The US president targeted Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.
Donald Trump accused Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz on Saturday of "inciting insurrection" after the death of a civilian at the hands of immigration agents (ICE).
"The mayor and the governor are inciting insurrection with their pompous, dangerous, and arrogant rhetoric," the US president wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Trump had previously threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to send troops to Minnesota.
Earlier, the US government had reported that the man who was shot and killed on Saturday by federal agents was armed and "violently resisted" the officers' attempts to disarm him.
"Fearing for his life and the lives and safety of his colleagues, an agent fired defensive shots. Paramedics on the scene immediately provided aid to the subject, but he was pronounced dead at the scene," the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said on X after the shooting.
The US government indicated that the shooting occurred during "an operation in Minneapolis targeting an illegal alien wanted for violent assault."
The man killed by federal immigration agents was 37 years old and had no notable incidents with law enforcement, according to the city's police chief, Brian O'Hara.
"We have identified this person: a 37-year-old white male, a resident of the city. The only interaction we know he had with law enforcement was for traffic tickets, and we believe he was a legal gun owner with a permit to carry," O'Hara explained at a press conference after the Department of Homeland Security, which is responsible for immigration, stated that the victim was armed. The man's death—the second such incident related to large-scale migrant raids in Minneapolis in less than three weeks—was captured on video shared on Facebook, showing half a dozen or more masked officers surrounding a man who is struggling with them and appears to be resisting on the ground.
At one point, one of the officers appears to strike him with the butt of a gun just before another officer opens fire on the individual, who then lies completely still on the ground as the immigration personnel move away.
“We don’t know what happened before the recording that is currently available online. We immediately requested that the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension intervene to conduct an investigation,” O’Hara explained at a press conference.
The police chief said that these officers are already at the scene of the incident, and that he believes FBI agents have also arrived there.
“I think the video speaks for itself,” said O’Hara, who asked the people of Minneapolis to leave the area where the shooting occurred, after the city declared a ban on public assembly and called for no violence or chaos in the city.
The Department of Homeland Security stated today in a press release that the victim was carrying a handgun and several magazines.
According to the statement, during an operation “against an illegal immigrant who was wanted for assault,” a person approached federal Border Patrol agents with a 9mm semi-automatic weapon, which they showed in a photo.
For his part, Greg Bovino, commander of the Border Patrol, explained: “During this operation, an individual approached U.S. Border Patrol agents with a nine-millimeter semi-automatic pistol. The agents attempted to disarm the individual, but he violently resisted. Fearing for his life and the safety of his colleagues, a Border Patrol agent fired defensive shots.”
Bovino noted that paramedics provided medical attention to the subject at the scene, but he was pronounced dead. The suspect was carrying two loaded magazines and had no accessible identification: “This appears to be a situation where an individual was looking to cause as much harm as possible and massacre law enforcement officers.”
The incident comes just over two weeks after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents shot and killed a 37-year-old woman, Renee Good, in her car during their raids on migrants, which have been met with widespread protests by Minneapolis residents.
The large-scale raids in Minneapolis—which saw the arrival of a number of federal agents five times greater than the entire city's police force—were ordered by the Trump administration in early January, after a documentary by a conservative YouTuber brought renewed attention to cases of federal funds being embezzled by daycare centers run by members of the Somali community. EFE
(With information from AFP and EFE)
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