Citizen video challenges the administration’s account of a fatal ICE shooting in Minneapolis

Disturbing news broke Wednesday that a federal agent had shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis during an immigration enforcement operation.

Immediately, the world wanted to know: What exactly happened?

If you listened to those within the Trump administration, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot at a woman who was using her car as a weapon, trying to run him over.

But videos from regular citizens on the scene told a very different story.

What we do know for a fact: A 37-year-old woman is now dead after having been shot three times by an ICE agent.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called the actions of the female driver “an act of domestic terrorism.”

Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement that an agent had opened fire after a woman “weaponized her vehicle” in an attempt to kill federal officers.

But Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in a press conference, "They are already trying to spin this as an action of self-defense … that is (B.S.). This was an agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying … To ICE: Get the (expletive) out of Minneapolis. We don't want you here."

At least three citizen videos have emerged on social media that appeared to show that no agents’ lives were threatened and that the agent fired the shots as the victim’s car was driving past him, not at him. (Here’s one video, but note that some might find the video disturbing, and it contains graphic language.)

The New York Times wrote, “Three videos of the shooting posted on social media and verified by The New York Times show two federal agents trying to get a woman to exit a vehicle that is partially blocking an intersection. The driver reverses, then pulls forward and begins to turn. A third agent pulls out a gun and aims it at the driver, then fires three times.”

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the driver appeared to have been using her car to block a street where immigration enforcement agents were operating. After the woman was shot, her Honda Pilot slammed into two parked cars. She was pronounced dead a short time later.

The neighborhood where this happened is about a mile from where George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis policeman in 2020 — another incident captured by a citizen’s video.

Jamal Osman, a member of the Minneapolis City Council, said live on MS NOW, “What I know so far was that the ICE agency came this morning in our streets and shot somebody on the head.”

In an angry press conference, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said, “I have a very simple message: We do not need any further help from the federal government. To Donald Trump and Kristi Noem, you have done enough.”

Aside from the debate about whether ICE should have been in Minneapolis in the first place, much of the conversation following the shocking news was about whether the agent who fired the shots that killed the woman reasonably believed his life or others was in danger.

Videos appeared to show the woman was driving away and posed no threat.

NewsNation correspondent-at-large Geraldo Rivera said on the air, “Well, you know, I believe that one word that's been missing here is 'reasonable.' Would a reasonable person in the situation (think) that officer was in fear that his life was in danger, so much so that he had to use deadly force to mitigate the threat? … I cannot see for a minute any kind of reasonable justification. There is blood in the snow in Minneapolis of a 37-year-old innocent white woman driving an SUV shot dead in the streets of Minneapolis by masked ICE agents. Where the hell do you spin that set of facts into an act of domestic terrorism? By using those words — domestic terrorism — and attempting to brand this situation with that label, you are making an obscenity of the reason you need deadly force. … You look at the video, you see what happened. This was outrageous, this was something that I think was beyond the pale.”

The Associated Press wrote, “The shooting marks a dramatic escalation of the latest in a series of immigration enforcement operations in major American cities under the Trump administration. The killing of the Minneapolis motorist, whose name wasn’t immediately released, was at least the fifth death linked to immigration crackdowns since 2024.”

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Editorial decisions

My colleague Kelly McBride, Poynter’s senior vice president and chair of Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership, has a smart column in the aftermath of Wednesday’s ICE shooting: “How journalists should cover ICE’s fatal shooting of a civilian in Minneapolis.”

McBride writes, “Journalists have a critical role to play in covering a fatal use of force by any law enforcement officer. It’s the most basic form of holding power to account.”

But exactly how should they cover it?

Even nonjournalists will find McBride’s insight interesting and important.

This news is the pitts

Wednesday brought news that was somehow surprising but not a shock at the same time. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette announced that it will cease operations on May 3.

Block Communications Inc., a family-owned multimedia company based in Toledo, Ohio, has owned the Post-Gazette since 1927. The Pittsburgh Gazette, which is what the paper was initially called, was first published in 1786.

In a statement, the Post-Gazette said, “Over the past 20 years, Block Communications has lost more than $350 million in cash operating the Post-Gazette. Despite those efforts, the realities facing local journalism make continued cash losses at this scale no longer sustainable.”

Just a week ago, the Pittsburgh City Paper shut down after 34 years. That, too, was owned by Block.

As far as the Post-Gazette is concerned, there’s a little more at play.

My colleague, Angela Fu, writes, “The announcement came just hours after the Supreme Court denied the company’s request to pause a lower court order requiring the company to reinstate an old health care plan for its union employees. In March, the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the Post-Gazette to restore the plan from its old 2014-17 union contract, which the company had suspended in 2020 after declaring an impasse in contract negotiations.”

In a statement, Andrew Goldstein, president of the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, said, “Instead of simply following the law, the owners chose to punish local journalists and the city of Pittsburgh. Post-Gazette journalists have done award-winning work for decades and we’re going to pursue all options to make sure that Pittsburgh continues to have the caliber of journalism it deserves.”

Poynter president Neil Brown put out a statement that said, in part, “This is tragic for those who live in the communities of Pittsburgh and who should be able to have numerous independent, useful sources of local information, news and opinions. It’s a tragedy for the journalists who, amid an almost unthinkable labor feud, have been thwarted from providing service to the people of Pittsburgh. Be it strong editorial writing, coverage of the Steelers and the Pirates or the incredible Pulitzer-winning coverage of the horrible mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue, the Post-Gazette has been an essential part of the fabric of Pittsburgh.”

It’s a sad day, not only for the fine journalists of the Post-Gazette, but for the people of Pittsburgh and the surrounding area. As Fu noted in her story, “The Post-Gazette is Pittsburgh’s largest newspaper. Smaller outlets exist, like the online nonprofit Public Source and an Axios Pittsburgh newsletter, but the Post-Gazette is the city’s last remaining print daily (though it only prints twice a week). The city’s other daily, the Tribune-Review, eliminated its print edition in 2016 and only publishes online. Its editorial staff is less than half the size of the Post-Gazette’s roughly 150-person newsroom.”

Check out Brown’s full statement, as well as Fu’s story, for more details on this grim development.

And here’s Pittsburgh Magazine with “The Internet Reacts to the Closing of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.”

Thanks, but no thanks

As expected, Warner Bros. Discovery once again advised shareholders to turn down an offer to be acquired by Paramount. For now, WBD appears to be sticking with its agreement to be bought by Netflix.

WBD agreed last month to be sold to Netflix, but Paramount mounted a hostile takeover bid, trying to convince WBD shareholders that it could offer a better deal. Initially rebuffed by WBD, Paramount bolstered its offer with several changes, including billionaire Larry Ellison, the father of Paramount CEO David Ellison, personally guaranteeing to backstop the deal.

But it wasn’t enough to persuade WBD’s board.

Essentially, the board is saying the Netflix deal is less risky.

The New York Times’ Lauren Hirsch reported, “The Warner board said Wednesday that it had lingering concerns about Paramount’s bid. Paramount, which has a market capitalization of around $13 billion, has said it plans to use about $54 billion in debt for the deal. It has also corralled billions from Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds. Paramount has a credit rating a notch above junk level, whereas Netflix’s is investment grade.”

The board wrote, “This aggressive transaction structure poses materially more risk for WBD and its shareholders” than Netflix’s mostly cash offer.

Axios’ Sara Fischer noted, “WBD's board didn't mention Ellison's backstop guarantee in its letter to shareholders, but cited an ‘extraordinary amount of debt financing’ — and the uncertainty around it — as well as other offer terms that made it concerned about Paramount's ability to close the deal.”

This latest news doesn’t mean that everything is now settled. It’s another setback in Paramount’s desire to purchase WBD. But it likely won’t be the last time Paramount makes a run at WBD.

Netflix, however, was obviously happy with Wednesday’s developments. Co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters said, “The WBD Board remains fully supportive of and continues to recommend Netflix's merger agreement, recognizing it as the superior proposal that will deliver the greatest value to its stockholders, as well as consumers, creators and the broader entertainment industry.”

The Pentagon’s punchless press

 

The Department of Defense has been the lead of the news the past several days following the U.S.’s invasion of Venezuela that ended with the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. There have been lots of important stories being told, but none of them are coming from the so-called new Pentagon Press corps made up of a bunch of ragtag Trump supporters with little to no journalistic chops.

Not that that’s a surprise.

Last year, reporters from legitimate news organizations were kicked out of the Pentagon for refusing to sign the Pentagon’s news press policy that kept them from reporting on topics not approved by the Defense Department.

That left the new Pentagon press.

As The Washington Post’s Scott Nover and Drew Harwell noted, “The newly represented outlets have produced no scoops, but they weren’t necessarily looking for any.”

Nover and Harwell added, “The thinner coverage from the Pentagon’s handpicked correspondents comes during one of the most consequential military operations in recent history. Mainstream journalists have continued to cover the events from the outside, though some of them say the additional challenges they face in getting answers from government leaders could erode their ability to shed light on the aftermath of Maduro’s capture.”

Instead, the new press corps hasn't acted as journalists, but as advocates for the Trump administration and fierce supporters of the move into Venezuela.

More on Dokoupil

Not to beat a story into the ground, but here’s a bit more on new “CBS Evening News” anchor Tony Dokoupil.

It has been a mixed start. During Monday’s sort-of official debut as anchor, Dokoupil lost his cool momentarily when there was confusion about what story was next. Then there was the bizarre closing on Tuesday when the show “saluted” Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The Associated Press’ David Bauder wrote, “No one can say Tony Dokoupil is slipping into his new job as ‘CBS Evening News’ anchor unnoticed.”

Bauder added, “If attention is currency in trying to revive a television institution fallen on hard times, Dokoupil has earned some. The jury is out on whether it’s the kind he needs.”

In his Status newsletter on Tuesday, Oliver Darcy wrote, “Internally, I'm told, staffers are overwhelmingly depressed at the state of affairs in their newsroom. Many have taken pride in working for CBS News for much of their careers. They simply want to produce journalism that upholds the Tiffany Network's long history of reporting standards and scrutinizes those in power. Several staffers told me that they could forgive one or two of Dokoupil's transgressions as early hiccups. But, taken together, it’s hard to ignore that they offer a window into where CBS News is heading under David Ellison's ownership and Weiss' leadership: a place in which CBS News is led by unserious people who are hellbent on taking it into far friendlier waters for the Trump administration.”

The Independent’s Justin Baragona wrote that one CBS News staffer told him, “It’s state TV” — a claim that the newscast is friendly to the Trump administration.

By the way, Baragona posted on Bluesky, “Tony Dokoupil's official Monday night debut on CBS Evening News pulled in 4.463 million total viewers and 609,000 in the key 25-54 demo. While that is slightly higher than its recent average, it is also down 22% overall and 24% in the demo compared to last year on the same day.”

However …

While Dokoupil has been knocked for his “Evening News” beginnings, including in this newsletter, he does deserve credit when he does well. And he did well on Wednesday in questioning border czar Tom Homan over the ICE shooting in Minneapolis.

Homan refused to comment on the video of the shooting, saying a full investigation of Wednesday's events must be held. Dokoupil smartly reminded Homan that if an investigation had to determine any wrongdoing, then why was the Department of Homeland Security already claiming the victim was committing an act of domestic terrorism? (Homan said that was a question for Homeland Security.)

Dokoupil continued to press Homan on whether ICE has ever acted inappropriately. When Homan said he hadn’t seen any examples of ICE crossing any lines, Dokoupil said he found Homan’s comments hard to believe.

Dokoupil’s interview was fair but tough, and Homan came away looking shifty, uncomfortable and unaccountable. Dokoupil announced that tonight’s newscast will be from Minneapolis.

Media tidbits

• My Poynter colleague, Angela Fu, with “Florida billionaire takes control of Lee Enterprises, easing debt and reshaping its leadership.”
• The Wall Street Journal’s Isabella Simonetti with “Media Startup Semafor Raises $30 Million in New Funding Round.”
• HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” has been renewed for two more years. The new season — Season 24 — premieres on Jan. 23. The Hollywood Reporter’s Caitlin Huston has more.
• Maria Briceño of Poynter’s PolitiFact with “Alex Jones misrepresented old protest video as ‘celebration’ of Nicolás Maduro’s arrest.”
• NorthJersey.com and The Record announce Blake Kaplan as new editor. He succeeds Daniel Sforza, who moved on to The New York Times. Here are the details.

Hot type

• For The New York Times, Miguel Salazar and Laura Thompson with “The Novels Everyone Will Be Talking About in 2026.”

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Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at [email protected].

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