Protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement intensified in Minneapolis late Wednesday after a federal officer shot and wounded a man during a traffic stop, marking the second ICE-related shooting in the city within a week. Demonstrations quickly grew as residents condemned the expanding federal presence and accused authorities of escalating violence rather than restoring public safety.
As crowds gathered, federal agents responded forcefully, firing flash bang grenades and chemical munitions to disperse demonstrators. Protesters shouted demands for the removal of ICE from the city. “Get ICE out of the city!” one resident told Status Coup News as agents confronted demonstrators.
The latest shooting occurred in north Minneapolis during what the Department of Homeland Security described as a “targeted traffic stop.” In a statement, DHS claimed the man attempted to evade arrest and struck the pursuing officer “with a shovel or a broomstick.” The agent shot the man in the leg, and both were later transported to a hospital. The department’s account was immediately met with skepticism, as DHS has repeatedly been accused of providing misleading or false narratives in recent ICE-involved shootings in Minnesota.
The incident came just days after ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old Minneapolis resident. Good was a mother of three, a writer, and a poet. According to Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, Good “had just dropped… her 6-year-old son off at school and was serving as a legal observer when she was murdered by an ICE agent in South Minneapolis.”
City officials said the back-to-back shootings have pushed Minneapolis to a breaking point. Mayor Jacob Frey said the situation unfolding in the city could not continue. “No matter what led up to this incident, the situation we are seeing in our city is not sustainable,” Frey said during a press conference late Wednesday. “This is already the second shooting that we’ve had in a week. People are scared. The atmosphere is tense. But again, there is another option. We can stop going down this route together.”
Rather than reducing its footprint, the Trump administration has expanded federal immigration operations in Minnesota while intensifying its rhetoric. President Donald Trump wrote on social media earlier this week that “reckoning and retribution is coming” to Minnesota, a statement that further inflamed tensions as federal agents continued operations across the state.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said ICE agents have been terrorizing communities. “Armed, masked, undertrained ICE agents are going door to door ordering people to point out where their neighbors of color live,” Walz said Wednesday. He described agents operating “at grocery stores, at bus stops, even at our schools,” and accused them of “breaking windows, dragging pregnant women down the street, just plain grabbing Minnesotans and shoving them into unmarked vans, kidnapping innocent people with no warning and no due process.”
Minneapolis City Council President Elliott Payne said he was personally assaulted by ICE officers while lawfully observing their actions earlier this week. Payne said agents frequently brandish weapons to intimidate residents. “This is a military occupation,” he said, adding, “and it feels like a military occupation.”
As protests continued, Omar said accountability for Good’s killing must begin with leadership at the Department of Homeland Security. Speaking outside the U.S. Capitol, Omar said, “Today we are honoring the life and memory of Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, a writer, and a poet.” She said, “ICE’s reckless actions have taken a mother from three children, a partner from a wife, and inflicted unfathomable pain on our community. My deepest condolences go out to Renee’s family, friends, and anyone who loved her.” Omar added, “We will not stop fighting until we achieve real justice and accountability.”
According to Omar, that accountability requires the removal of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. “That must begin with impeaching Kristi Noem and ensuring no federal agent can act as a judge, jury, and executioner on our streets. It must also include [a] full and transparent investigation, and legal action against ICE,” she said.
Omar is among dozens of House Democrats backing articles of impeachment introduced by Rep. Robin Kelly of Illinois, alleging obstruction of justice, violation of public trust, and self-dealing by Noem. The impeachment push coincides with a lawsuit filed by Minneapolis, Saint Paul, and the state of Minnesota against DHS, ICE, Noem, and other federal officials to halt the deployment of thousands of immigration agents to the state.
U.S. District Judge Kate Menendez declined Wednesday morning to issue a temporary restraining order blocking the deployment but requested additional information from all parties. “I think the issues are really important and I don’t want to suggest by not acting immediately one way or the other that I think they are unimportant,” Menendez said, according to CBS News. “To the contrary, I understand this is important to everybody.”
Reports of intimidation by federal agents have continued to emerge. The Intercept reported that agents have invoked Good’s death to threaten observers and demonstrators. In one incident, local resident Phil Maddox filmed a masked agent screaming into his vehicle, “Stop fucking following us.” The video showed another agent standing nearby with a handgun drawn. As the agent continued shouting, he warned Maddox that he would not “like the outcome” if he continued recording. “You did not learn from what just happened?” the agent asked. “Go home to your kids.” Maddox said he interpreted the statement as a direct threat. “They’re saying, ‘Get in our way and we’ll shoot you,’” Maddox said. “’We have immunity, we can do what we want, and you should fear us.’”
Additional accounts reported by Pioneer Press describe ICE agents pepper-spraying vehicles, breaking windows, and arresting residents on obstruction charges. Patty O’Keefe told KARE-TV that during transport to a detention facility, an agent told her, “You guys got to stop obstructing us, that’s why that lesbian (expletive) is dead.” O’Keefe said the comment was “shocking.”
Civil liberties groups have warned that federal agents are attempting to suppress documentation of their actions. The National Coalition Against Censorship said Tuesday that “the First Amendment unequivocally protects the right to observe, monitor, and take pictures and video of government officials conducting their duties in public.”
Payne reiterated those rights while speaking to reporters Wednesday. “You have the right to observe these operations,” he said. “You have the right to keep your door shut. You have a right to demand a judicial warrant, and if they do not have a judicial warrant, you do not have to open your door.”
As federal enforcement continues across Minneapolis, community members say fear and anger are spreading alongside calls for accountability. Reflecting on Good’s killing, Omar said, “We will not stop fighting until we achieve real justice and accountability.”
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