Hennepin County Legal professional Mary Moriarty pronounces costs towards an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent associated to a February incident on April 16, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minn.
Mark Vancleave/AP
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Mark Vancleave/AP
State and native prosecutors in Minnesota charged an ICE officer Thursday with two counts of second-degree assault with a harmful weapon.
The legal costs seem like the primary towards a federal immigration officer for actions allegedly taken whereas on obligation in the course of the immigration enforcement crackdown in Minnesota earlier this 12 months.
“At this time’s costs replicate an necessary milestone in our efforts to hunt accountability for the harms inflicted on our group throughout Operation Metro Surge,” Hennepin County Legal professional Mary Moriarty stated at a press convention on Thursday asserting the fees.
The officer is recognized within the grievance as 35-year-old Gregory Donnell Morgan, Jr., a Maryland resident who was a part of ICE’s Enforcement and Removing Operations division on the time of the incident and had been detailed to the Minneapolis space.
On the afternoon of Feb. 5, the Minnesota State Patrol obtained a 911 report {that a} driver in a Ford Expedition had pointed a gun at two individuals in one other automobile alongside a freeway within the Twin Cities space.
In line with the grievance, the 2 alleged victims informed authorities that they’d been caught in site visitors once they noticed an unmarked black SUV arising from behind, driving on the shoulder of a freeway in Hennepin County, the place Minneapolis is positioned.
The individual driving says they briefly moved their automotive onto the street’s shoulder in an effort to dam the SUV’s driver from bypassing site visitors illegally and to “minimize him off slightly bit.” Each alleged victims say they didn’t know the opposite driver was a federal officer.
The grievance states that Morgan then pulled up beside them, rolled down his window and pointed a black handgun straight at each the driving force and the passenger and yelled one thing they could not discern. One sufferer informed state legislation enforcement the encounter led them to imagine there was a “loopy individual driving down the street aiming weapons at individuals,” the grievance says.
The victims known as 911 and took a video exhibiting the SUV’s Utah license plate. State investigators used that license plate information to determine that the automobile had been rented by one other ICE officer – Morgan’s accomplice who was additionally allegedly within the automotive on the time.
Throughout a voluntary interview after the incident, Morgan informed state authorities he was driving to the Federal Whipple Constructing, used as ICE headquarters in the course of the Minnesota surge, on the finish of his shift when the incident occurred.
In line with the grievance, he informed state legislation enforcement that he feared for his security when the victims’ automotive pulled in entrance of him, so he drew his gun and yelled “Police Cease.” Morgan stated he was making an attempt to get the victims to again up.
There’s a nationwide warrant for Morgan’s arrest. ICE and the Division of Homeland Safety didn’t reply to NPR’s request for remark. NPR was unable to achieve Morgan for remark.
At Thursday’s press convention, Moriarty acknowledged that the fees filed towards Morgan had been coming forward of any doable costs within the circumstances of Alex Pretti and Renee Macklin Good, the 2 U.S. residents shot and killed by federal immigration officers in the course of the Minnesota ICE surge, or within the case of Julio Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan immigrant shot by an ICE officer in Minneapolis who survived. All three had been shot in January.
“I need to be clear on why these conditions are growing at totally different speeds,” Moriarty stated. “The state patrol was capable of examine totally, determine Mr. Morgan and conduct an interview with him … Just about not one of the obstacles round proof assortment that exist for the January shootings exist on this case.”
In late March, the state and Hennepin County sued the Trump administration, accusing it of withholding proof and stopping them from investigating all three shootings.
