ICE officer shoots woman in Minneapolis Mayor is furious - Trump defends the shooter
An ICE agent has shot and killed a woman in the major US city of Minneapolis. She had allegedly previously tried to ram the officers with a vehicle. The mayor calls this version "bullshit".
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- In Minneapolis, a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer has shot and killed a woman.
- After the incident, hundreds of protesters gathered at the scene.
- The US Department of Homeland Security claimed that the woman had previously tried to kill the ICE officers with her car.
- The mayor of Minneapolis called this account "bullshit" and called on ICE to leave the city immediately.
This article was last updated on January 8, 2026 at 4:50 a.m.
A woman has been shot dead by an officer during a controversial operation by US immigration authorities ICE in the state of Minnesota. While US President Donald Trump defended the shooter, the state's Democratic governor Tim Walz attacked Republican Trump for his governance. "What we're seeing here are the consequences of governance designed to create fear, headlines and conflict," Walz said, adding: "That recklessness cost someone their life today."
Trump has massively tightened his deportation policy in his second term, which will soon last a year. ICE operations are an important part of this, and the agency's raids against migrants, some of which are carried out by masked officers, regularly lead to protests in many Democratic-ruled cities.
This is what is known about the incident so far
According to the police, a 37-year-old woman was in her car blocking a road in the city of Minneapolis in the north of the USA when an ICE officer approached on foot. The car started to move, after which at least two shots were fired. Video footage published on the internet showed the car crashing into a pole in a residential area.
The woman suffered a head injury and was pronounced dead in hospital. Investigations into the incident are ongoing. According to the police, the woman is said to be white. According to the information available so far, there is nothing to suggest that the woman was the focus of the authorities.
The Ministry of Domestic Security announced on Platform X that the woman had attempted to run over emergency services. Kristi Noem, the head of the Department of Homeland Security, spoke of a "defensive" use of firearms to protect officers and bystanders.
Trump defends the shooter
Trump defended the shooter. In a post on his online platform Truth Social, Trump explained that video footage indicated self-defense. At the same time, he blamed a "radical left-wing violence and hate movement" for the escalation, which threatens and attacks security forces and ICE officials on a daily basis.
Trump went on to write that the woman had "violently and willfully" attacked an ICE officer with her vehicle. The officer acted in a life-threatening situation and is now recovering in hospital.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security said the victim had attempted to ram officers from the agency with her vehicle during an immigration raid. The 37-year-old had "weaponized" her car and tried to kill ICE officers.
City contradicts Trump's account
The statements by the president and the Department of Homeland Security contradict the account given by the city of Minneapolis. The Democratic mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, strongly rejected the account of self-defense after viewing video footage, calling the account "bullshit" in a media conference and calling the ICE official "an officer who exercised his power recklessly, which resulted in somebody dying, somebody being killed."
"Having seen the video myself, I want to tell everyone straight up that this is bullshit," said the incensed Frey.
Frey also accused federal authorities of escalating the situation. He called on ICE immigration officials to "leave town immediately." The presence of federal immigration officials was causing chaos in the city, Frey wrote on X. "We stand firmly with our immigrant and refugee communities".
Protests at the scene
Protests erupted at the scene after the deadly incident. Hundreds of people gathered in the afternoon (local time), chanting slogans against ICE and calling for the officers to leave the city. The incident took place in a middle-class residential area in Minneapolis, just under two kilometers from where George Floyd was killed by police in 2020.
An ICE operation in Minneapolis and St. Paul involving more than 2,000 federal agents has been underway for several days, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The aim of the operations is to investigate suspected fraud, including in the Somali community. US media are discussing whether the reason given by the authorities for the operation serves as a pretext for a politically motivated tightening of immigration policy.
Warning of chaos
Gov. Walz called on the public to express their protest peacefully after the shooting, "like you always do." He warned of chaotic situations. "When we see things like this happen - and we saw this after the killing of George Floyd - there are people who want to create chaos."
The killing of George Floyd, a black man, in a brutal police operation in Minneapolis in 2020 sparked demonstrations against racism and police violence in the USA.
