On the ground from the second Minneapolis federal agent shooting

[MUSIC PLAYING] NINA MOINI: Our top story on Minnesota Now. We are following a second shooting involving federal agents in Minneapolis. Last night in North Minneapolis, a federal agent shot and wounded a man who the Department of Homeland Security says was fleeing federal officers. DHS says the officer fired a defensive shot because he was, quote, ambushed and attacked and feared for his life. That happened exactly a week after the deadly shooting of Renee Macklin Good by an ICE agent in South Minneapolis. Here to catch us up on what we know so far is Estelle Timar-Wilcox. Thanks for being here, Estelle.

ESTELLE TIMAR-WILCOX: Good morning.

NINA MOINI: So you went back out to the scene this morning. What does it look like?

ESTELLE TIMAR-WILCOX: Yeah. Well, it's a pretty quiet residential street, and it was pretty quiet this morning. Some investigators with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension were out there around 9:00 AM with a dog checking out the scene. Other than that, just a few folks kind of walking around, scoping it out.

I talked to a few families who live on the block, and they told me they heard the gunshots go off last night. They said the street was crowded with protesters and law enforcement for several hours late into the night, or early into this morning. I talked to Tommy Ross, who lives about half a block away, and he said he noticed the tear gas just filling the air, which law enforcement used to try to disperse protesters.

TOMMY ROSS: When you open the door, you can smell it. The wind wasn't blowing last night like it is now, so it's sitting in the air. This whole street around here was all full with mace and stuff.

NINA MOINI: So what was going on at those protests, Estelle?

ESTELLE TIMAR-WILCOX: Yeah. Well, a crowd of neighbors and protesters gathered at the scene after the first reports of the shooting. People told me it was pretty chaotic. There was some misinformation out there at first about who had been shot, how many people, and tensions were pretty high. But most of the protesters were peaceful. But city officials said some were throwing rocks and fireworks at law enforcement.

Police Chief Brian O'Hara said law enforcement then set off that tear gas to try to get people to disperse. We're hearing reports that it was a lot of tear gas. Our reporters who checked out the scene early this morning said they could still taste it in the air. At a news conference last night, Mayor Jacob Frey urged people to refrain from violence.

JACOB FREY: We cannot counter Donald Trump's chaos with our own brand of chaos. And I have seen thousands of people throughout our city peacefully protesting. For those that have peacefully protested, I applaud you. For those that are taking the bait, you are not helping.

ESTELLE TIMAR-WILCOX: And Frey also renewed his calls for the federal government to end this surge of agents here. He said it's unsustainable and said federal agents are creating chaos. And those protests have calmed down overnight. No updates this morning on whether there were other arrests or anyone else injured.

NINA MOINI: OK, Estelle. What do you about the shooting so far?

ESTELLE TIMAR-WILCOX: Yeah. Well, we have some preliminary information coming from state and federal officials. The Department of Homeland Security said this started when their agents were trying to stop a driver who they say was in the country illegally. He drove off and eventually crashed near the intersection of Lyndale Avenue and 24th Avenue North. He then tried to flee on foot, and an agent chased him, and they got into an altercation.

The DHS says two other bystanders also interfered, allegedly carrying a snow shovel and a broom. And that was when a federal officer shot the man being sought in the leg. DHS says that agent fired out of fear for his safety. The man who was shot ran into a nearby residence and refused to come out. Eventually, federal agents got the man out to an ambulance and into the hospital. DHS says the two other people who got involved were arrested.

And on their part, city officials shared preliminary information last night that aligns with at least some of what DHS reported. Police Chief Brian O'Hara says they found a shovel and a broom at the scene, but said the investigation is ongoing.

And the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said overnight that it's conducting an independent investigation of this latest shooting. They were on the scene last night and then again this morning. And you might remember, federal officials took the BCA off the investigation into the shooting of Renee Macklin Good last week, so that agency's involvement, or lack of, has been a major point of contention in that investigation.

NINA MOINI: That's right. Do we the condition of the man who was shot?

ESTELLE TIMAR-WILCOX: We do not have updates yet this morning. Authorities said last night that his injuries were not life threatening. DHS says the agent was also hospitalized, but didn't say what that agent's injuries were. No updates there, either.

NINA MOINI: OK. President Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act. What can you tell us about that? What are you hearing?

ESTELLE TIMAR-WILCOX: Yeah. The president posted that threat to social media a few hours ago this morning. He characterized people protesting the ICE operations in Minnesota as agitators and insurrectionists and said if local officials can't quell protests, he'll invoke the Insurrection Act, which means sending in federal troops. And he's threatened this before, including during protests in 2020 following the killing of George Floyd, but he's never actually done it. The Act hasn't been used since 1992. So we're continuing to follow that.

NINA MOINI: And we'll have more on the Insurrection Act with an expert in a few minutes. Thank you so much for your reporting.

ESTELLE TIMAR-WILCOX: You're welcome, Nina.

NINA MOINI: I really appreciate it.

ESTELLE TIMAR-WILCOX: Thank you.

NINA MOINI: That's MPR news reporter Estelle Timar-Wilcox. I want to back up a little bit to the scene in North Minneapolis from last night. Dymanh Chhoun is a multimedia journalist at our news partner, Sahan Journal, and he spent the evening in North Minneapolis capturing what was happening there. He's on the line right now to give us some more details. Thank you so much for taking the time, Dymanh.

DYMANH CHHOUN: Yes. I'm over here at the scene and just happy to talk to you and tell you what's going on or what happened yesterday.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. We are really trying to focus on talking with folks who were there in the moment, and so we really appreciate your time and see that you're back out there hard at work again this morning, so thank you. Can you give us just your firsthand account of what you witnessed in North Minneapolis last night? When did you arrive?

DYMANH CHHOUN: I got here a little after 8:15. My boss at Sahan Journal called me, told me when I was at my house, around 7:30. And then I was just like, OK. I got to get ready. I got all my gear and everything in my car. I'm a little nervous. I don't what I'm going to see. When I got here and parked my car, I just noticed that people are mad, angry, and ICE agents, a lot in one spot.

And then I just started doing my job, taking photos and videos using my iPhone. I have two or three camera with me, depending on what kind of scenery or what kind of action happening. I just switch. And so yeah, there was a lot of people all mad and angry and upset. And my job is to capture all that moment.

NINA MOINI: So you arrived shortly after the shooting occurred and the incident occurred, and you were just talking to people in the crowd. And I know you've covered protests here for many, many years, probably more than most people that I know. And you were describing in some of your live videos, just some of-- we've been talking about some of the tear gas and the chemical irritants. How did this compare to other experiences that you have had out at different protest scenes over the years?

DYMANH CHHOUN: This is the worst. I cannot believe I'm even saying this. This is the worst. I never, ever experienced anything like this. I have my gear, my mask, everything on. And they were just going at it nonstop, every corner. And I just cannot believe it. I'm like, what's going on?

NINA MOINI: So when you say, "they," are talking about-- were you witnessing mostly federal ICE officers or Minneapolis Police?

DYMANH CHHOUN: Yes. ICE. Nope, nope, nope. This is federal ICE officers.

NINA MOINI: With the chemical irritants.

DYMANH CHHOUN: This is federal ICE officers. Yes. Different colors. There was one time it was all white. Another time, flash bang. And then another one, white combined with a green color. It's all in my video. You can see it's kind of light green, a little bit blue. I couldn't tell the color because it was at night. But you could see all types of chemical irritant coming out on the street. They're throwing it everywhere. Flash bangs, you could hear. Everything.

I just cannot believe it. And they shot at me too. And so I was just kind of confused. I have a big name tag on me. And I don't know. It's just really scary, to be honest. When you hear me saying this, it is scary. That's at another level. And you've known me for a long time. This is actually scary. What happened yesterday is scary. I cannot believe what happened.

NINA MOINI: So you're back out there this morning for us continuing on in your reporting, and we really appreciate you giving us your firsthand account of what you have seen as you were out last night. Thank you very much, Dymanh.

DYMANH CHHOUN: Yeah, thank you. Thank you for talking to me. Thank you. Bye bye.

NINA MOINI: Bye. That was Sahan Journal multimedia journalist Dymanh Chhoun, Another person who was on the scene last night in North Minneapolis is Democrat State Senator Bobby Joe Champion. The shooting took place in his district. He was live streaming from his phone what was going on at the intersection of 24th and Lyndale Avenue North. He told MPR News Morning Edition host Cathy Wurzer that he thinks the recording is playing an increasingly important role right now.

BOBBY JOE CHAMPION: One of the things I've been pushing people to do is be calm. And number two, for us to document and just make sure that we're able to see what is happening at a scene. We also know that if you don't have objective verification as to what's happening, you can't rely on DHS. You can't rely on them to come out and say exactly what's true and whether there's a notion of transparency.

We saw that with the murder of Renee Good, where we would see video that would say one thing, but then you had DHS say something else happened. So all of it was important to be done in order to make sure that we were keeping the community safe and everyone safe on the scene, because we know, again, there have been wrong narratives.

And the last thing I'll say about this part of it is the videotaping and using your phone has been important because we've seen the federal government say that they're not going to do any investigation in the Renee Good case. And so now, we have our BCA, who was initially supposed to be a part of those investigations. All of a sudden, the federal government says, no, we'll go it alone.

So we're pretty skeptical of ICE and the federal government and not certain that they really have our best interests at heart, and therefore, we have to sometimes use objective information or mechanisms in order to make sure that, if there is a need for an investigation, that there are some things that are preserved.

NINA MOINI: That was Democrat state Senator Bobby Joe Champion.