Hennepin County Sheriff concerned about misinformation, armored vehicles in Tuesday operation

A large federal law enforcement presence drew protests in south Minneapolis on Tuesday. 

As news of the operation spread on social media, people who believed the presence of federal agents was connected to an immigration raid shouted at agents and tried to block tactical vehicles from coming down Lake Street. At one point, some law enforcement officials used a chemical irritant to break up the crowd.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in a statement it was part of a narcotics and money laundering investigation and not related to immigration enforcement.

The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office partnered with federal agencies to carry out the investigation, according to a statement posted on social media.

For more information on what happened, MPR News host Nina Moini spoke with Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt on Minnesota Now.

The following has been lightly edited for length and clarity. Listen to the full conversation by clicking the player button.

What can you tell us about the incident that happened in south Minneapolis yesterday?

I want to reassure the community that the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office is in no way involved with immigration enforcement. Yesterday’s incident was a result of a criminal investigation involving things such as human trafficking, drug trafficking, just to list a couple.

Yesterday’s incident in south Minneapolis was one of several search warrants that were executed in regards to this potentially transnational criminal operation. But again, I want to acknowledge we do know that there’s people in the communities that are fearful because of things that have happened, not just here, but across the nation. So I want to reassure them that again, that this wasn’t an immigration raid. It wasn’t anything about immigration enforcement.

And what I can say as far as the sheriff’s office involvement is that we do have people that work with our federal partners on criminal investigations.

People were circulating photos of different ICE agents or people wearing ICE badges. Can you explain why ICE agents would have been there and in what circumstances you work together?

I think it’s important for people to realize is that [Homeland Security Investigations] is a portion of ICE. So when you look at ICE, they have a civil enforcement, which would typically be immigration enforcement, but they also have a criminal element, like the Homeland Security Investigations that investigate things like human trafficking and things like that.

We’re not responsible for the federal partners, the equipment nor their uniforms. That's part of how they assemble their teams together. I understand why that causes people confusion. Seeing that is very for traumatic for some.

But again, I just want to stress it wasn’t an immigration enforcement. I don't dictate how the federal government uses their task forces or teams or things like that, but I can speak with 100 percent certainty that yesterday’s event was a criminal investigation.

A spokesperson for ICE released a statement saying that the event was the first operation in Minnesota by a new task force and called it a ‘groundbreaking criminal operation.’ Do you know what was groundbreaking about it?

I don’t want to speak for them. I don’t know. I did see the same information that they put out about that team. But I think what is important for your listeners to know is there’s a difference between civil and criminal. And so in that statement where they said “criminal matter,” tells me that that's not an immigration enforcement aspect. It’s the criminal aspect.

We know that Minnesota is one of the corridors for drug trafficking. We do have human trafficking. We have all of these elements, and I think what’s even more important is to realize when we have things that go beyond our county lines, our state lines, our federal partners have to be involved so that we can make sure that we are holding people accountable for preying on some of our most vulnerable communities.

I don’t know a person who is okay with saying that, “Yes, we’re okay with drug trafficking and human trafficking in our communities.” So again, not losing sight of the true reason people were there was because there are things that led to that type of investigation.

Do you know what type of chemical irritants law enforcement was using and who made the decision to use that on people in the crowd?

I can’t speak to, specifically, as to who or what was used, but we are reviewing those things. I don't know again, if it was necessarily even a chemical irritant, but I would want to make sure that if I share that information that I’m accurate. So please excuse me for not having that right here, right now.

We had a photojournalist on the scene who was sprayed by something that made his eyes burn. So you don’t know what chemical irritant was being used?

When we say chemical irritants, could it be pepper spray? I don’t know, and I don’t want to misspeak. What I can say is that this was a dangerous situation as items such as trash cans and other large objects were being thrown at the law enforcement people that were there.

What’s the process going to be moving forward? Is it going to get to this clash point that is violent every time?

I'm only responsible for this agency, but I could tell you there are certain things that we have already discussed, that we have concerns with too, which is why I’ve set up meetings with some of that federal leadership, because that definitely could have been handled better.

What were your concerns?

The amount of cars. The armored vehicle being out there on site for that amount of time, those things trigger fears, and it wasn’t really needed.

So again, I don’t control how they operate, but I do think that we have relationships where we can talk about, “Okay, is there a better way of doing this job?” And that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to have those conversations, but again, I think it‘s important to note that I can't tell them what to do.

Could you pull your agency from an agreement such as this if you felt like the tactics that were being used were too aggressive?

Yes, we always have the option to pull our team back, but also we need to make sure that we’re looking at the big picture. Because it doesn’t matter if it’s a civilian or another law enforcement entity, my job is to keep people safe and so there were some things that happened yesterday that were not safe.

There was actually a time that we did pull back and because the situation continued to escalate, we had to return. I think here, though, we need to remember that everybody who’s involved needs to have accurate information before jumping to conclusions, because some of the misinformation that was being put out there, it actually added fuel to the fire.

But again, I will acknowledge that that could have been done better, and that’s why I’m going to be having those conversations with our partners to let them know, “We here in this community, that us local law enforcement work in, know how to better handle these type of situations.”

What is next in the case that authorities were investigating? When can the public expect any arrests to come out of that?

I don't have an answer for you on that one. One of the things about these criminal investigations, and again, transnational means very large. Yesterday was about collecting evidence that helps with these investigations. It was one of several search warrants that were executed yesterday.

What our detectives do, and our federal detectives do, is they put the case together. We need to make sure that we are careful that the integrity of the case remains solid, and sometimes that hinders on what information can be released. Because the other people that are listening are the very people who are preying on these vulnerable communities, the criminals, the ones who have criminal intent.

So as much as people would like to know what’s going on, sometimes we simply can’t do that, because there’s people who are paying attention, who are hoping that they can get out of this, and it is our job to keep people safe. We’ve already identified victims, spoken with victims who are part of this, and we have to have that focus on the victims.

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