The Jacksons’ ordeal illustrates how residents with no involvement in protests have been swept into the Trump administration’s largest immigration enforcement operation to date in the Twin Cities, a crackdown that has already produced multiple shootings, legal challenges from state and local governments, and sustained street demonstrations.
MINNEAPOLIS — A Minneapolis couple says a federal officer rolled a tear gas canister under their family’s SUV on Wednesday as they tried to leave the area of a confrontation between protesters and immigration enforcement officers in north Minneapolis, flooding the vehicle with fumes that left a 6-month-old infant and two other children in need of hospital treatment.
Destiny Jackson, 26, said the family was driving home from her middle schooler’s basketball game when they reached a blocked-off street near where, federal authorities said, an officer had shot a man in the leg after being attacked while attempting to make an arrest.
Jackson said the scene appeared relatively calm when they first stopped to ask what was happening. She noticed her mother on the street and said she spent 20 to 30 minutes trying to persuade her to leave before the situation grew more tense.
“I was just trying to get her to go home,” Jackson said. “I’ve only seen these things on TV. Some end well, some don’t.”
With flash-bang grenades detonating up the street and smoke in the air, the family tried to drive away but came upon federal officers who directed them to leave, Jackson said. She said she waited for a moment she believed was safe to depart — aware that Renee Good had been shot and killed while in her vehicle during an earlier stage of the same operation — and moved to leave when the officers passed. An officer then rolled the tear gas canister beneath the SUV.
Jackson said she heard a boom, the car’s airbags deployed, and noxious gas filled the vehicle. Her children were crying and screaming that they could not breathe. She said her 6-month-old son’s eyes were closed and he was not moving.
“I rushed to unlock the doors and get them out,” Jackson said.
First responders received reports of an infant in respiratory distress, and local authorities said they worked through the crowds to reach the scene. The Minneapolis Fire Department said the infant was breathing and stable but in serious condition before being transported to the hospital. Jackson said she, her husband, and three of the couple’s six children received hospital treatment — the infant, a 7-year-old, and an 11-year-old.
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said officers were responding to “rioters and agitators” and did not target the Jackson family or “their innocent children.”
The family’s ordeal came amid what authorities have described as the Trump administration’s largest immigration enforcement operation to date in the Twin Cities. The crackdown has produced multiple confrontations between federal agents, local residents, and demonstrators since early January, including the fatal shooting of Renee Good and at least one other shooting, along with legal challenges from the state of Minnesota and city governments.
Since posting about her family’s experience online, Jackson said she has received threats and hateful messages.
“I try not to pay attention to the negative. I know what was going on. I know what my intentions were,” she said. “I was on my way home.”