By MPR News Staff

An eyewitness told MPR News that ICE agents gave mixed orders to a driver in south Minneapolis on January 7, with one agent ordering her to drive away from the scene where an ICE vehicle was stuck in a snowbank while another yelled for her to get out of her car as he reached for the door handle.

The scene ended with an agent shooting into the car, killing the woman.

Caitlin Callenson said she was walking down Portland Avenue with her partner when she saw who she assumed were Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

“They tried to zoom their car out of the snowbank but were just stuck,” she said.

She said other ICE vehicles showed up, leading neighbors to believe it might be an ICE enforcement action. People showed up, and some began blowing whistles.

“People in our neighborhood have been terrorized by ICE for six weeks. We want our neighbors safe, and so when we see a group of ICE vehicles, people in the community are showing up and saying, ‘This is not OK,’” she said.

Callenson said one person — the woman who was shot a short time later — drove her vehicle perpendicular to the lanes of traffic on Portland Avenue, south of the ICE vehicles. By that point, Callenson said, the vehicle stuck in snow had been freed.

“Some of them were leaving, and they just went around her, but ICE gave her orders to leave, while at the same time, another ICE person said, ‘Get out of the car,’ and he reached for her door handle. And then there was an ICE agent in front of her vehicle. So it was difficult for her to leave, as she’d been ordered to do,” Callenson said.

“She turned her steering wheel toward the right. The person was grabbing her door handle, the ICE officer who was in front of her vehicle shot once from the front and twice from the side, hitting her maybe three feet away at the max. Because she was shot, and she was already trying to leave, her foot was on the accelerator, and she crashed into a telephone pole.”

After the shooting, Callenson said a neighbor identifying himself as a doctor asked if he could render aid to the woman who shot but was told by ICE agents to stand back. She said emergency responders’ vehicles couldn’t get past ICE vehicles, so firefighters and other first responders had to walk to the injured woman.

Callenson said she saw the ICE agent who fired the gunshots walk away to the north and get in an ICE vehicle.

Callenson and others took videos of the shooting that are now circulating widely online.

“You can see, like, what happened in that video was not self-defense,” she said.

Gov. Tim Walz said that he issued a “warning order to prepare the Minnesota National Guard,” a move he called a heads-up for possible mobilization after an ICE agent shot and killed a woman in south Minneapolis.

ICE says the woman was shot in her car after attempting to run over agents. Mayor Jacob Frey and Gov. Tim Walz are disputing ICE’s version of events.

Walz told reporters that he and others had been warning that the heightened ICE operations in the Twin Cities were a danger to public safety. “Today, that recklessness cost someone their life,” he said, adding that it was “predictable and avoidable.”

He also pleaded for people to protest peacefully and not force a confrontation. “They want a show,” he said of the Trump administration. “We can’t give it to them.”

He added: “To Americans, I ask you this, please stand with Minneapolis.”

Gov. Tim Walz is expected to speak to reporters. On social media, though, he challenged ICE’s version of events and the agency’s claim of self-defense in the shooting and killing of a woman in south Minneapolis.

In a social media post, the governor wrote, “I’ve seen the video. Don’t believe this propaganda machine. The state will ensure there is a full, fair, and expeditious investigation to ensure accountability and justice.”

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension confirmed it is also investigating the shooting.

Briefing reporters Wednesday, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey disputed ICE’s assertion that an agent acted in self-defense in shooting and killing a woman who an ICE spokesperson said attempted to run over agents with her car.

Frey said he’d seen video of the confrontation and said ICE was “already trying to spin this as an act of self-defense. That is bullshit. This was an agent recklessly using power … that resulted in someone dying, getting killed.”

“The narrative that this was done in self-defense is a garbage narrative.”

He did not name the woman but said she was 37 years old.

“We’ve dreaded this moment since the early stages of this ICE presence in Minneapolis,” he added.

Brian O’Hara, the city police chief, said there was “nothing to indicate that this woman was the target of any law enforcement investigation,” adding that she was “in her car and it appears then blocking the street because of the presence of federal law enforcement.”

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, in a statement, said “the presence of federal immigration enforcement agents is causing chaos in our city and making our community less safe. We are demanding that ICE leave the city and state immediately.”

The State Emergency Operation Center has been activated. For reference, this is the multi-agency team that crops up during major incidents. You’ll remember it from the post-George Floyd murder.

Federal authorities say the ICE agent, “fearing for his life” killed the woman during a confrontation.

The ICE statement says, in part: “Today, ICE officers in Minneapolis were conducting targeted operations when rioters began blocking ICE officers and one of these violent rioters weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them—an act of domestic terrorism.

“An ICE officer, fearing for his life, the lives of his fellow law enforcement and the safety of the public, fired defensive shots.

“He used his training and saved his own life and that of his fellow officers.

“The alleged perpetrator was hit and is deceased. Thankfully, the ICE officers who were hurt are expected to make full recoveries.”

The shooting happened a day after the Department of Homeland Security announced that “the largest DHS operation ever is happening right now in Minnesota.”

The agency said it was deploying 2,000 law enforcement officers to the Twin Cities — an escalation of an immigration crackdown that started more than a month earlier.

MPR News contacted both DHS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to confirm the number of agents being deployed to Minnesota. DHS responded with a statement from Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, saying, “While for the safety of our officers we do not get into law enforcement footprint, DHS has surged law enforcement and has already made more than 1,000 arrests of murderers, rapists, pedophiles and gang members.”

Amid the reported surge of federal agents, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was in the Twin Cities on January 6.

Gov. Tim Walz had sharply criticized the federal enforcement effort, raising concerns about both the scale of the operation and the lack of coordination with state officials.

Minneapolis council member Robin Wonsley posted on social media she is on the ground with other council members. The City of Minneapolis X account shared that Mayor Jacob Frey is “demanding ICE to leave the city and state immediately.”

A witness to the shooting in south Minneapolis told MPR News that she saw a federal agent shoot a woman several times.

Emily Heller lives near 33rd and Portland and said she woke up to a commotion outside her home. She said she saw a car blocking traffic on Portland Avenue that appeared to be part of a protest against federal law enforcement operations.

Heller said she heard ICE agents telling the driver, a woman, to “get out of here.”

“She was trying to turn around, and the ICE agent was in front of her car, and he pulled out a gun and put it right in — like, his midriff was on her bumper — and he reached across the hood of the car and shot her in the face like three, four times,” Heller said.

Heller said it appeared the woman then accelerated and traveled about 100 feet before striking a utility pole and some other vehicles. She could be seen slumped over inside her car.

Gov. Tim Walz said his public safety team will share information as they learn more.

“In the meantime, I ask folks to remain calm,” Walz said in the post.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey also confirmed the shooting involved an ICE agent.

“The presence of federal immigration enforcement agents is causing chaos in our city,” Frey said in the post. “We’re demanding ICE to leave the city immediately. We stand rock solid with our immigrant and refugee communities.”