President Trump said that the woman fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent during operations in Minneapolis “violently, willfully and viciously” ran over the agent.
The president said a witness to the incident, a woman screaming at ICE officers, was a “professional agitator.”
“It is a horrible thing to watch. The woman screaming was, obviously, a professional agitator, and the woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently willfully and viciously ran over the ICE officer, who seems to have shot her in self-defense,” Mr. Trump said Wednesday on Truth Social, attaching a video clip of the incident.
“Based on the attached clip, it is hard to believe he is alive, but is now recovering in the hospital,” Mr. Trump wrote. “The situation is being studied in its entirety but the reason these incidents are happening is because the radical left is threatening, assaulting and targeting our law enforcement agents on a daily basis.”
A 37-year-old woman was fatally shot during an ICE raid. ICE’s activities in the city have sparked heavy criticism and protests in the city, which became a flashpoint six years ago following the death of George Floyd.
Videos of the shooting show the woman being approached by ICE agents and then driving her car away from them as she is shot. The car then crashes into nearby cars.
SEE ALSO: ICE officer kills protester; DHS says woman tried to run down federal agents
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said the woman, who has not been identified, was attempting to run over law enforcement officers when she was shot. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has disputed that account, saying that the actions were not in self-defense.
“This was an agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying — getting killed,” Mr. Frey said at a press conference.
Minneapolis police said preliminary information indicates that she was in her car and blocking the road. Police said when a federal law enforcement officer approached her on foot, the vehicle began to drive off and shots were fired.
Mr. Trump has long railed against what he views as leftist “professional agitators.” In September, the president said those who protested his dinner in downtown Washington to underscore the city’s new safety numbers should be put in jail. He also accused professional agitators of disrupting ICE operations in Los Angeles last summer.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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