MINNEAPOLIS — A federal officer shot a man in the leg during an attempted traffic stop Wednesday night, the Department of Homeland Security said as a crowd of protesters gathered near the shooting site, about 12 miles from where an ICE officer fatally shot Renee Nicole Good last week.
The agency said the shooting happened just before 7 p.m. after law enforcement officials were attacked with a shovel and a broom as they tried to complete a targeted traffic stop.
Minneapolis officials asked for calm and said the man was hospitalized with apparently non-life-threatening injuries.
“We understand there is anger,” the city said. “We ask the public to remain calm.”
The police chief later called for the crowd to disperse, saying the demonstration had turned unlawful, with protesters throwing fireworks, rocks and ice at police.
Tensions in the city have been running high since Good's death and the federal government's increased immigration enforcement. Just after the shooting, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz addressed residents in a planned speech, urging them to help create a record of the “atrocities” against Minnesotans by recording immigration agents, and he called on President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to “end this occupation.”
The city also asked federal immigration authorities on social media to leave the city and the state immediately.
“We stand by our immigrant and refugee communities — know that you have our full support,” the city said.
The increased immigration enforcement and agents are “creating chaos” and unrest, the mayor said.
“This is an impossible situation that our city is presently being put in," Mayor Jacob Frey said at an evening news conference, where he compared the number of police officers in the city — 600 — to the number of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement and border officers — 3,000.
"We are trying to find a way forward to keep people safe, to protect our neighbors, to protect order,” Frey said, while also warning protesters against “taking the bait.”
DHS said officers were attempting a traffic stop of a Venezuelan man, who they said is in the country illegally. The man left in a vehicle, which crashed into a parked car, and then ran away, the department said in a statement.
As the officer pursued the man, he assaulted the officer, according to the statement.
While the officer and the man were in a struggle on the ground, DHS said, two people came out of an apartment and attacked the officer with a snow shovel and a broom handle, according to the statement.
The original man then got loose and also began attacking the officer with a shovel or a broomstick, the department said.
“Fearing for his life and safety as he was being ambushed by three individuals, the officer fired defensive shots to defend his life,” the department said, adding that the man officers had been chasing was shot in the leg.
DHS said the man who was shot and the officer were in the hospital. The two other men are in custody, it said.
