Police declared the loud demonstration late Friday night illegal and deployed riot police to disperse the participants, CNN reports. The protesters had gathered to disrupt Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, who they believe were staying at a downtown Minneapolis hotel.
Dissatisfaction is also simmering within the local justice system, which has been largely excluded from the investigation into the killing of a 37-year-old woman by an ICE agent earlier this week.
Not participating
Minnesota Attorney General Mary Moriarty says that “our goal must be for a thorough investigation to be conducted at the local level.” She also points out that the FBI has seized the dead woman’s car and shell casings from the scene.
At the same time, sources tell CBS News that investigators at the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division will not participate in the investigation; such involvement is otherwise common in high-profile incidents in which an officer has fired fatal shots.
Unclear what happened
There are mixed opinions about what happened when the ICE agent opened fire on the woman on Wednesday. The U.S. administration has said the woman used her car as a weapon against the ICE agents, who then fired in self-defense. The Minnesota state government, however, has questioned the ICE operation, calling it reckless.
The incident has led to widespread and repeated protests in the city and elsewhere in the U.S. The site of the fatal shooting is now a mountain of flowers, candles and placards with messages demanding accountability.
The wife of the woman who was killed said they had been at the scene to support their neighbors.
"We had whistles. They had guns," she told local media about the ICE agents.
