“A 37-year-old white male 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 license to carry them,” said city Police Chief Brian O’Hara
The individual who was shot dead by agents from the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) this Saturday in the American city of Minneapolis is a 37-year-old white man who apparently had a license to carry weapons and had no criminal record, according to the city’s police chief, Brian O’Hara.
“We identified this person: a 37-year-old white male resident of the city. The only interaction we know he had with law enforcement was over traffic tickets and we believe he was a legal gun owner with a license to carry them,” O’Hara explained at a press conference, after the Department of Homeland Security, responsible for immigration, stated that the victim was armed.
The man’s death — the second incident of its kind linked to the massive migrant raids in Minneapolis in less than three weeks — was captured in a video shared on Facebook, which shows six or more masked officers surrounding a man who struggles with them and appears to resist on the ground.
At one point, one of the officers appears to strike him with the butt of a gun, shortly before another officer opens fire on the individual, who remains completely motionless on the ground as the immigration officers walk away.
“We do not know what happened prior to the recording that is available on the internet at this time. We immediately asked the Minnesota Department of Criminal Investigation to intervene to conduct an investigation,” O’Hara explained at a press conference.
The police chief assured that these officers are already at the scene of the incident and that he believes that FBI agents have also arrived there.
“I think the video speaks for itself,” said O’Hara, who urged the people of Minneapolis to leave the area where the shooting occurred after the city declared the right to assembly prohibited and asked not to resort to violence or chaos in the city.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that the victim was carrying a handgun and several magazines. According to the text, during an operation “against an illegal immigrant wanted for robbery,” a person approached federal Border Patrol agents with a 9mm semi-automatic weapon, which was shown in a photo.
The incident occurred just over two weeks after ICE agents shot and killed a 37-year-old woman, Renee Good, in her car during a migrant raid that was the target of mass protests by Minneapolis residents.
The large-scale raids in Minneapolis — which saw the arrival of a number of federal agents five times the city’s entire police force — were ordered by the Trump administration in early January, when a conservative YouTuber’s documentary once again brought into focus cases of federal funds embezzled by daycare centers run by members of the Somali community.
*EFE
