Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey issued a sharp rebuke to Immigration and Customs Enforcement after one of their agents shot and killed a U.S. citizen at a protest against the agency.
At a press conference just moments after the fatal shooting, Frey offered one message to the federal agency: “Get the f--k out.”
“I do have a message for our community, our city, and I have a message for ice to ICE: get the f--k out of Minneapolis,” Frey said.
“We do not want you here. Your stated reason for being in this city is to create some kind of safety, and you are doing exactly the opposite,” he continued. “People are being hurt. Families are being ripped apart. Long-term Minneapolis residents that have contributed so greatly to our city, to our culture, to our economy are being terrorized, and now somebody is dead, that’s on you, and it’s also on you to leave.”
While the investigation is in its early stages, Frey said there are facts that are clear: “a 37-year-old woman is dead and that she was shot by ICE.”
The slain driver’s identity has not been released. But Minneapolis City Council member Jason Chavez told ABC News she was a U.S. citizen who “was an observer” and was “watching out for our immigrant neighbors.”
The mayor added that the shooting was predictable given the violence that ICE often displays.
“We’ve dreaded this moment since the early stages of this ice presence in Minneapolis. Not only is this a concern that we’ve had internally, we’ve been talking about, they are not here to cause safety in the city,” Frey said.
“What they are doing is not to provide safety in America– What they are doing is causing chaos and distrust,” he continued.
Other officials in Minneapolis repeated Frey’s request for federal agents to leave the city.
“They’re an escalating factor. We need them out of our city,” Elliott Payne, the president of the Minneapolis City Council, told the New York Times.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the shooting is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
“This has been a very difficult time for everyone in the city, and this is obviously a very, very tragic situation where a woman has lost her life. That being said, in addition to this tragedy, which unfortunately we did predict, we were seriously concerned about further escalation from the scene,” O’Hara said at the press conference.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has maintained that the woman was trying to run agents over with her car. DHS went as far as to claim that the woman driving the car was committing “an act of domestic terrorism.”
Eyewitnesses, however, have said that what actually happened does not support the secretary’s claim. Videos of the shooting show a red Honda Pilot, with the driver’s window rolled down, idling and blocking the roadway. ICE agents then approach the vehicle and tell the driver to get out. One agent begins pulling the handle of her car door. The driver begins to slowly back up, turn, and accelerate forward, when two gunshots are then heard.
Protests against ICE have only increased in South Minneapolis in the hours following the shooting. This shooting occurred just four blocks away from where George Floyd was killed by a police officer in 2020, a pivotal moment that set off shockwaves and protests against police brutality across the country.
