A federal officer shot a man in the leg in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after being attacked with a shovel and broom handle, further heightening the sense of fear and anger radiating across the city a week after an immigration agent fatally shot a woman in the head.
Smoke filled the street on Wednesday night near the site of the latest shooting as federal officers wearing gas masks and helmets fired tear gas into a small crowd while protesters threw rocks and shot fireworks.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told a news conference that the gathering was an unlawful assembly and “people need to leave.”
Photo: Reuters
Things later began to quiet down at the scene, and by early yesterday fewer demonstrators and law enforcement officers were there.
Such protest scenes have become common on the streets of Minneapolis since a federal agent fatally shot Renee Good on Wednesday last week amid a massive immigration crackdown that has seen thousands of officers sent into the Twin Cities. Agents have yanked people from cars and homes and been confronted by angry bystanders who are demanding that officers pack up and leave.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey described the situation as not “sustainable.”
“This is an impossible situation that our city is presently being put in and at the same time we are trying to find a way forward to keep people safe, to protect our neighbors, to maintain order,” he said.
Frey said that a federal force that is five times as big as the city’s 600-officer police force has “invaded” the city, scaring and angering residents, some of whom want the officers to “fight ICE [US Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents.”
At the same time, the police force is still responsible for their day-to-day work.
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it has made more than 2,000 arrests in the state since early last month and is vowing to not back down.
In a statement describing the events that led to Wednesday’s shooting, DHS said federal law enforcement officers stopped a person from Venezuela who was in the US illegally.
The person drove away and crashed into a parked car before taking off on foot, it said.
After officers reached the person, two other people arrived from a nearby apartment and all three started attacking the officer, the agency said.
“Fearing for his life and safety as he was being ambushed by three individuals, the officer fired a defensive shot to defend his life,” DHS said.
O’Hara said that the man shot was in the hospital with a non-life-threatening injury.
Earlier on Wednesday, a judge gave US President Donald Trump’s administration time to respond to a request to suspend its immigration crackdown in Minnesota, while the Pentagon looked for military lawyers to join what has become a chaotic law enforcement effort in the state.
“What we need most of all right now is a pause. The temperature needs to be lowered,” Minnesota Assistant Attorney General Brian Carter said during the first hearing in a lawsuit filed by Minnesota and the cities of Minneapolis and St Paul.
Local leaders say the government is violating free speech and other constitutional rights with the surge of law enforcement.
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