This article may contain commentary
which reflects the author’s opinion.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that a federal law enforcement officer shot an illegal Venezuelan immigrant in Minneapolis on Wednesday evening.
DHS said that the officer was “conducting a targeted traffic stop” when the shooting victim ran away. Then, “began to resist and violently assault the officer,” and two other people joined in the attack with a snow shovel and a broomstick.
DHS said the officer then “fired a defensive shot to defend his life,” striking the initial suspect, who DHS said “got loose and began striking the officer with a shovel or broom stick,” in the leg.
“The attacked officer and subject are both in the hospital. Both attackers are in custody,” DHS said in the statement.
Minneapolis city officials posted on X that they were “aware of reports of a shooting involving federal law enforcement in North Minneapolis” just before 9 p.m. and “working to confirm additional details.”
One week before the shooting, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed Renee Good in the same city, which led to protests across the country.
As tensions stay high in the Twin Cities, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) spoke live on Wednesday night, just before news of the shooting broke. He told people in Minnesota that what is going on in the state “defies belief” and asked President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to “end this occupation.”
“News reports simply don’t do justice to the level of chaos and disruption and trauma the federal government is raining down upon our communities,” Walz said. “This long ago stopped being a matter of immigration enforcement. Instead, it’s a campaign of organized brutality against the people of Minnesota by our own federal government.”
The DHS statement on Wednesday night hit back at Walz and Minneapolis Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey for “actively encouraging an organized resistance to ICE and federal law enforcement officers.”
“Their hateful rhetoric and resistance against men and women who are simply trying to do their jobs must end. Federal law enforcement officers are facing a 1,300% increase in assaults against them as they put their lives on the line to arrest criminals and lawbreakers,” DHS said in the statement.
Federal investigators are unlikely to file criminal charges against a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fatally shot Renee Nicole Good during an enforcement operation in Minneapolis last week, according to officials familiar with the investigation.
The Justice Department is also not expected to open a civil rights inquiry into the shooting. The FBI is leading the investigation into the Jan. 7 encounter, in which Good, 37, was shot by ICE agent Jonathan Ross during an operation in south Minneapolis.
Authorities have indicated that investigators increasingly view the use of force as legally justified, making criminal charges unlikely, though the inquiry remains ongoing and a final determination has not been announced, the New York Times reported, citing unnamed sources.
Federal officials have said the shooting occurred after Good drove her vehicle toward agents as they attempted to carry out an enforcement action. Other accounts, including statements from witnesses and community leaders, have raised questions about the circumstances leading up to the shooting.
The death has sparked protests in Minneapolis and drawn criticism from local and state officials, who have called for greater transparency and accountability.
Demonstrations continued in the days following the shooting, with protesters demanding an independent investigation and the release of additional information about the encounter.
The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division has declined to open a separate review into whether Good’s civil rights were violated, according to officials.
That decision has prompted internal dissent, with several federal prosecutors resigning in protest over the department’s handling of the case.
The lawyers had reportedly been pushing the head of the division, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, to dispatch a DOJ team to Minneapolis to manufacture a civil rights case.
