Anti-ICE protesters violently swarmed a Minneapolis hotel where they believed federal officers were staying, hurling items at people inside, smashing its windows, and graffitiing “F–K ICE” across the building’s facade Sunday.
The large mob descended on the Home2 Suites by Hilton Hotel late Sunday night, as tensions gripped the Twin Cities just one day after Border Patrol agents shot and killed protester Alex Pretti, 37, in Minneapolis.
They shoved and hurled objects at a Minneapolis Police Department officer and others just inside the hotel’s lobby and attempted to push their way in — forcing those inside to use two large vending machines to physically block the rowdy demonstrators.
“We’re all locals, it’s all locals!” one man shouted as he tried to ward the protesters away. “You guys are doing this for no reason,” he added.
The protesters also banged on trash cans, slammed snow shovels, blew whistles, stomped, yelled and shone strobe lights on the hotel’s facade in an attempt to disturb the federal officers they believed were sleeping inside.
Several turned to vandalism, smashing the windows of the hotel and scrawling “ICE OUT,” “F–K ICE” and “ICE KILLS” across its facade. Debris and trash littered the hotel’s lobby following the madness.
Swarms of heavily armed federal agents later arrived at the scene, spilling out of an armored vehicle. They quickly deployed tear gas and flash bangs to disperse the crowd.
“The Minnesota State Patrol and DNR [Department of Natural Resources] were called to assist Minneapolis police with damage to hotel property at Home2 Suites Hotel on University Avenue,” the Minnesota Department of Public Safety said in a statement on X just before 11 p.m. local time.
“While they collaboratively worked to encircle the group for arrests because the demonstration was not peaceful, federal agents arrived without communication and deployed chemical irritants, clearing the group. The State Patrol and DNR are no longer on the scene.”
One federal agent who was guarding the hotel entrance appeared to be bleeding from his nose or mouth. It wasn’t immediately clear how he became bloodied.
At least two people were taken away in cuffs.
It wasn’t immediately clear if any federal agents were actually staying at the hotel.
The destructive protest follows a similar pattern after the shooting of Renee Nicole Good, 37, by an ICE agent in early January.
The night after her death, hundreds of rowdy protesters flooded the outside of the Hilton Canopy Hotel, where they too believed immigration enforcement officers were staying.
Good was the first protester to be killed by ICE in Minneapolis after she allegedly tried to “weaponize” her vehicle against officers she had been tailing. ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot her four times — including a headshot through the driver’s side window — in what the feds have said was self-defense.
Protests have only grown since the Twin City was overwhelmed by federal law enforcement officers the Trump administration dispatched to tackle the alleged welfare-fraud scheme involving Somali immigrants.
On Saturday, Pretti, an ICU nurse who worked for a veterans hospital, was pinned to the ground by a group of federal officers who Trump officials alleged he was “violently resisting” before he was fatally shot.
The Department of Homeland Security claimed that Pretti rushed at them with a gun in hand, but videos taken by bystanders have only shown him holding his phone.
Viral video of the shooting appears to show an agent remove a pistol from Pretti’s waistband seconds before 10 gunshots are fired, killing him. Pretti had a permit and was legally allowed to conceal carry his gun.
President Trump vaguely said Sunday that federal agents will be leaving Minneapolis “at some point.”
He added that “a different group” would remain to continue the fraud investigations.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.