MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A person sprayed an unknown substance on Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar and was tackled to the bottom Tuesday throughout a city corridor in Minneapolis, the place tensions over federal immigration enforcement have come to a head after brokers fatally shot an intensive care nurse and a mom of three this month.
The viewers cheered as the person was pinned down and his arms had been tied behind his again. In video of the incident, somebody within the crowd will be heard saying, “Oh my god, he sprayed one thing on her.”
Simply earlier than that Omar had referred to as for the abolishment of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and for Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem to resign or face impeachment. Calls are mounting on Capitol Hill for Noem to step down after the capturing deaths in Minneapolis of two individuals who protested deportations. Few Republicans have risen to her protection.
“ICE can’t be reformed,” Omar stated, seconds earlier than the assault.
Minneapolis police stated officers noticed the person use a syringe to spray an unknown liquid at Omar. They instantly arrested him and booked him on the county jail for third-degree assault, spokesperson Trevor Folke stated. Forensic scientists responded to the scene.
Police recognized the person as 55-year-old Anthony Kazmierczak. It was not instantly clear if Kazmierczak had an lawyer. The county public defenders’ workplace couldn’t instantly be reached.
Omar continued talking for about 25 extra minutes after the person was ushered out by safety, saying she wouldn’t be intimidated.
There was a powerful, vinegarlike odor after the person pushed on the syringe, in accordance with an Related Press journalist who was there. Pictures of the system, which fell to the bottom when he was tackled, confirmed what gave the impression to be a light-brown liquid inside. There was no fast phrase from officers on what it was.
Minneapolis Council Member LaTrisha Vetaw stated a few of the substance additionally got here into contact along with her and state Sen. Bobby Joe Champion. She referred to as it a deeply unsettling expertise.
Nobody within the crowd of about 100 folks had a noticeable bodily response to the substance.
Omar says she is OK and ‘a survivor’
Strolling out afterward, Omar stated she felt a bit of flustered however was not harm. She was going to be screened by a medical staff.
She later posted on the social platform X: “I’m okay. I’m a survivor so this small agitator isn’t going to intimidate me from doing my work. I don’t let bullies win.”
The White Home didn’t instantly reply to a message looking for remark Tuesday night time.
President Donald Trump has regularly criticized the congresswoman and has stepped up verbal assaults on her in current months as he turned his give attention to Minneapolis. Throughout a Cupboard assembly in December, he referred to her as “rubbish.”
Hours earlier on Tuesday, the president criticized Omar as he spoke to a crowd in Iowa, saying his administration would solely let in immigrants who “can present that they love our nation.”
“They should be proud, not like Ilhan Omar,” he stated, drawing loud boos on the point out of her identify.
He added: “She comes from a rustic that’s a catastrophe. So most likely, it’s thought of, I believe — it’s not even a rustic.”
Omar is a U.S. citizen who fled her birthplace, Somalia, along with her household at age 8 as a civil warfare tore aside the nation.
The Minneapolis-St. Paul space is residence to about 84,000 folks of Somali descent — practically a 3rd of Somalis dwelling within the U.S.
Officers condemn the assault
Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz expressed gratitude that Omar was protected, including in a submit on X: “Our state has been shattered by political violence within the final 12 months. The merciless, inflammatory, dehumanizing rhetoric by our nation’s leaders must cease instantly.”
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican, additionally denounced the assault.
“I’m deeply disturbed to be taught that Rep. Ilhan Omar was attacked at a city corridor at the moment” Mace stated. “No matter how vehemently I disagree along with her rhetoric — and I do — no elected official ought to face bodily assaults. This isn’t who we’re.”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat, referred to as the assault “unacceptable.” He stated he was relieved that Omar “is OK” and thanked police for his or her fast response, concluding: “This type of habits is not going to be tolerated in our metropolis.”
The town has been reeling from the deadly shootings of two residents by federal immigration brokers this month throughout Trump’s large immigration enforcement surge. Intensive care unit nurse Alex Pretti was killed Saturday, lower than three weeks after Renee Good was fatally shot behind the wheel of her automobile.
Lawmakers face rising threats
The assault got here days after a person was arrested in Utah for allegedly punching U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost, a Democrat from Florida, within the face through the Sundance Movie Pageant and saying Trump was going to deport him.
Threats towards members of Congress have elevated in recent times, peaking in 2021 within the aftermath of that 12 months’s Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol, earlier than dipping barely solely to climb once more, in accordance with the newest figures from the U.S. Capitol Police.
Lawmakers have mentioned the affect on their skill to carry city halls and public occasions, with some even citing the risk surroundings of their choices to not search reelection.
Following the assault on Omar, U.S. Capitol Police stated in an announcement that the company was “working with our federal companions to see this man faces essentially the most severe expenses attainable to discourage this type of violence in our society.”
It additionally launched up to date numbers detailing threats to members of Congress: 14,938 “regarding statements, behaviors, and communications directed towards lawmakers, their households, workers and the Capitol Advanced” in 2025.
That could be a sharp enhance from 2024, when the variety of circumstances was 9,474, in accordance with USCP. It’s the third 12 months in a row that the variety of threats has elevated.
Capitol Police have beefed up safety measures throughout all fronts since Jan. 6, 2021, and the division has seen elevated reporting after a brand new heart was launched two years in the past to course of studies of threats.
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Schoenbaum reported from Salt Lake Metropolis. Related Press writers Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu, Mike Balsamo, Lisa Mascaro and Michelle Value in Washington, Hallie Golden in Seattle and Farnoush Amiri in New York contributed to this report.
