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Woman Shot, Killed by ICE Officer in Minneapolis. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired January 07, 2026 - 14:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[14:30:00]

ELI HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Ultimate findings are contrary to that, Boris, then yes, that's going to be a continued credibility issue for ICE. But the things that Kristi Noem says publicly are not ultimately going to be admissible or relevant if there's to be an investigation, a fact-finding mission, and a prosecution of an individual officer. There's a separate question about the ongoing credibility, the political actions of ICE, but I don't think Kristi Noem's statements, whether they're ill-advised or poorly advised, I don't think they're going to factor into an ultimate prosecutorial decision here.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: All right, Eli, stay with us if you could. Let's go to Chief Arradondo, who is there in Minneapolis, not too far from where this all went down. You, Chief, have now seen the video.

Tell us what you saw in that video, what you're thinking.

MEDARIA ARRADONDO, RETIRED MINNEAPOLIS POLICE CHIEF: Yes, Brianna, I would just go back to what Chief O'Hara has mentioned, certainly Mayor Frey, and certainly my colleague, Chief Ramsey. It's concerning. It is very concerning.

As Eli mentioned, there's great latitude in terms of from policy and certainly from the law and what officers, federal officers, can use force. But the video that certainly now has gone viral, it is very concerning. And so my concern, Brianna and Boris, right now is now that that video is out there for the public across this country to view.

It's folks have to be talking. There's going to be a narrative. Obviously, we heard from Mayor Jacob Frey, Chief O'Hara, about their views on that video.

And certainly we've heard about Secretary Nome, her views on that. If those aren't in alignment and --

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: It looks like we're having a technical issue with the connection to Chief Arradondo there. I want to go to CNN's Whitney Wilde, who's been on the ground for us. Whitney -- it sounds like she's busy at the moment trying to gather some news.

Let's go to Chief Charles Ramsey, who has been watching all of this with us. Chief, I'm just curious about what it's like for law enforcement officers to be gathering details and evidence at a scene like this, where there is an enormous presence, an enormous scrutiny from the public community that is charged and angered over what they watch transpire.

CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, as far as the department goes, they're going to be doing everything they can just to kind of methodically go through this, gathering as much evidence as they can. People who may have been witnesses to this, putting them in a place where they can be interviewed and so forth. This is definitely one that is very high profile, a lot of emotion and so forth.

Looking at that video that I saw, you know, it's going to really come down to, in my opinion, what the officer thought at the time he fired the shot. I mean, we're looking at video, we can rewind it, we can go put it in slow motion. This stuff goes down in real time.

Now, personally, I don't think it was necessary to fire shots at that time. It doesn't look as if she was intentionally trying to run down the officer. She was only going, what, two, three miles an hour trying to pull around another car.

He's standing off to the side, clearly could have gotten out of the way of the vehicle. That's my opinion. I don't know what was going on in his mind at the time he fired the fatal shots.

And that's going to be something that, you know, when they interview that person, they'll look at more video, they'll go through all the steps they need to in the investigation. It's not going to be cut or dried either way, in my opinion. But whether or not it was really necessary to fire at that point in time, if I was reviewing that and making a determination, I would say that the officer had options other than using deadly force.

But again, I'm not the one doing the investigation.

KEILAR: Yes, well, no doubt that is going to be the conclusion of many people. That is the conclusion of the mayor, certainly, of Minneapolis and the description we're hearing from the police chief of Minneapolis, certainly raising concerns to what you were saying there, Chief.

We're going to get in a quick break, but as we do, just to let our viewers know what is happening here, a 37-year-old white woman was shot and killed by an ICE officer in Minneapolis.

There is video now of her car that at one point was sort of in the middle of the street as ICE officers approached her. And you can actually see the moment where shots are fired. DHS initially saying that this was violent rioters weaponizing a vehicle.

But then later we heard from local officials who said this was a woman who was driving off after she was approached by ICE officers. Very tense situation there on the ground between community and law enforcement. We're going to be right back with more on that new video that has just come out. [14:35:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR JACOB FREY, (D) MINNEAPOLIS: To ICE, get the f*** out of Minneapolis. We do not want you here. Your stated reason for being in this city is to create some kind of safety and you are doing exactly the opposite.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: That is the mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, sending a direct message to federal agents as an immigration crackdown sent by the Trump administration now turns into this, the shooting of a 37- year-old unarmed woman who the mayor and the chief of police there in Minneapolis described as trying to leave the scene of an incident where ICE agents clearly opened fire.

[14:40:7]

KEILAR: Yes, they say that she was driving off and now we're seeing the video that they saw that is raising a lot of questions about what transpired here and why what we are seeing looks so different from what we are hearing DHS say happened here. Let's bring in Zainab Mohamed who is a Minnesota Democratic State Senator. Senator Mohamed, you've heard what local officials are saying there.

You've now seen the video. I know you were from not too far away from where this happened. Tell us what you were thinking as you were now taking in all of this information.

ZAYNAB MOHAMED, (D) MINNESOTA STATE SENATOR: Yes, so most of the morning I've actually been on the scene. I got there shortly after I heard about the news from a friend of mine who works for the city and had been there up until maybe like an hour ago. And I think what we're seeing come from this -- but what we're hearing from the Homeland Security and the federal government is they want to spin this story.

It's a propaganda. They want to make it seem like that what they did isn't exactly what people are seeing with their own eyes in this video. We saw a murder happen in our streets and a federal agent take out a U.S. citizen who wasn't doing anything except driving by and getting away from the situation. And so what we're seeing is this situation continuously escalate as we've been saying over the last few weeks.

SANCHEZ: I wonder what your message is to members of the community as we take a look at this aerial view of the scene. We had seen previously a small fire being lit in the street and people pushing and shoving. The community is clearly very animated and angry over this and I just wonder what you would want them to keep in mind.

MOHAMED: Yes, I mean our community right now is angry, rightfully so. What took -- what happened on our streets this morning was unacceptable and what we're seeing from officials from the federal government is to tell citizens in this state and in this country to not believe what they're seeing in their eyes and so people are angry. They're rightfully taking it to the streets.

I think what you'll see in the next few hours, probably days, is people are going to be outside wanting and demanding for there to be a prosecution for the ICE agent who murdered this young woman to be held in -- to be held to the full extent of the law and we'll see how it turns out. I think this community specifically is a community that has grieved so much over the last just year and few years. George Floyd was murdered not too far from here.

The Annunciation mass shooting happened just very close to this area too. And so I think I would say if grief was a place it's South Minneapolis and this community has dealt with so much over the last few years and today just adds on to that grief.

KEILAR: What do they need from federal officials?

MOHAMED: To step up and to lead and to do the right thing and the right thing to do is for ICE agents to leave Minneapolis. They are not keeping us safe. They are a detriment to the safety of this community.

We also need for the federal governments to do their job and to prosecute the individual who just assassinated a citizen of our community. We need people to look at Minneapolis in the eye at the federal government and say we're going to do the right thing. You all did not deserve this.

Our community did not deserve to have over 2,000 agents in our streets to terrorize us and if they wanted to instill fear that was the goal. They have accomplished that and it's time for them to leave.

SANCHEZ: Have you been able to gather any more details about this individual? Is there anything that you can share with us about what you've learned?

MOHAMED: Yes, I mean all I've learned is that she's a young woman, 37 years old, Caucasian, was trying to leave the the area. I think she was doing her own observing as the community has been doing over the last few weeks. We know ICE agents were were deployed by hundreds a few weeks ago and then over the weekend over 2,000 of them have been in our streets.

And so people are trying to do what they can to keep their immigrant neighbors safe, to understand what their legal rights are. And so we've had people who've been doing observing people's constitutional rights to make sure that people aren't being violated. And I think this situation what it creates is it doesn't only create chaos but it creates fear in people.

People are going to be afraid to want to protect their immigrant neighbors because of what happened. We also know that people in our community right now want action more than they want prayers or people to speak about what happened. We want a clear message from the federal government, from the state government and for people to just do the right thing. But in terms of what exactly happened in this scenario, we've all seen the video, I've watched it with all of you but I haven't -- we don't have any specific details because we're not -- we don't know what the federal government is doing.

KEILAR: Senator Zainab Mohamed, thank you so much for being with us.

[14:45:00]

We are so sorry for what your community is dealing with. I mean so much grief obviously from what we've just witnessed in this video and a lot of questions being raised here. We appreciate you being with us.

MOHAMED: Thank you.

KEILAR: We will be right back with more on our breaking news, a woman shot and killed by an ICE officer in Minneapolis.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: So we are awaiting word from Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota. He is set to speak to reporters after this incident in Minneapolis.

[14:50:00]

A 37-year-old woman shot and killed by an ICE officer after an incident on a street where there are now competing narratives. The administration suggests that she is a violent rioter and a terrorist. Local officials, according to videos that have circulated on social media, suggest that she was trying to flee the scene and was killed because of, in the words of the mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, the reckless actions of one agent.

KEILAR: Yes, let's go to Chief Medaria Arradondo, formerly of the Minneapolis Police Department. And just as we are looking at this crowd, and I know you've been on the ground not far from where we are taking some live pictures from. They've been there now for hours at this point in time.

This is a community that is deeply upset about what has transpired there in Minneapolis today. Chief, what are your concerns and your questions as we have now seen multiple videos of this shooting and the aftermath? Can you hear me, Chief?

All right. We're going to try to reestablish his connection. Let's go to Josh Campbell, who's back with us now.

And Josh, just if you can, again, take us through what this video is showing, because I think it's very important that we note DHS putting out that narrative that Boris just outlined, and then hearing from local officials describing, honestly, a completely different set of facts where they are describing what we see in the video. Take us through what you're learning.

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and I think if we have that video, we'll warn our viewers that obviously what you're about to see is disturbing. As you mentioned, we're talking about two different narratives here because there is what is legally permissible for an agent to do under policy. And then there's the question of judgment.

Even if an agent is allowed to do something, should they do it? And that will be the big question that we have here. Now, you see this video.

The agent's come up to that vehicle. The woman is in the vehicle on the right. Pay attention to the front left quarter panel of that car, where we will eventually see an agent open fire as she begins to drive away.

Now, again, that will be the pivotal moment. What was going through that agent's mind? Agents can open fire if they have a reasonable belief that the person who is the subject of their force poses an imminent threat of death or serious injury to themselves or someone else.

But also there's a question of judgment here. Could that agent have moved out of the way as the vehicle is then making a right there to try to get off the scene? We know that this woman who was fatally shot was not the subject of an immigration enforcement operation.

And so there will be a lot of questions there about the judgment. I'll also note that I've been doing a lot of reporting with our colleagues here at CNN over these immigration raids. And there have been multiple instances where the tactics of immigration agents raise questions.

For example, I know that some of these agents have been working with other agencies. Partners like the FBI, the DEA, some other entities have raised serious questions, according to sources, about what they've seen ICE and Border Patrol actually do. At times, I've been told that ICE has essentially refused to allow the FBI to come along with certain operations because they don't want body cameras, their actions to be filmed, and the like.

And so this could be a pattern that we've seen with that, where you have an agent that comes in that overuses force, in this instance, that ends up leading to a fatality. But again, there have been a lot of questions raised. It's important to note, as a final point here, is that it all comes down to what the Department of Justice typically does whenever an agent uses deadly force.

Do they launch a full-scale investigation? Do they interview every single witness before they actually draw a conclusion? Here we know that federal officials, the Secretary of Homeland Security, has essentially already exonerated the agent who opened fire.

So there will be big credibility questions here, especially in that community, whether this agent would be held accountable, even if they, you know, in normal circumstances, if they did something wrong. But then again, as I mentioned at the top, the question of judgment, even if it was lawfully permissible for the agent to open fire, should they have, this is not going to end anytime soon. We're going to continue to see this outrage.

SANCHEZ: Josh, please stand by. And to that point, Priscilla, we don't know at this point if that agent was potentially wearing a body cam. Josh raises a good point that this was an issue.

This was a point of contention between agents and judges and courts.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there's been a bit of whiplash on policy on that front during the Biden administration. For example, there ultimately was a requirement to wear them. Then that seemed to be pulled back under the Trump administration.

And now it appears to be quite region dependent on whether or not they have to wear the body cam. And that's going to be something that they will assess during the investigation and may or may not have at their disposal. So we'll see if these agents, by chance, may have had that and had that on.

[14:55:02]

But I just want to set the scene here a little bit. Again, this has been toted by the Trump administration as the biggest immigration operation to date under President Donald Trump's second term. Well, that is now marked by this killing of an individual, a woman in Minneapolis.

The administration had sent 2,000 federal agents to the state of Minnesota to conduct immigration operations. That, against the backdrop, of course, of the president's inflammatory rhetoric about the Somali community, because there's a large community there, though my sources have told me that their targets really ranged the gamut in terms of who they were targeting. Didn't have to be undocumented Somalis.

So we'll see if we can get more information on what this operation particularly was targeting. But also, this secretary, the Homeland Security secretary, was in Minneapolis yesterday conducting targeted operations. So we'll see if we hear more from her as well.

KEILAR: And we were just watching video of the vehicle driven by the woman who was shot and killed being towed away. We have much more ahead. We've just gotten in new video.

We're getting in new details. This is also new video. We'll have much more right after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

END