Chaos in Minneapolis: ICE agent shoots man after traffic chase, protesters vandalize federal officers' cars
A man was shot in the leg Wednesday night during a federal immigration enforcement operation in north Minneapolis, according to the local newspaper Minnesota Star Tribune, writes Reuters. The Department of Homeland Security said both the man and an ICE officer are in the hospital after being “attacked” with a shovel.
According to the Star Tribune, eyewitnesses reported hearing multiple gunshots after a traffic chase involving federal agents.
Minneapolis city officials said on social media platform X that they are “aware of reports of an armed incident involving federal agents in north Minneapolis.”
The news of the new gun incident came a week after a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot and killed a 37-year-old woman at the wheel of her car in a residential Minneapolis neighborhood during a major deportation operation ordered in the city by US President Donald Trump.
The killing of Renee Good, who was part of a volunteer neighborhood patrol network that tracked and monitored ICE activities in the city, sparked a wave of protests in Minneapolis and across the country.
Traffic chase, gunshots fired
After a traffic chase involving federal agents on a Minneapolis freeway, a man pulled over in front of his home on the north side of the city, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the incident, cited by the Star Tribune.
The man's family came out of the house and began fighting with officers using shovels, before one officer shot the man being pursued in the leg.
The Department of Homeland Security said the agent fired “defensive shots.”
“The officer attacked and the suspect are both in the hospital,” said DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin.
According to Trump's favorite Fox News and Sky News, the man is a Venezuelan immigrant targeted by an ICE operation.
“Disgusting and intolerable behavior by ICE”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey accused “disgusting and intolerable behavior by ICE” after the incident, according to Sky News.
“We have ICE agents all over the city and all over our state that, along with border control, are creating chaos,” he says.
He urges protesters to go home, saying: “We cannot fight the chaos created by Donald Trump with our own chaos.”
The protests have rekindled
Wednesday's incident reignited tensions between protesters and law enforcement a week after the killing of Renee Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross.
Crazy footage from CNN in Iran
Sorry, I meant Minneapolis pic.twitter.com/UNNluoBp6H
— Khalissee (@Kahlissee) January 15, 2026
For several hours on Wednesday evening, law enforcement and several hundred demonstrators clashed in the streets, using chemical irritants and sound and light grenades, and at the end of the night some protesters vandalized ICE vehicles.
🚨 BREAKING: MULTIPLE ICE and FBI vehicles have been DESTROYED and LOOTED by rioters in Minneapolis after federal agents were forced to abandon them
Agents gear, laptops, and personal information now LITTER the street
THIS IS ABSOLUTE ANARCHY
INSURRECTION ACT NOW! pic.twitter.com/MZV9Y2J4M1
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) January 15, 2026
The governor accuses an “occupation”
Shortly before news of the new incident emerged, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called on the Trump administration to “end this occupation” during a live speech about the continued increase in the number of federal immigration agents.
Walz also urged Minnesotans to protest peacefully and record federal agents with their phones.
“For a long time, this is no longer an immigration enforcement issue,” Walz said. “Instead, it's a campaign of brutality orchestrated against Minnesotans by our own federal government,” he pointed out.
Trump's threat
The Department of Homeland Security reprimanded Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey for “actively encouraging organized resistance against ICE and federal agents.”
On Wednesday morning, Trump said he would cut federal funding next month for any state that includes sanctuary cities where officials have barred local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement operations.
