Photo: Alamy
A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot a woman during an immigration-related operation in Minneapolis on Wednesday after being hit by her vehicle, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said.
Noem told reporters the officer was hospitalized but later released and is recovering with family. “She hit him. He went to the hospital. A doctor did treat him. He has been released, but he’s going to spend some time with his family,” Noem said, according to The Washington Post.
Federal officials defended the shooting as an act of self-defense. “The vehicle was a deadly weapon,” Noem said during a briefing, calling the incident an “act of domestic terrorism,” according to ABC News. “Deadly force is perfectly lawful when a threat is faced by a weapon.”
President Donald Trump backed the officer in a Truth Social post following the incident.
“I have just viewed the clip of the event which took place in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is a horrible thing to watch. The woman screaming was, obviously, a professional agitator, and the woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense,” the president wrote.
“Based on the attached clip, it is hard to believe he is alive, but is now recovering in the hospital. The situation is being studied, in its entirety, but the reason these incidents are happening is because the Radical Left is threatening, assaulting, and targeting our Law Enforcement Officers and ICE Agents on a daily basis. They are just trying to do the job of MAKING AMERICA SAFE. We need to stand by and protect our Law Enforcement Officers from this Radical Left Movement of Violence and Hate!” he added.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz issued a “warning order” activating preparations for the state National Guard while urging residents to respond “peacefully.” The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the FBI are leading the investigation, which state officials described as being in its early stages.
Noem said the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations would continue as planned despite the controversy.
