers were conducting a targeted traffic stop in Minneapolis of an illegal alien from Venezuela.”
The agency accused their target of resisting and attacking, and said that two other individuals “came out of a nearby apartment and also attacked” the officer, who “fired a defensive shot to defend his life”.
The Guardian has not verified any of the details in the DHS statement. After the shooting of Good last week, the DHS claimed that Good had attacked the federal agent who shot her, seemingly contradicting video evidence that she was driving away from the officer.
About 3,000 immigration officers are operating in Minnesota or are on their way to deploy in the state, according to federal officials.
The Trump administrationhas described the operation as the largest in the Department of Homeland Security’s history.
Protesters gathered on the scene Wednesday night. Tensions in the city have been high in the aftermath of the killing of Renee Good. Photograph: John Locher/AP
The massive militarized operation has transformed daily life in the region. Residents have mobilized teams of volunteers to patrol streets for the presence of immigration officers, observe arrests and provide legal aid. Formal and informal networks of volunteers have also helped deliver food to families fearful to leave their homes, and transport the children to and from schools.
Since Good was killed on 7 January, protests against the administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement have erupted across the US. Officers have used aggressive crowd control tactics against demonstrators, including the use of teargas, pepper balls and stun grenades, and administration officials have repeatedly defended agents, saying they are working under the protection of federal immunity.
Tensions in the city remain high. The governor of Minnesota governor, Tim Walz, issued a call to action to Minnesotans in an address earlier on Wednesday, urging citizens to record the “atrocities” committed by ICE agents in the state “to bank evidence for future prosecution”.
“Armed, masked, undertrained ICE agents are going door-to-door, ordering people to point out where their neighbors of color live,” he said. “It’s a campaign of organized brutality against the people of Minnesota by our own federal government.”
Walz called on Minnesotans to “carry your phone with you at all times” to “help us establish a record of exactly what’s happening in our communities”. He also told residents: “Accountability is coming, in the voting booth and in court.”