Federal Bureau of Prisons officers on the scene where a federal immigration agent shot a man Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in north Minneapolis. (Photo by Max Nesterak/Minnesota Reformer)

A federal immigration agent shot a man Wednesday evening after a scuffle in north Minneapolis, drawing a crowd of protesters blowing whistles and engaging in minor skirmishes with law enforcement who deployed chemical irritants. 

The shooting comes one week after the killing of Renee Good by federal immigration officer Jonathan Ross in south Minneapolis touched off a wave of protests. 

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said the man who was shot is an undocumented Venezuelan national who was pulled over in a “targeted traffic stop” but ran away. When the officer caught up to him, they got into a fight, after which two bystanders also attacked the officer, according to DHS. 

The weapons used on the federal officer: “a shovel or broom stick,” according to DHS.

“Fearing for his life and safety as he was being ambushed by three individuals, the officer fired a defensive shot to defend his life. The initial subject was hit in the leg,” DHS said. 

Their account couldn’t be confirmed. 

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said in the briefing Wednesday night that at 6:51 p.m., MPD received 911 calls about the shooting. 

The incident began on I-94, O’Hara said, where federal agents were trying to apprehend a man. The man drove towards a house on the 600 block of 24th Avenue North in north Minneapolis, where he crashed the car, ran towards a house and got into a struggle with federal agents when a federal agent shot him. 

The man went into the house and refused to come out; eventually, federal agents entered the house. The man was transported to the hospital. His injuries are not life threatening, O’Hara said. He said he heard there was a snow shovel and a broom on the scene. 

Two videos add details to what happened before and after.

One video, a livestream of a 911 call, suggests that the agent shot at the man as he was trying to escape into the house, which would contradict the Department of Homeland Security account that the federal immigration agent fired a shot defensively. 

Another video, taken by a north Minneapolis resident from across the street and shared with the Reformer, shows federal agents firing numerous times into the house, breaking a second-floor window. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in an email to the Reformer that the agents had fired tear gas, not live rounds.

In the immediate aftermath of the killing of Renee Good, the Trump administration said she was attempting to run over the ICE officer and kill him. But bystander footage shows a chaotic scene with the officer to the side of her car when he shoots her as she seemingly tries to leave.

The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the state agency that investigates law enforcement shootings, was on the scene Wednesday along with FBI agents to process evidence.

It’s unclear if state authorities will be allowed to continue investigating the shooting. The U.S. Department of Justice blocked the BCA from participating in the investigation into the fatal shooting of Good, leading local prosecutors to open their own probe. 

Scores of demonstrators showed up to the scene, shouting expletives at federal agents and telling them to get out of Minneapolis. Federal agents deployed tear gas and flash bangs, while some protesters shot fireworks at law enforcement. At least two people were detained by federal agents after someone threw fireworks at the agents. At least two vehicles believed to be used by federal officers were vandalized. 

O’Hara said the crowd had crossed the line into an unlawful assembly and State Patrol and Hennepin County sheriff’s deputies responded to requests for help with crowd control. 

Mayor Jacob Frey renewed his call for residents to remain peaceful and not “take the bait.” 

“Go home,” Frey said. “We cannot counter Donald Trump’s chaos with our own brand of chaos.”

By 11:30, law enforcement and demonstrators had mostly left the scene, though some remained.

Frey also renewed his call for DHS to end its aggressive operation in the city, which the agency calls its largest operation ever. Minnesota along with the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul filed a lawsuit seeking to force DHS to end its operation, calling it a “federal invasion.” 

The roughly 3,000 federal agents in the state far outnumber Minneapolis’ roughly 600 police officers, who are struggling to respond to 911 calls and investigate crimes on top of near round-the-clock confrontations between federal agents and residents. 

“This is not sustainable. This is an impossible situation that our city is presently being put in,” Frey said. 

Shawn Jackson was parked nearby the scene with his kids in the car. A law enforcement agency — unclear which one — set off flash bangs that detonated the airbags in his car. Officers then sprayed tear gas. The Minneapolis Fire Department took the children — including a baby suffering breathing problems, Jackson’s mother said — to the hospital. 

“They out of control,” Jackson said. 

Patricia Abrams was driving past with her sister when they saw the commotion and stopped. 

She told the Reformer that the ICE incursion into Minnesota is illegal and should end.

“The public should know to get these motherf*cking ICE people outta here. They over here illegally trying to lock immigrants up. B*tch, y’all over here illegally — excuse my French — y’all here illegally trying to lock people up.” 

She added: “D’f*ck’s wrong with you?” 

Local and state politicians were also on the scene: Rep. Mohamud Noor, DFL-Minneapolis, and Minneapolis council members including Elliott Payne, Jason Chavez, Aisha Chughtai and Jamal Osman. 

The shooting happened just moments before Gov. Tim Walz made a statewide address encouraging Minnesotans to record federal immigration actions, promising that “accountability is coming” for abuses by federal officers.

Local police officers stand guard as Renee Good's car is towed away after ICE officers shot and killed a woman through her car window Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026 near Portland Avenue and 34th Street. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)

The Trump administration made its opinion known almost immediately after an ICE agent shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis on Wednesday: The officer acted heroically in defending himself from Renee Nicole Good, who was intent on running him over with her Honda Pilot in an act of “domestic terrorism.”

“The officer, fearing for his life and other officers around him and the safety of the public, fired defensive shots. He used his training to save his own life and that of his colleagues,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a news conference in Minneapolis.

A jury might very well disagree after seeing footage of the incident, like Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey who called ICE’s claim of self-defense “bullsh*t.”

But the Trump administration seems intent on blocking local prosecutors from even bringing charges against the ICE officer, who the Star Tribune identified as Jonathan Ross.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office took the unusual step soon after the shooting of ousting the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension from the investigation into the killing.

The BCA typically investigates police shootings in the state, and was on the scene in south Minneapolis on Wednesday collecting evidence as part of a joint investigation with the FBI.

Then the U.S. Attorney’s Office “reversed course” and decided the investigation would be led solely by the FBI, said Drew Evans, BCA superintendent, in a statement.

“Without complete access to the evidence, witnesses and information collected, we cannot meet the investigative standards that Minnesota law and the public demands,” Evans said. “As a result, the BCA has reluctantly withdrawn from the investigation.”

Gov. Tim Walz during a Thursday press conference expressed doubt about the results of any investigation conducted by the federal government because Minnesota officials have been purposefully excluded.

“Now that Minnesota has been taken out of the investigation, it feels very, very difficult that we will get a fair outcome,” Walz said. “People in positions of power have already passed judgment … and told you things that are verifiably false.”

If federal investigators don’t share their findings with local prosecutors, they’ll struggle to put together a case to bring charges, said former Acting U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Anders Folk, who brought federal charges against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for killing George Floyd in 2020.

“I don’t know how any prosecutor could make a charging decision without facts,” Folk said. “The local authorities are going to have to figure out a way to do their own investigation if they want to be able to evaluate whether a criminal charge can be brought.”

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, who has jurisdiction in Minneapolis, said in a statement on Thursday that her office is searching for a way for a state level investigation to continue.

“If the FBI is the sole investigative agency, the state will not receive the investigative findings, and our community may never learn about its contents,” Moriarty said in a statement.

The FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office did not respond to requests for comment.

A spokesperson for U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, who will make charging decisions based on the FBI investigation, pointed the Reformer to a post on X when asked if she has commented on the case and if she believes the use of force was justified.

“Obstructing, impeding, or attacking federal law enforcement is a federal crime. So is damaging federal property. If you cross that red line, you will be arrested and prosecuted. Do not test our resolve,” the post says.

Who might do a local investigation is unclear. Folk, who is now running for Hennepin County attorney, said he’s not aware of any cases of officers shooting someone in Minnesota in which the BCA was not involved.

“They are the law enforcement organization that we as Minnesotans look to do this kind of investigative work,” Folk said.

If the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office is able to complete a criminal investigation and file charges, they face another difficult task: convincing a federal judge that the ICE officer was not acting reasonably in carrying out his lawful federal duties.

If state charges are filed, the officer will likely ask to move his case to federal court to assert immunity under what’s known as the Supremacy Clause, which protects federal officials from state criminal prosecution if they are reasonably carrying out their duties. Attorneys with the Department of Justice may then assist with his defense.

Whether the officer’s actions are deemed reasonable could hinge on a range of facts from his training to his duties to his subjective beliefs and the U.S. Supreme Court has provided only minimal guidance on how to answer that question, according to Bryna Godar, a staff attorney with the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School.

Still, she emphasized local prosecutors can and have brought charges against federal officials.

“The baseline understanding here is that states can prosecute federal officials when they violate state criminal laws,” Godar said.

If state prosecutors convince a federal judge the officer’s actions were not reasonable, they could continue bringing the case in federal court on state crimes. That’s significant because a conviction for a state crime cannot not be pardoned by the president.

Godar points in a recent article to cases going back to antebellum, when free states charged U.S. marshals for capturing enslaved people under the Fugitive Slave Act. During the Prohibition Era, local prosecutors charged federal officers for using excessive force in shutting down distilleries.

More recently, local prosecutors in Idaho brought a charge of involuntary manslaughter against an FBI sniper who shot and killed an unarmed woman during the siege on Ruby Ridge in 1992. A divided federal appeals court ruled that the case could proceed because of disputed facts over whether the agent acted “reasonably.”

“Where we see those state prosecutions going ahead is where the use of force is deemed unreasonable or excessive or unlawful,” Godar said.

But that case may offer a cautionary tale for Minnesota: The case wasn’t allowed to proceed until 2001, nearly a decade later. Then the case was dropped by the newly elected prosecutor.

Good’s killing was the ninth shooting by an immigration officer in just the past four months and at least the second killing, with all of them involving firing at people in vehicles, according to a New York Times report. On Thursday, federal agents shot two more people in Portland, Ore.

In each of the recent ICE shootings, the government has claimed the officer was acting in self-defense.

A 2024 investigation by The Trace and Business Insider found in 23 fatal shootings by ICE officers from 2015 to 2021, no officers were indicted.

Minnesota prosecutors have won convictions in recent years against officers for killing people in the line of duty — Chauvin, Kim Potter and Mohamed Noor — but they are rare and juries are generally reluctant to convict.

Yet even if a conviction seems unlikely, filing charges allows local prosecutors to register a strong protest against ICE’s aggressive enforcement actions in the state and communicate that officers may not operate with impunity. Not charging would be an admission that federal agents are immune from local accountability as the Trump administration pushes for mass deportation.

Folk said a transparent investigation with clear standards is also important for the public’s faith in the justice system.

“Minnesota has seen firsthand how important it is to do these high-profile investigations the right way,” Folk said. “We deserve a good, thorough investigation, free of any kind of influence.”