Federal Immigration Agents Shot and Killed a Man in Minneapolis During an Operation

On Saturday morning, January 24, in Minneapolis, federal agents shot and killed a man—marking the second death involving law enforcement in the city this month, as Minneapolis has become one of the flashpoints of the Trump administration’s hardline immigration crackdown.

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said that a 37-year-old U.S. citizen was killed during an encounter with immigration agents, and urged calm as protests spread across the city. Videos of the incident circulating online show officers forcing the man to the ground and then firing several shots at close range.

In recent weeks, Minneapolis has repeatedly seen clashes between police and protesters amid a sweeping campaign of arrests and deportations launched by President Donald Trump. On January 7, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot 37-year-old Rene Nicole Good. A week later, an immigrant from Venezuela was shot—he survived.

On Saturday afternoon, Trump responded to the incident by posting a photograph of what he described as the victim’s weapon—“loaded … and ready for use.” “LET OUR ICE PATRIOTS DO THEIR JOB!”, the president wrote on Truth Social. He described the episode as a “cover-up” of fraud in the state.

Video recorded shortly before the incident shows the man filming officers on his phone, after which one of them approaches him. Another video shows several officers attempting to detain him immediately before the shooting. The Department of Homeland Security said officers were conducting an immigration operation shortly after 9 a.m. local time when a man carrying a semiautomatic handgun approached them. Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino said agents “attempted to disarm the individual, but he violently resisted.” Footage circulating online, however, does not show the man brandishing a weapon.

The dispute over what exactly is visible in the videos has echoed a broader debate over whether the shooting of Good was justified. O’Hara noted that the man who was killed was a “lawful gun owner with a permit to carry,” and that his only known prior encounters with police involved traffic violations.

Protests erupted across the city after the shooting. Video footage shows authorities deploying tear gas in an effort to disperse a growing crowd of demonstrators, many wearing gas masks and chanting Good’s name along with the slogan “our streets.” O’Hara said local police had “repeatedly warned the crowd to disperse,” and urged people to leave the area. State highway patrol officers were also present, many carrying batons.

“We are asking everyone to remain calm and, please, not to destroy our own city,” O’Hara said.

Trump has deployed ICE agents en masse to major Democrat-run cities, including Los Angeles and Chicago, to detain undocumented immigrants—triggering a jurisdictional standoff between local and federal authorities. Minneapolis police said they received no additional information from their federal counterparts following Saturday’s shooting.

“I have just seen video showing more than six masked agents beating one of our residents and then shooting him,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said at a press conference on Saturday. “How many more residents, how many more Americans must be killed or seriously injured before this operation is stopped?”

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz urged the administration to withdraw federal agents from the city and allow local authorities to conduct any investigation. “The federal occupation of Minnesota long ago ceased to be about immigration enforcement,” Walz said at a press conference. “It is a campaign of organized brutality against the people of our state. And today, that campaign took another life.”