Transcript · Minneapolis City
Minneapolis CityTranscriptThursday, January 15, 2026
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[0:00] Tonight, we're here to give an update on the ICEshooting that took place earlier tonight on the North side.
[0:07] This is the second in a week.
[0:10] The Chief will be able to provide some details on the limited amountthat we know thus far,
[0:16] and then I will provide some comments thereafter.
[0:18] Chief.
[0:22] My name is Brian O'Hara.
[0:23] B-R-I-A-N, O-apostrophe-H-A-R-A.
[0:27] I am the Minneapolis Police Chief.
[0:30] At 6:51 p.m., Minneapolis Police received a 9-1-1 callreporting a shooting on the 600 block of 24 Avenue North.
[0:39] Preliminary information indicates that there was a strugglewith a federal agent in front of the residence.
[0:45] During the struggle,the federal agent discharged his weapon, striking one adult male.
[0:51] The adult male then retreated inside of the residence,where he remained inside and refused to come out.
[0:59] Eventually, federal agents
[1:00] made entry into the residence, and the individual was broughtto an ambulance, where he has been transported to the hospital.
[1:07] Minneapolis Police have secured the crime scene around the location,and the Minnesota Bureau
[1:12] of Criminal Apprehension,as well as the FBI, are on the scene processing the evidence.
[1:18] There's a crowd gathered in the area,and we have called for mutual aid from the Minnesota State Patrol.
[1:23] And Hennepin County Sheriff. The crowd is engaging in unlawful acts,they have thrown
[1:29] fireworks at police officers, and in multiple times,gas has been deployed.
[1:35] Police are attempting to disperse this unlawful assembly at this time.
[1:40] I urge anyone that is at the scene to leave immediately.
[1:44] This is already a very tense situationand we do not need this to escalate any further.
[1:50] I have faith that the investigators that are involved
[1:53] will follow every lead in this case and ensure it iscompleted to its logical conclusion.
[2:08] There's still a lot
[2:09] that we don't know at this time,but what I can tell you for certain is that this is not sustainable.
[2:16] This is an impossible situation that our city is presently being put in.
[2:22] And at the same time, we are trying to find a way forward to keep
[2:27] people safe, to protect our neighbors, to maintain order.
[2:34] And we're in a position right nowwhere we have residents that are asking the very limited number
[2:40] of police officers that we have, to fight ICE agents on the street.To stand by their neighbors.
[2:50] We cannot be at a place right now in America
[2:56] where
[2:56] we have two governmental entitiesthat are literally fighting one another.
[3:02] Why are we put in this position?
[3:05] We're put in this positionbecause we have approximately 600 police officers in Minneapolis,
[3:12] far fewer that are able to work at any given time.
[3:16] And there are approximately 3000 ICE agents in the area. 3000.
[3:23] The 600 police officers that we have are charged onany given day with investigating crime,
[3:30] stopping homicides from taking place, preventing carjackings.
[3:34] That's the work of a police officer in a city.
[3:39] Meanwhile, we have ICE agents throughout our cityand throughout our state who,
[3:45] along with border control, are creating chaos.
[3:51] This is not the path that we should be on right now in America.
[3:56] Thankfully, there's another path, and I want to talk to everybodywho's out there, even people who aren't living in Minneapolis right now.
[4:06] Maybe you just put your kids to bed.
[4:08] Maybe you're cleaning up the dishes.
[4:11] I'm sure you love your family.
[4:14] There's no doubt in my mind that you love your town.
[4:17] Imagine if that city or that town was suddenly invaded
[4:22] by thousands of federal agentsthat do not share the values that you hold dear.
[4:30] Imagine if your daily routines were disrupted.
[4:33] The local cafe that you eat at was shut down because they'rescared that their own family might get torn apart.
[4:42] Imagine if schools shut downand suddenly parents got to figure out what to do for daycare.
[4:48] This is not creating safety.
[4:52] It's certainly not creating safety
[4:54] when a huge percentage of the shootings that have taken placeso far this year in Minneapolis have been by ICE.
[5:03] So let's be very clear.
[5:06] I've seen conduct from ICE that is disgusting and is intolerable.
[5:12] If it were your city, it would be unacceptable there too. And for anyone
[5:17] that is taking the bait tonight, stop.
[5:23] That is not helpful.
[5:25] Go home.
[5:27] We cannot counter Donald Trump's chaos with our own brand of chaos.
[5:32] And I have seen thousands of peoplethroughout our city peacefully protesting.
[5:38] For those that have peacefully protested, I applaud you.
[5:42] For those that are taking the bait, you are not helpingand you are not helping the undocumented immigrants in our city.
[5:50] You are not helping the people that call this place home.
[6:00] ICE can leave and this massive deployment can come to an end.
[6:05] We have filed litigation to hopefully make it so,and at the same time, I'm deeply concerned
[6:12] that we don't have that kind of time.
[6:15] This is already the second shooting that we've had in a week.
[6:19] People are scared, the atmosphere is tense.
[6:23] But again, there is another option.
[6:25] We can stop going down this route together.
[6:29] We'll open it to any questions.
[6:30] I just want to see, that there were some rumorsthat were circulating on social media
[6:34] that a pregnant woman,and possibly a 12 year old boy were involved in this.
[6:38] Is that true or not true at all?
[6:42] So there were reportsinitially that there was more than one person shot.
[6:47] That is not true. There is one person that's been shot.
[6:50] It is a non-life-threatening injuryand they have been transported to the hospital.
[6:54] The remainder of the residence has been cleared.
[6:57] We did have one call
[7:01] of, I
[7:02] believe, a woman having an anxiety attack,in the basement of the same residence.
[7:08] The same building.
[7:10] - But to my understanding, no one else has been transported to the hospital.- And no children involved in this?
[7:15] To my understanding, no.
[7:17] DHS has said that two other people came out of an apartmentand started attacking the officer with shovels,
[7:22] and that the original person that they were looking for also did that.
[7:25] What has your investigation told you so far?
[7:28] So the question was, that people had come out of the residenceand attacked federal law enforcement with shovels.
[7:36] The understanding that we have at this timeis that this incident began on 94.
[7:42] The individual drove towards the residence, had some sort of accident
[7:48] outside the residence, ran towards the houseand got into a struggle with federal law enforcement.
[7:56] There is, I believe there's a broom and like, a snow shovelthat's on the scene.
[8:02] And, yes, I have heard information that, that some individual,at least one person may have assaulted federal law enforcement.
[8:12] - Yes.- Okay.
[8:13] - Will MPD be...- I am not aware if that's the same person who was shot or if that's someone else.
[8:19] Will MPD be doing its own investigation of what happened?
[8:22] The question was, will MPD be doing an investigation of what happened?
[8:27] I requested the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal InvestigationCriminal Apprehension to respond, and they are on scene.
[8:34] And you were saying that there was unlawful protestingthat happened tonight.
[8:37] - Can you can you be a little bit more specific?- The question was about unlawful protesting.
[8:44] It has absolutely become an unlawful assembly.
[8:47] There are individuals throwing fireworks at police officers, individualsthrowing ice, rocks, other projectiles at police officers.
[8:58] It is well past the line and people need to leave.
[9:02] What kind of communication,if any, have you had with federal law enforcement tonight?
[9:07] The question was, communication with federal law enforcement tonight.
[9:11] That communication was all on the scene.
[9:14] It was primarily related to trying to ensure
[9:17] that we were getting medical aid,because we had, a report of a shooting and then also to try and ensure
[9:24] that we could maintain the integrity of the crime sceneso that there could be an investigation into what occurred.
[9:29] Do you know what the condition of the person shot is?
[9:32] And, we're also told that agent was injured and taken to the hospital.Do you have any updates on either condition?
[9:36] I have no updates on either condition.
[9:39] It's my understanding that this is a non-life threatening gunshot wound.
[9:42] And can you talk about, anything you know about that initial start stop?
[9:46] It started on 94. That initial chase, if you will.
[9:50] And anything you know about the person that they were following.
[9:53] So I know nothing about the person that they were following.
[9:57] And then the rest of the question was about the initial chase.
[10:00] It's my understanding that we have some other 9-1-1 call indicating that,
[10:07] someone from the house was calling
[10:09] saying that the person in the car was running from ICEand was driving towards the residence.
[10:15] That's my understanding.
[10:17] Could Mayor Frey respond to criticismthat local officials are contributing to rising rhetoric.
[10:25] And that's part of the reason why
[10:28] we're seeing, as DHS says,just protesters behaving in this sort of way.
[10:37] So the question was, can I respond to rhetoric?
[10:40] DHS says that there is rhetoric from local officials,that they say has just kind of,
[10:47] taken up the temperature of everything that's going on in Minneapolis.
[10:51] So the question was, there has
[10:56] been the accusation that local officials have,perhaps taken up the temperature in Minneapolis.
[11:04] At first, I'll say, show me a single placewhere I have encouraged anything other than peace.
[11:11] Show me a single place where we have encouraged violence.
[11:15] I have said from the get-go, to people in Minneapolis,do not take the bait.
[11:20] We are better than that.
[11:23] I have encouraged peaceful protest, and I will say it again, I am inspired
[11:28] by the tens of thousands of people who have, in fact,peacefully protested and fairly documented with transparency
[11:37] what is taking place. That is allowed in any city in the country.
[11:40] And I have made it clear that to the extent people are going beyond that
[11:46] and those protests are not peaceful, and the violencethat the Chief mentioned, it's got to stop and you got to go home.
[11:55] - Two more questions.- If this situation is not sustainable, as
[11:59] you said a few minutes ago, where do you go from here?
[12:02] - What options do you as Mayor have from this point forward?- Yep.
[12:08] So just
[12:09] yesterday or the day before?
[12:11] I'm losing track of the days here.
[12:15] Minneapolis, along with Saint Pauland the Attorney General's Office at the State, filed a lawsuit.
[12:22] That lawsuit outlinedthe duress that our city is presently experiencing
[12:27] and how making people safe in our cityis made all the more difficult based on the presence of ICE.
[12:35] We are hopeful that we will succeed ultimately in that lawsuit.
[12:39] Of course, my concern
[12:44] is that yet another shooting will take place.
[12:46] Yet another person will be injured or killed.
[12:50] This is not a new concern.
[12:51] The Chief and I have been laying this concern outfor well over a month at this point.
[12:56] This is not sustainable.
[12:59] Our officers, they are working tirelessly
[13:04] Again,
[13:05] we have about 600 officers. There's about 3000 ICE agents and border control.
[13:11] We need our officers responding to the basic day to day 9-1-1 calls.
[13:15] We don't have the capacity to both deal with that. And,
[13:20] all of this conduct that we're seeing from ICE on the daily basis.You know, earlier today
[13:27] and yesterday,I was out on a couple of major commercial corridors in our city.
[13:34] People are scared.
[13:38] You know, there's
[13:40] basic rights that you should have to be able to live safely
[13:43] in your neighborhoodto be able to go downstairs and head to the cafe or the flower shop.
[13:50] The people that would normally keep up these shops,American citizens, by the way many of them, are terrified,
[13:59] because American citizens are getting picked up off the streetby people in masks.
[14:05] That's not the way things should be conducted in any city in America.That's not who we are.
[14:10] That's not America.
[14:11] So I'm calling for peace.
[14:14] Everybody has a role in achieving that peace.
[14:18] And we're going to try to do everything that we can to keep it.
[14:20] - Last question.- Have you been in touch with Governor Walz this evening?If so, what was he had to say?
[14:25] Yes. Our office,
[14:27] yes, is in touch with the Governor'sOffice, as we've been for the last week here.
[14:34] He has been an excellent partner,in both ensuring that we have additional resources
[14:41] through the Minnesota State Patrol, through the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
[14:49] And that work will be done in partnership.
[14:51] - Thanks, everybody.- We’ll have more information tomorrow.