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By Jake Johnson / Common Dreams
Protests against the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minneapolis intensified late Wednesday after a federal officer shot and wounded a man during a traffic stop.
“Get ICE out of the city!” one resident told Status Coup News as federal agents responded forcefully to demonstrations against their abuses, firing flash bang grenades and chemical munitions at protesters.
🚨BREAKING: ICE unleashes ONSLAUGHT of flash bang grenades and chemical ammunition at unarmed Minneapolis protesters in WAR-LIKE attack. Several protesters struck. Our reporter @zdroberts struck in the head.
— Status Coup News (@StatusCoup) January 15, 2026
"I got hit in the head really bad." LIVE NOW ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/4hlyNeci7s
The latest shooting occurred in north Minneapolis during what the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) called a “targeted traffic stop.” DHS, which has lied repeatedly about the circumstances of ICE-involved shootings in recent days, said in a statement that the latest shooting victim had attempted to evade arrest and hit the pursuing officer “with a shovel or a broomstick.”
The agent shot the man in the leg, and both were later taken to the hospital.
Minneapolis officials responded with outrage to the shooting, which came a week after ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Good.
Jacob Frey, the city’s Democratic mayor, said that “no matter what led up to this incident, the situation we are seeing in our city is not sustainable.”
“This is already the second shooting that we’ve had in a week,” Frey said during a press conference late Wednesday. “People are scared. The atmosphere is tense. But again, there is another option. We can stop going down this route together.”
The Trump administration has only added fuel to the fire, further expanding the presence of federal agents in Minnesota and attacking the state’s officials and residents with increasingly belligerent rhetoric. President Donald Trump wrote on social media earlier this week that “reckoning and retribution is coming” to Minnesota.
Wednesday’s shooting came as ICE agents, often heavily armed and wearing combat gear, continued terrorizing communities in Minneapolis and across the United States, with many incidents captured on video. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said Wednesday that “armed, masked, undertrained ICE agents are going door to door ordering people to point out where their neighbors of color live.”
“At grocery stores, at bus stops, even at our schools, they’re breaking windows, dragging pregnant women down the street, just plain grabbing Minnesotans and shoving them into unmarked vans, kidnapping innocent people with no warning and no due process,” Walz continued.
Minneapolis City Council President Elliott Payne said Wednesday that he was assaulted by ICE officers while lawfully observing them. Payne noted in an interview with the New York Times that ICE agents frequently brandish their weapons to threaten residents.
“This is a military occupation,” said Payne, “and it feels like a military occupation.”
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Jake Johnson
Jake Johnson is a staff writer for Common Dreams.