Witness Who Filmed Minneapolis ICE Shooting Refutes Trump-Backed Self-Defense Claim: ‘Absolutely Not What Happened’ | Video
Emily Heller, an eyewitness who captured Wednesday’s Minneapolis ICE shooting on camera, refuted President Donald Trump’s claim that the agent acted in “self defense.”
The witness spoke with CNN’s Erin Burnett hours after an ICE officer fatally shot a 37-year-old woman in Minneapolis, Minn. — and shared a strikingly different account than what has been shared by the Trump administration.
“That agent was obviously spooked because he had just killed someone,” Heller said. “And it was very obvious to everyone who had witnessed it all that she would not make it.”
When asked to respond to Trump’s take on the situation, in which he accused the victim of “violently, willfully and viciously [running] over the ICE officer,” Heller shared the only reason she’s speaking out is to counter lies that are being spread about the incident.
“That’s the only reason why I’m here,” she continued. “I don’t think I’m the most articulate person. I don’t want to be here, but I knew that this would be twisted and it would be ‘self defense’ — and that’s absolutely not what happened. My life is forever changed from having witnessed this and I just can’t let this narrative that it was self defense go any further.”
Per Heller, she and her neighbors feel “traumatized” by the shooting, adding that the victim was “totally peaceful” during her encounter with ICE, where she protested their presence by blocking traffic.
"I just can't let this narrative of self-defense go any further."
— Erin Burnett OutFront (@OutFrontCNN) January 8, 2026
Emily Heller, who witnessed an ICE agent shooting a woman in her car in Minneapolis, tells Erin Burnett the White House version of events surrounding the deadly Minneapolis shooting is wrong. pic.twitter.com/QrXBK2PXMs
“They were screaming at her to move, move, move. And then they approached her vehicle aggressively and tried to open her door,” Heller recalled. “And then, that’s when she got spooked, and she reversed her vehicle to turn her wheels to try to escape. And that’s when an ICE agent stepped in front of her vehicle and said, ‘Stop.’ And then, point blank, shot her through her windshield.”
Watch highlights from Heller’s interview above and below.
"(ICE agents) seemed like children. They seemed like untrained people."
— Erin Burnett OutFront (@OutFrontCNN) January 8, 2026
Emily Heller, who lives on the street where an ICE agent shot and killed a Minneapolis woman in her car, tells Erin Burnett what she witnessed. pic.twitter.com/NjmZU8P9lY
Heller’s account of the shooting is notably different than the one shared by
United States Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem in a press conference earlier Wednesday.
“She then proceeded to weaponize her vehicle, and she attempted to run a law enforcement officer over. This appears as an attempt to kill or to cause bodily harm to agents, an act of domestic terrorism,” Noem said. “The ICE officer, fearing for his life and the other officers around him and the safety of the public, fired defensive shots. He used his training to save his own life and that of his colleagues.”
Trump expressed a similar take on the situation on Truth Social, writing, “The woman screaming was, obviously, a professional agitator, and the woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense. Based on the attached clip, it is hard to believe he is alive, but is now recovering in the hospital.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) sounded off on the administration’s statements on the incident, noting that Homeland Security officials’ statements on the matter do “not appear to reflect video evidence and on-the-ground accounts.”
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