By Seth Herald, Jonathan Allen, Joseph Ax and Ted Hesson
MINNEAPOLIS, Jan 14 (Reuters) – A U.S. immigration officer shot and wounded a Venezuelan man fleeing a traffic stop in Minneapolis on Wednesday, the government said, escalating tension over an unwelcome deployment of militarized federal agents in Minnesota’s most populous city.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which is overseeing President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, said the shooting came after two people attacked the federal officer with a broomstick and snow shovel as he wrestled with the Venezuelan, who the DHS said was in the United States illegally.
Protesters hurling rocks, ice and fireworks clashed with law enforcement agents who fired tear gas late into the night following the shooting, which came a week after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Good, a U.S. citizen, in her car in Minneapolis.
Reuters journalists photographed law enforcement officers and demonstrators on dark streets obscured by clouds of tear gas and occasionally illuminated by beams from agents’ headlamps and flashes from crowd-control munitions.
Appearing with Mayor Jacob Frey at a press conference on Wednesday, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara urged crowds he described as “engaging in unlawful acts” near the shooting scene to disperse.
“We do not need this to escalate any further,” O’Hara said.
The DHS accused Frey and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, both Democrats, of encouraging resistance to ICE with “hateful rhetoric,” a contention Frey rejected.
“We cannot counter Donald Trump’s chaos with our own brand of chaos,” the mayor said.
SHOVEL, BROOMSTICK AND GUNSHOTS
The latest shooting unfolded in sub-freezing weather on Wednesday evening when the Venezuelan targeted by federal law enforcement officers in the traffic stop tried to get away and crashed his vehicle into a parked car, before fleeing on foot, according to a DHS statement.
A pursuing officer caught up with the man, who then “began to resist and violently assault the officer,” the DHS said.
As they struggled, two people emerged from a nearby apartment and attacked the officer with a snow shovel and broom handle, it added.
The Venezuelan broke loose and started striking the officer with one of the tools, the DHS said.
The officer, “fearing for his life and safety,” fired and wounded the Venezuelan in the leg, it added.
The wounded man and the other two fled into the apartment where they barricaded themselves before all were taken into custody, the government said.
The officer and the man who was shot were both hospitalized, the DHS said. A person familiar with the situation said the wounded suspect was in stable condition. The condition of the officer was not immediately known.
CITY ON EDGE
The city has been on edge since Good, a mother of three, was shot dead behind the wheel of her car on January 7, during an encounter with ICE agents while taking part in a neighborhood patrol network of activists tracking and monitoring the activities of federal officers.
Opponents of the ICE surge say Good posed no physical threat to officers and they have disputed U.S. government assertions that the agent who shot her feared she was trying to run him over.
Rather than end the ICE surge, as demanded by state and local leaders, the Trump administration said instead it would send hundreds more agents to bolster a force of about 2,000 deployed to the city earlier.
The latest shooting followed days of chaotic clashes in Minneapolis between heavily armed federal agents and civilians they stop in the streets, as well as with activists, such as Good, who have showed up to observe and record such encounters.
The governor himself has encouraged such recordings.
“Help us create a database of the atrocities against Minnesotans, not just to establish a record for posterity, but to bank evidence for future prosecution,” Walz said in a videotaped message posted online on Wednesday.
ICE AGENTS VS COMMUNITY MEMBERS
Agents appear to be conducting roving sweeps and arresting people without warrants, based on resident accounts and videos.
Reuters journalists have documented scores of agents carrying weapons through the icy streets of residential neighborhoods, wearing military-style camouflage gear and masks that cover their faces.
They are often met by residents blowing whistles and shouting at the officers.
On occasion, the agents have smashed car windows and pulled people from their vehicles, videos show.
Some have confronted non-white U.S. citizens, demanding to see their identification before walking away, drawing angry jeers and accusations of racism from bystanders.
The agents have used chemical irritants on protesters, sometimes firing orange pepper spray into faces at close range or igniting flash-bang grenades near groups in the street.
Disputing accusations of misconduct, DHS has said its agents have increasingly been subject to assaults while trying to find and detain immigration violators.
DHS also has rejected accusations of racial profiling, saying arrests are based on reasonable suspicion that individuals lack legal immigration status.
Immigration officers have also arrested U.S. citizens for allegedly disrupting enforcement. Groups of agents have chased protesters, including at least one dressed in a giraffe costume, before wrestling them to the ground to detain them.
LEGAL REFUGEES SWEPT UP
The nonprofit World Relief said dozens of weekend arrests of legal refugees in the state, including children, were part of a Trump effort to re-vet refugees who entered under Trump’s Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden.
Asked about such arrests, the DHS referred to accusations of fraud against members of Minnesota’s Somali community.
“The Trump administration will not stand idly by as the U.S. immigration system is weaponized by those seeking to defraud the American people,” a DHS spokesperson said.
Trump has seized on the fraud accusations, calling Somali immigrants in Minnesota “garbage” whom he wants deported. Administration officials have sought to tie the Minneapolis crackdown to the scandal.
Trump, a Republican, has argued that large-scale surges in Democratic-led cities such as Minneapolis are necessary as authorities there do not sufficiently cooperate with immigration enforcement.
He has threatened to cut off federal funding next month for any state that includes sanctuary cities.
(Reporting by Seth Herald in Minneapolis, Jonathan Allen and Joseph Ax in New York and Ted Hesson in Washington; Writing by Joseph Ax and Steve Gorman; Additional reporting by Andrew Hay, Brad Brooks, Ismail Shakil and Kanishka Singh; Editing by Donna Bryson, Diane Craft and Clarence Fernandez)
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