MINNEAPOLIS — The Department of Homeland Security confirmed Wednesday that a woman was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent during a confrontation between federal agents and protesters in south Minneapolis.

In a fiery news conference at City Hall, Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat, called on ICE to “get the f--- out.”

DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said ICE officers “were conducting targeted operations” when community members began trying to block ICE vehicles. She said the ICE agent “fired defensive shots” as the woman attempted to run over agents. Several residents of the area who witnessed the scene said agents were ordering the woman out of the vehicle. A video posted on social media showed the vehicle reversing before accelerating toward an agent as he fired rounds at close range.

Gov. Tim Walz put out a call for calm. Frey said the woman killed was 37. “To the family, I’m so deeply sorry,” Frey said.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the ICE agent who fatally shot the woman fired “defensively” in response to the alleged vehicle ramming, which she referred to as an “act of domestic terrorism.”

“This goes to show the assaults that our ICE officers and our law enforcement are under every single day,” Noem told reporters during a news conference in Brownsville, Texas.

Bystanders who observed the shooting from their own properties on Portland Avenue rejected Noem’s characterization of the incident, insisting the motorist was not attempting to ram anyone as she fled.

“They’re whitewashing it; that’s absolutely not what happened,” said local resident Aiden Perzana, a data engineer for the state of Minnesota. “Somebody was trying to pull her out of her car. She was just trying to get away. There’s no way she was aiming for anybody. It’s just absurd.”

Three agents surrounded her vehicle at the time it began moving, Perzana said, but there was “plenty of room” for her to get through.

Frey forcefully pushed back against any suggestion that the shooting was an act of self-defense.

“This was an agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying, getting killed,” Frey said.

Frey said claims that the shooting was justified are false and misleading.

“What I can tell you is the narrative that this was just done in self-defense is a garbage narrative that is not true,” he said. “It has no truth, and it needs to be stated very clearly.”

Frey added in the news conference: "Your stated reason for being in this city is to create some kind of safety and you are doing exactly the opposite. People are being hurt. Families are being ripped apart. ... And now somebody is dead. That’s on you. And it’s also on you to leave. It’s on you to make sure that further damage, further loss of life and injury is not done.”

Noem told Fox News late Tuesday that her agency sent 2,000 additional ICE agents to the Twin Cities in the previous 48 hours, in a significant escalation of its immigration enforcement presence in Minnesota.

Called “Operation Metro Surge,” ICE agents have stepped up their presence in Minneapolis, St. Paul and several nearby suburbs.

Noem said it has resulted in more than 1,500 arrests so far, although the Minnesota Star Tribune has been unable to verify that number. The agency has not released a list of those detained.

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