Minneapolis Leaders Call for Inquiry After Fatal Shooting (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: To ICE, get the fuck out of Minneapolis. We do not want you here. Your stated reason for being in this city is to create some kind of safety and you are doing exactly the opposite. There's a lot of information that is swirling around right now. We collectively are gonna do everything possible to get to the bottom of this. To get justice and to make sure that there is an investigation that is conducted in full but what we do know is that a 37-year-old woman is dead and that she was shot by ICE. We've dreaded this moment since the early stages of this ICE presence in Minneapolis. Not only is this a concern that we've had internally, we've been talking about it. They are not here to cause safety in this city. What they are doing is not to provide safety in America. What they are doing is causing chaos and distrust. They're ripping families apart. They're sowing chaos on our streets. And in this case, quite literally killing people. So they are already trying to spin this as an action of self-defense. Having seen the video of myself, I wanna tell everybody directly, that is bullshit. This was an agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying, getting killed. As soon as it happened and we learned of the incident, we had several priorities. The first, of course, was to get the victim to the hospital and to get care as soon as possible. To the family, I'm so deeply sorry. There's nothing that I can say right now that's gonna make you or your relatives, friends of the victim feel any better. There were, I believe, two Minneapolis police officers that responded and were in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. The second was to get ICE off of the scene. There were dozens, if not hundreds, of ICE and federal officers that were there at the time. Having them there was only causing more chaos. Having them there was only making a difficult situation even more problematic, and one that, yes, they created themselves. There's little I can say, again, that'll make this situation better, but I do have a message for our community, for our city, and I have a message for ICE. To ICE, get the fuck out of Minneapolis. We do not want you here. Your stated reason for being in this city is to create some kind of safety, and you are doing exactly the opposite. People are being hurt. Families are being ripped apart. Long-term Minneapolis residents that have contributed so greatly to our city, to our culture, to our economy, are being terrorized, and now somebody is dead. That's on you. And it's also on you to leave. It's on you to make sure that further damage, further loss of life and injury is not done. We're gonna be working towards justice as quickly as we possibly can right now, and justice is what we've all gotta get. Next, a message to our community. Look, we all know that the agenda of this Trump administration is to create chaos. Let us respond right now with our best versions of self. This is a moment where all of us, in Minneapolis and beyond, we can rise to the occasion. We can show them who we are. We can show them the kind of courage, bravery, love, and compassion that we have for each other. We can show them the kind of bravery, love, and compassion that makes Minneapolis, Minneapolis, and that makes America, America. We are better than a bunch of ICE agents being deployed to cities around the country and ripping apart families and communities. We're better than that. And so we are going to meet that hate with love. We are going to meet that despair with hope. We are going to meet that injustice with constitutional justice ourselves. And we're gonna make sure that in this very difficult moment, we do not take the bait that these ICE agents are trying to create and that the federal government, to be clear, wants. They want us to respond in a way that creates a military occupation in our city. They want an excuse to come in and show the kind of force that will create more chaos and more despair. Let's not let them. Let's rise to this occasion. Let's show them something far more beautiful than the kind of division that they're trying to stoke. Let's show them unity of purpose, of love, and the courage of our conviction. Our conviction, to be clear, is rock solid, and it is for our neighbors, all of our neighbors. It's for people who have lived here for 80 years. It is for new immigrants who have made this city a better place. That's the kind of love that we're gonna show up with right now. If you're angry, I get it, I am too. If you're feeling that kind of despair, it's understandable. Let's show them who we can be. Let's show up with peace, to march, to protest, to hug one another, to love all the way with peace. Do not give them what they want. Finally, we've got a lot of work that needs to happen right now to make sure that first, of course, the scene was secured as much as possible, that we were able to get the victim now deceased to the hospital. We've got a lot of work to do in the coming days. I wanna thank our city enterprise for the work that they have done, but more importantly, what they're about to do, because this is gonna be heavy and our city has been through a lot. We also know that we're prepared to do right for people. Among them is our chief of police, and I'll invite him up.

[00:07:31] Speaker 2: My name is Brian O'Hara, B-R-I-A-N-O-apostrophe-H-A-R-A. I am the Minneapolis police chief. This morning, Minneapolis police officers received a report of federal law enforcement being involved in a deadly force incident, meaning shots had been fired. Minneapolis police officers responded to the scene. We arrived and found a woman with a gunshot wound to the head. Life-saving measures were performed at the scene, including CPR. The woman was transported to Hennepin County Medical Center, where she has since been pronounced deceased. The preliminary information that we have indicates that this woman was in her vehicle and was blocking the roadway on Portland Avenue, midway between 33rd Street and 34th Street in the city. At some point, a federal law enforcement officer approached her on foot and the vehicle began to drive off. At least two shots were fired. The vehicle then crashed on the side of the roadway. Minneapolis police officers secured the crime scene and assisted in trying to preserve the evidence that is there. We have since turned over the scene, both to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which will be conducting an investigation into this use of deadly force. I wanna thank the mayor, city council president, other members of the city council, state legislators that were on the scene. This has been a very difficult time for everyone in the city. And this is obviously a very, very tragic situation where a woman has lost her life. That being said, in addition to this tragedy, which unfortunately, we did predict, we were seriously concerned about further escalation from the scene. And I wanna thank the elected officials that came themselves to help us prevent that from happening, as well as the individuals on that scene that remained peaceful. And that abided by law enforcement instructions so that we could preserve that scene and ensure that a full and transparent investigation can take place. That being said, I just echo the mayor's comments that we ask that the community continue to call for peace. We understand people are going to be upset about what happened, and people are going to want to exercise their First Amendment rights. But please do so safely and lawfully to ensure that we do not have any further tragedy in this city or destruction. Thank you.