Minneapolis leaders decry fatal shooting by federal agents (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: They're doing too much, man, and they keep pushing people, you know?

[00:00:19] Speaker 2: Oh, ****. What the ****? They killed my... Did they **** kill that guy or are you **** kidding me, dude? Not again. Are you **** kidding me? That guy's dead. I just saw a video of more than six masked agents pummeling one of our constituents and shooting him to death. How many more residents, how many more Americans need to die or get badly hurt for this operation to end?

[00:00:59] Speaker 1: Yeah.

[00:00:59] Speaker 2: How many more lives need to be lost before this administration realizes that a political and partisan narrative is not as important as American values? How many times must local and national leaders must plead with you, Donald Trump, to end this operation and recognize that this is not creating safety in our city? As you'll hear from Director Sayre in just a second, we have seen these kinds of operations in other places, in other countries, but not here in America. Not in a way where a great American city is being invaded by its own federal government. I'm done being told that our community members are responsible for the vitriol in our streets. I'm done being told that our local elected officials are solely responsible for turning down the temperature. Just yesterday, we saw 15,000 people peacefully protesting in the streets, speaking out, standing up for their neighbors. Not a single broken window, not a single injury. Those peaceful protests embody the very principles that both Minneapolis and America was founded upon. Conversely, the mass militarized force, an unidentified, unidentified agents who are occupying our streets, that is what weakens our country. That is what erodes trust in both law enforcement and in democracy itself. So to everyone listening, stand with Minneapolis. Stand up for America. Recognize that your children will ask you what side you were on. Your grandchildren will ask you, what you did to act to prevent this from happening again. To make sure that the foundational elements of our democracy were rock solid. What did you do to protect your city? What did you do to protect your nation? This is not what America is about. This is not a partisan issue. This is an American issue. This administration and everyone involved in this operation should be reflecting. They should be reflecting right now and asking themselves, what exactly are you accomplishing? If the goal was to achieve peace and safety, this is doing exactly the opposite. If the goal was to achieve calm and prosperity, this is doing exactly the opposite.

[00:03:58] Speaker 1: Thank you.

[00:03:59] Speaker 2: Are you standing up for American families right now, or are we tearing them apart? The invasion of these heavily armed mask agents roaming around on our streets of Minneapolis, emboldened with a sense of impunity, it has to end. This is not how it has to be. So, to President Trump, this is a moment to act like a leader. Put Minneapolis, put America first in this moment. Let's achieve peace. Let's end this operation, and I'm telling you, our city will come back. Safety will be restored. Therefore, we're asking for you to take action now to remove these federal agents.

[00:04:57] Speaker 1: Information that we have, which is very limited, this is a 37-year-old white male who is a Minneapolis resident, and we believe he is an American citizen. We have not been told any official reports of what has led up to the shooting, but we have seen the video that is circulating on social media. Our demand today is for those federal agencies that are operating in our city to do so with the same discipline, humanity, and integrity that effective law enforcement in this country demands. We urge everyone to remain peaceful. We recognize that there is a lot of anger and a lot of questions around what has happened, but we need people to remain peaceful. In the area, we have an unlawful assembly at this time. Minneapolis police have given multiple warnings for the crowd to disperse. We are asking for people to avoid the area and to leave if you are there. We have requested mutual aid from the Minnesota State Patrol and from all our local and county regional partners. We ask everyone to remain calm and to please do not destroy. We are asking for people to remain calm and to please do not destroy. We have requested mutual aid from the Minnesota State Patrol and from all our local and county regional partners. We have requested mutual aid from the Minnesota State Patrol and from all our local and county regional partners.

[00:06:19] Speaker 3: We have requested mutual aid from the Minnesota State Patrol and from all our local and county regional partners. We now have reaction from Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. He said he has spoken with the White House about the incident, which he described as sickening and called for the end of an aggressive immigration enforcement effort. I just spoke with the White House after another horrific shooting, he said, by federal agents this morning. Minnesota has had it. This is sickening, Walz said. He added that, quote, the president must end this operation, pull the thousands of violent, trained officers out of Minnesota now, end quote.

[00:06:53] Speaker 4: Betsy Klein is at the White House there, senior White House reporter. What are you hearing, Betsy? You heard in that press conference a question from a reporter asking the police chief of a point of view coming from the Department of Homeland Security, and he said, you know, point blank, federal authorities are not sharing information with him and his office. So what are you hearing?

[00:07:14] Speaker 5: Well, certainly, Frederica, this is a very fluid and evolving situation. Officials have acknowledged, that to us, we also heard from local officials on the ground who said that it is a quite volatile situation. But we know that President Trump has been briefed, according to a White House official, and the Trump administration is monitoring all of this and the reaction to it extremely closely. I want to call your attention to some notable comments from the mayor of Minneapolis. He said, quote, this is a moment to act like a leader. He was directly addressing the president there. He told him to end this operation, take action now to remove federal, and it comes as there has been somewhat of a shift in tone in recent weeks from President Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance. They have acknowledged in recent days that ICE officers and other federal agents can make mistakes. Now, with that in mind, I want to read to you a good portion of this statement from Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin. She says, quote, at 9.05 a.m. Central Time, as DHS law enforcement officers were conducting a targeted operation, in Minneapolis, against an illegal alien wanted for violent assault, an individual approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9-millimeter semi-automatic handgun seen here. She includes a photo of that handgun, a Sig Sauer. The officers, she goes on to say, attempted to disarm the suspect, but the armed suspect violently resisted. More details on the armed struggle are forthcoming. Fearing for his life and the lives and safety of fellow officers, an agent fired defensive shots. Medics on scene immediately, delivered medical aid to the subject, but was pronounced dead at the scene. The suspect also had two magazines and no I.D. This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement. So certainly from the last sentence of that, no signs of de-escalation at this point from the Trump administration, and it comes as tensions on the ground are so high. This is the third shooting this month by a federal officer. The first, of course, was January 7th. The deadly shooting of Rene Good. There was also, one week later, an ICE agent shot a Venezuelan immigrant who they said was resisting arrest. He had non-life-threatening injuries. And now this situation, as officials on the ground are asking for a cooling of tensions.

[00:09:36] Speaker 4: Yeah, three shootings involving federal authorities, but now the second deadly of those three. Betsy Klein, thank you so much.