Minneapolis Public Schools canceled all classes for the rest of the week following the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis woman by an ICE agent on Wednesday.
The announcement, issued to parents via email on Wednesday evening, came after a devastating series of events for the city. Mere hours after the killing, federal immigration agents descended on a nearby high school, tackling people on school grounds and reportedly using chemical weapons.
“Out of an abundance of caution, there will be no school on Thursday, Jan. 8 and Friday, Jan. 9 due to safety concerns related to today’s incidents around the city,” the school district wrote on its website. “All MPS-sponsored programs, activities, athletics and Community Education classes, including adult education, will be canceled.”
On Wednesday morning, Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old Minneapolis resident, was confronted by immigration agents while in her vehicle, as a protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was unfolding. Video footage of the incident appears to show her attempting to move her car away from the scene when an ICE agent pulls out his gun and shoots her in the face, killing her.
Later that day, as school was letting out at 3:30 pm at Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis (around 2.5 miles away from where Good was killed), immigration agents descended on the school, with reports indicating that they tackled several people on school grounds and used chemical weapons as students were leaving for the day. Video of the incident appears to show agents attacking people exiting the building.
Video of the event also shows at least one instance of a federal immigration officer responding to a student throwing a snowball with a blast of chemical spray.
According to witnesses, armed U.S. Border Patrol officers arrested and handcuffed at least two staff members amid the melee.
One school official recounted their experience to MPR News:
The guy, I’m telling him like, ‘Please step off the school grounds,’ and this dude comes up and bumps into me and then tells me that I pushed him, and he’s trying to push me, and he knocked me down.
“They don’t care. They’re just animals. I’ve never seen people behave like this,” that official added.
Kate Winkel, who lives in the Roosevelt High School neighborhood, said she was watching the scene unfold when agents shoved her to the ground. She criticized the federal government’s decision to detain people on school grounds.
“I think school property should be off-limits. I think our kids need to feel safe at school,” Winkel said. “The federal government doesn’t need to attack schools.”
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