A federal officer shot a man in the leg during an immigration enforcement operation in north Minneapolis on Wednesday, sparking protests in a city already on edge following the killing of Renee Nicole Good by a federal agent last week.
Several hundred protesters gathered at the scene after the shooting, which occurred at about 7pm local time, and faced off with agents who used smoke and other crowd-control weapons. Police chief Brian O'Hara said protesters were "engaging in unlawful behavior" and urged them to leave. Mayor Jacob Frey condemned the conduct of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, saying: "I've seen conduct from ICE that is disgusting and intolerable." But he urged protesters to go home, adding: "We cannot counter Donald Trump's chaos with our own brand of chaos."
The city of Minneapolis said the man was taken to hospital with "apparent non-life-threatening injuries". O'Hara said he could not confirm reports from legal aid groups that a pregnant woman needing medical attention was unable to see a physician, but said emergency responders had received a call from a woman in the basement of the building where the raid occurred suffering an "anxiety attack".
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said federal officers were conducting a "targeted traffic stop" of a Venezuelan national at 6:50pm CT, and that the individual resisted and attacked, with two others emerging from a nearby apartment to join the assault. The agency said the officer "fired a defensive shot to defend his life". The Guardian has not verified these details, and similar claims after Good's killing were contradicted by video evidence.
The shooting comes as about 3,000 immigration officers operate in Minnesota or are en route, in what the Trump administration has called the largest operation in DHS history. Governor Tim Walz called on Minnesotans to "carry your phone with you at all times" to record the actions of ICE agents, describing armed, masked, undertrained agents going door-to-door and ordering people to point out where their neighbours of colour live. He called it "a campaign of organised brutality against the people of Minnesota by our own federal government".
