As David wrote here, the shooting in Minneapolis this afternoon was witnessed by a bunch of people and captured on video from at least 3 angles. What seems clear from the video is that the driver was trying to flee ICE who had demanded she get out of the car. Instead she rolled back and then put the car in gear and accelerated toward an agent directly in front of her. In fact, it looks like the car actually came into contact with the ICE agent.
In a post on X, Kurt Schlichter argues this looks like a classic case of an ICE agent responding to a threat of deadly force.
A DEEP DIVE — Thoughts From a Competent Lawyer on the Minneapolis ICE Shooting:
1. The left is positively turgid about this INCIDENT. They wanted a shooting and did everything they could to set the conditions that made it inevitable, from the rhetoric of the Democrat…
— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) January 7, 2026
3. The law is clear – you can use deadly force against someone threatening you with deadly force. The ICE agent had no duty to retreat. This does not matter to the left and its narrative. You will see many experts with zero actual knowledge of the law opining – including the typically terrible cadre of leftist lawyers.
4. The video is clear that the driver was heading at and came in contact with the ICE agent. He had a right to use deadly force to defend himself. This does not matter to the left and its narrative. The left will do everything it can to keep people from looking at the actual video that shows the incident. It will push video that does not show the incident clearly, as well a perjured or irrelevant witness statements.
Some of that already appears to be happening. The Washington Post is covering this and they have published a witness statement that is at odds with their own reporting.
Lynette Reini-Grandell, a retired community college English professor, said she was volunteering as an ICE observer Wednesday morning near her home in south Minneapolis when she witnessed the events surrounding the shooting and filmed the aftermath…
“There were no ICE vehicles in front of it and there were no ICE officers in front of her,” Reini-Grandell said of the shooting victim. “I believe she was trying to leave.”
The same “Live Updates” vertical posted this description of videos of the shooting earlier on:
Videos that surfaced immediately after the shooting show the woman’s vehicle, a burgundy Honda Pilot SUV, stopped in the middle of the road across travel lanes with the driver-side window rolled down. They do not show the events leading up to that moment.
Two ICE agents pulled up, exited their vehicle and approached the SUV. The vehicle began to reverse, and one of the agents reached out and held on to the door handle. As the SUV moved out of reverse and drove forward, a third ICE agent, positioned closer to the front of the car, quickly drew his service weapon and fired three times.
That third agent appears, in the video, to have been in front of the vehicle when it began advancing and to have been beside it by the time of the last shots.
Those two updates are attributed to two different reporters but it’s odd that the Post would publish a false eyewitness account after its own, more accurate, description of the video. What is the point of that exactly?
The Post is also highlighting this claim by Sen. Tina Smith that the Homeland Security description of what happened doesn’t match the video. In what way? She doesn’t bother to say.
Homeland Security’s description of what happened and the narrative they’re pushing clearly doesn’t match up with the videos we’re all seeing. They’re asking people not to believe what we can all see with our own eyes.
I’ve been in contact with DHS demanding more information.
— Tina Smith (@SenTinaSmith) January 7, 2026
Similarly, Sen. Klobuchar is saying “statements made by DHS do not appear to reflect video evidence and on-the-ground accounts.”
I am praying for the family and loved ones of the woman who was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis this morning. This tragedy is the result of the administration sending federal agents onto our streets against the wishes of local law enforcement, including our…
— Amy Klobuchar (@amyklobuchar) January 7, 2026
And now Kamala Harris is calling the Trump administration’s explanation “pure gaslighting.”
Today in Minneapolis, ICE agents shot and killed a woman in a shocking incident. Governor Walz has announced the state will ensure a fair investigation, and I am grateful for his swift action.
Many of us have seen the horrifying and painful video, which makes it clear that the…
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) January 7, 2026
So far as I can tell, this is the DHS statement they are all disputing.
Today, ICE officers in Minneapolis were conducting targeted operations when rioters began blocking ICE officers and one of these violent rioters weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them—an act of domestic terrorism.…
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) January 7, 2026
Today, ICE officers in Minneapolis were conducting targeted operations when rioters began blocking ICE officers and one of these violent rioters weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them—an act of domestic terrorism.
An ICE officer, fearing for his life, the lives of his fellow law enforcement and the safety of the public, fired defensive shots.
He used his training and saved his own life and that of his fellow officers.
The alleged perpetrator was hit and is deceased. The ICE officers who were hurt are expected to make full recoveries.
This is the direct consequence of constant attacks and demonization of our officers by sanctuary politicians who fuel and encourage rampant assaults on our law enforcement who are facing 1,300% increase in assaults against them and an 8,000% increase in death threats.
This is an evolving situation, and we will give the public more information as soon as it becomes available.
I agree with David that the video doesn’t show this was domestic terrorism as I don’t think you can prove intent to commit political violence based on this. My take is that the driver probably didn’t intended to kill anyone. It looks to me like she panicked and tried to flee rather than obeying the orders of the agents telling her to get out of the car. But other than that dispute about intent, the statement seems accurate about what happened. The vehicle became a weapon when it was put in gear and driven directly at an agent.
If you watch a slowed down version of the video, you can see the agent didn’t even draw his weapon until the car lurched forward at him.
Why don’t you post the video? Oh right, it would destroy your narrative.pic.twitter.com/iER0hYO5xS
— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) January 7, 2026
In other words, it looks like a justifiable shooting. It’s still a sad outcome and people are right to think it didn’t have to end this way, but the fault was likely her own. Put another way, if the driver had stopped the car as agents demanded instead of trying recklessly to escape, no one would have been hurt.
All that to say, I think Democrats and the media are getting out over their skis on this pretty quickly. It’s fine to call for an investigation but suggesting the driver in this case was an innocent victim of the Trump administration is taking it too far. The federal agents had a right to be there and the driver who was apparently there as a legal observer should have obeyed their orders.
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