Minneapolis ICE-Involved Shooting Leaves One Dead (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Following breaking news in Minneapolis where city officials confirm a shooting occurred reportedly involving a federal ICE agent and a civilian this morning. You see the live pictures right there. Our Whitney Wild is there on the ground. Whitney, tell us what's happening right now.

[00:00:20] Speaker 2: Dana, we're in the heart of Minneapolis. We're here on East 35th and Portland Avenue and let me show you first, I'll show you who's on scene. This is Mayor Jacob Frye. He's the mayor of Minneapolis. To the side here on the left side of your screen, that is Police Chief Brian O'Hara. There is an enormous law enforcement presence here from multiple different jurisdictions. Our photographer is going to show you what the crowd looks like here, Dana. Mayor Frye is now leaving. I think you're probably starting to hear people yelling to him, but he is now leaving. He had spoken with some people on the edge of the crowd when he first arrived, according to a Manhood video of it. He did not come back to the crowd. Now a crowd is following him down the street, but what you're looking at right now is the law enforcement response here. So you see Minneapolis Police, you see the Hennepin County Sheriff's Department, we've also seen the U.S. Marshals here, we've seen Customs and Border Patrol, but let me bring you up to speed with what we know. As you said, we know that there was a shooting involving federal law enforcement near East 34th Street and Portland Avenue. That was according to the city of Minneapolis. We do not yet know for sure what the extent of any injuries are or what prompted this. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has weighed in, saying my public safety team is working to gather information on an ICE-related shooting this morning. Again, Mayor Jacob Frye is here. This is all in the context of this ramped up immigration enforcement that DHS has been touting. This is the largest immigration crackdown to date, 2,000 agents spread throughout the Twin Cities. This has been going on for a couple of days now. We know that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem was here in the Minneapolis area yesterday. And what we see now is this real peak moment here where, based on our understanding, there was a shooting involving federal law enforcement here, as Governor Tim Walz said, involving an ICE agent. We are learning to, you know, trying to learn as much as we can. But let me just get you, you know, another picture of the crowd here, because this is a city where these George Floyd riots are not far in the rearview mirror. And what I keep hearing from people in this area is they say, if you thought that was bad, this city is about to explode. And so the line that Minneapolis police are towing right now is to try to keep this calm and not inflame the crowd, because they do not want another major eruption. They cannot have a repeat of the George Floyd riots. And so right now what you're seeing is, it is loud, Dana, but this is very controlled. We've seen a lot of flare-ups between the public and law enforcement in Chicago, for example. This is a very controlled scene, although it is noisy. And we're continuing to try to find out more about what happened. But, Dana, that's the latest here.

[00:03:15] Speaker 1: Whitney, you probably can't hear yourself think, because it's so loud there. It's a little hard for us to hear what you're saying, because, obviously, there are a lot of people there who are quite angry. If you can hear me, and perhaps it's too early to know the answer to this, but it sounds like officials are being quite careful when they just say a shooting involving a federal agent. Does that mean that somebody who they were going after, who ICE was going after, was shot? Was there a shootout? Or we don't know.

[00:03:48] Speaker 2: We don't know. We don't know yet. I don't know if you can hear me, but it's starting to get really spicy. So let me give you context of what is going on here. Dana, can you guys hear me? Yeah, we can. I'm going to pull my microphone a little closer to my mouth. OK. That's Police Chief Brian O'Hara. The crowd is really directing their frustration that direction at the moment. People here are really angry. We're hearing them yell at the Minneapolis Police Department. They don't feel like the Minneapolis Police Department is serving the Minneapolis voters, the Minneapolis taxpayers right now. And so, right now, what you're hearing is a lot of anger directed toward the local law enforcement here, even though they were not involved in this shooting, as far as we know, Dana.

[00:04:30] Speaker 1: All right, Whitney. We're going to let you go. Obviously, it is interesting that you're saying that their anger is towards local law enforcement. I would imagine in addition to federal law enforcement, ICE agents in particular. So we're going to let you go. We're going to let you do some reporting. Stay safe. And we will get back to you as soon as you get more. Thanks so much for your terrific reporting, Whitney. DHS has confirmed that an individual has died. The alleged perpetrator was hit and is deceased. ICE officers who were hurt are expected to make full recoveries. Can you fill in the blanks, Priscilla?

[00:05:13] Speaker 3: Yeah, Dana, let's set the scene here. So, in Minneapolis right now, the Department of Homeland Security has surged thousands of agents. There are around 2,000 agents that have been deployed to the state of Minnesota, and there have been ongoing operations, especially in Minneapolis. So that is what has been ongoing in that city and in that area. And this morning, the Department of Homeland Security says that they were conducting what they call these targeted operations. That is to say that they went out to a location, they had a target in mind. Over the course of that operation, according to their statement, ICE officers and one of these violent rioters they're calling weaponized their vehicle. This is according to their statement. And they also go on to say, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers. And they call this an act of domestic terrorism. And they say that is what prompted an ICE officer, who they said was fearing for their life, to fire these defensive shots. And this alleged perpetrator was hit and is deceased. This is according to the Department of Homeland Security. I have asked the Department of Homeland Security if this was a U.S. citizen, because we do not know the status of this individual who was in this vehicle. Now, of course, we have seen in multiple cities that the actions of ICE as they carry out their operations has prompted protesters and rioters at some of these operations. But, generally, I will say, Diana, in talking to my sources over the course of the morning, there are a lot of questions here about these defensive shots the Department of Homeland Security is talking about, because, generally, the policy for ICE officers to use any to shoot would be if the subject poses, quote, an imminent threat of serious injury and or death. So there are a lot of questions here as to what prompted that defensive shot outside of the use of the vehicle. And it is these types of questions that would prompt also an internal investigation at the Department of Homeland Security, typically to try to get the answers as to what exactly unfolded here for there to be a fatal incident that includes Immigration and Customs Enforcement. And, again, it is Immigration and Customs Enforcement that was involved here, according to DHS. Recall that there are multiple agencies that are on the ground doing these Immigration Enforcement operations. And even photos of the scene showed, at least after the fact, that it was both ICE on the ground, as well as local police department and U.S. Border Patrol, which has similarly been deployed to Minneapolis to continue the operation. So we are still trying to seek more answers here, Diana. But, at the outset, what we know is that there was an ICE-involved shooting, that there has been a fatality. We're trying to get what the status of that person was, if they were a U.S. citizen, but, of course, against the backdrop of this massive immigration operation.

[00:07:48] Speaker 1: Priscilla, thank you so much for that reporting. If you out there are wondering, like I am, what's going on with Whitney Wild in Minneapolis, she is fine. She's talking to some of the people there who are pretty exercised.