Minneapolis officials said they have few details about what led federal immigration officials to shoot and kill a man Saturday morning on Nicollet Avenue, and that they have not heard from federal authorities.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said federal officials haven’t shared information with city leaders, and that what police know comes from bystander videos of the shooting.
“Minneapolis Police, as well as our supervisors, our watch commander, responded to the scene,” O’Hara told reporters at a news conference shortly before 12 p.m. “We were not provided any public safety statement around the incident.”
O’Hara added that he and other city officials have, “like thousands of others,” seen video of the incident and that “we do not know what happened prior to the recording that is online right now.”
“I think the video speaks for itself,” O’Hara said.
The shooting occurred about 9:03 a.m. on Nicollet Avenue near W. 26th Street.
O’Hara said Minneapolis police have identified the man, though he declined to share his name. O’Hara described the person killed as a 37-year-old white Minneapolis man who is a U.S. citizen and “lawful gunowner” with a permit to carry firearms. The man’s only known infractions are traffic tickets, he added.
O’Hara said that Minneapolis police, officials from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), Minnesota State Patrol and FBI agents were at the scene collecting evidence in the morning. However, the BCA tweeted that while Minneapolis police requested their presence, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security blocked the BCA from accessing the scene.
“Our agents and crime scene personnel attempted to access the location but were blocked by @DHSgov personnel at the scene,” the BCA tweeted.
Federal immigration agents told Minneapolis police they “were not needed” at the scene to collect evidence, and that they “could leave,” O’Hara said.
“I gave a direct order to ensure that Minneapolis police maintain the scene as well as other state and local law enforcement,” the chief said.
O’Hara added: “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.”
This is the third time this month a federal immigration agent shot a civilian in Minneapolis following the deployment of thousands of federal agents to Minnesota as part of Operation Metro Surge, a targeted immigration enforcement campaign.
ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Good in south Minneapolis on Jan. 7 as she monitored federal immigration enforcement in south Minneapolis. An unnamed ICE agent shot and wounded Julio Cesar Sosa Celis in north Minneapolis on Jan. 14 during a struggle as the agent was trying to apprehend Sosa Celis.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who appeared alongside O’Hara at the city news conference Saturday, again called for the federal government to withdraw Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from Minneapolis.
“We have seen these kinds of operations in other places, in other countries, but not here in America,” Frey said. “Not in a way where a great American city is being invaded by its own federal government.”
Rachel Sayre, the city’s director of emergency management, emphasized that she previously did international humanitarian work in conflict zones in Yemen, Haiti, Syria, Iraq and Ukraine.
“What I’ve seen here is what I’ve seen there — a powerful entity violently and intentionally terrorizing people, making them afraid to go outside so they can’t earn a living, so that kids are forced out of school,” Sayre said. “This has a lasting, generational impact.”
Frey implored President Donald Trump to “act like a leader” and “put Minneapolis and America first in this moment.”
“How many more Americans need to die or get badly hurt for this operation to end?” Frey said. “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?”
O’Hara told protesters at the scene to disperse, calling it an “unlawful assembly.”
“We recognize that there’s a lot of anger and a lot of questions around what has happened, but we need people to remain peaceful in the area,” O’Hara said.
Operation Metro Surge began in early December 2025, and ramped up significantly in early January. The operation has been plagued with several accounts of federal agents arresting U.S. citizens and children, using force against civilian observers, breaking into homes without proper warrants, and racially profiling civilians and off-duty police officers.
