A family in Minneapolis says federal agents deployed tear gas inside their home while young children were present after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer shot a man in the leg during an enforcement operation, according to a relative.
Yonsi Camacho, the aunt of Indriany Syrisnoy Mendoza Camacho, told Newsweek her niece was inside the home at the time of the incident on January 14, along with two men, two women, and two children, when ICE agents tried to get into the house and deployed what Camacho described as tear gas.
“They were forced to leave the house, they were throwing tear bombs inside knowing that there were little children there,” Camacho told Newsweek in an exclusive statement.
When approached for comment via email, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) directed Newsweek to a press release on the incident. The agency did not address any of the allegations presented.
Federal officials have identified the man shot in the incident as Julio Cesar Sosa‑Celis, a Venezuelan national in the United States without legal status who entered the country in August 2022.
DHS said ICE agents attempted to arrest Sosa‑Celis during a targeted traffic stop, but he fled on foot and resisted officers. During the struggle, two other men allegedly struck an agent with a “shovel” and “broom handle,” and Sosa‑Celis also allegedly joined the attack, DHS said. The officer fired a single “defensive shot” that struck Sosa‑Celis in the leg.
Camacho said her niece, who is from Venezuela, is married to the man who was shot during the ICE operation.
A viral video circulating on social media shows the chaotic aftermath of the enforcement operation Wednesday evening. The footage, taken from inside a home, captures people speaking in Spanish to emergency dispatchers and pleading for assistance while red and blue emergency lights flash outside, and at least two young children are visible.
Camacho said two families lived in the house, and that her niece’s son, who is three, and another baby, just one, were inside at the time. She added that the children inside the home were later released to a trusted individual who had pre-authorized power of care in case of an emergency.
“Thank God they’re OK,” she said.
Mendoza Camacho is in ICE custody, according to the agency’s detainee database.
“We don’t know if she can get out on bail. We’re doing our best,” Camacho said.
On Wednesday night in the Hawthorne area of north Minneapolis, protesters and law enforcement clashed near the scene of the shooting, and officers deployed tear gas and other crowd‑control measures as tensions escalated.
DHS said that Sosa‑Celis had prior convictions in Minnesota for driving without a license and for giving a false name to an officer, and was released by state authorities before ICE could lodge a detainer.
The department also identified two other Venezuelan nationals, Alfredo Alejandro Ajorna and Gabriel Alejandro Hernandez‑Ledezma, who illegally entered the U.S. in May 2023. DHS said Ajorna was issued a final order of removal after failing to appear at an immigration hearing, while Hernandez‑Ledezma was marked by the Biden administration “as a non-enforcement priority.”
“Our officer was ambushed and attacked by three individuals who beat him with snow shovels and the handles of brooms. Fearing for his life, the officer fired a defensive shot,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement.
Meanwhile, a Minneapolis couple told The New York Times that ICE agents deployed tear gas and stun grenades around them and their six children, the youngest just 6 months old, as they tried to drive out of a tense protest Wednesday night
The shooting of Sosa‑Celis in north Minneapolis happened on the heels of another ICE shooting in the city last week that resulted in the death of Renee Nicole Good, a mother of three. The killing ignited widespread protests and criticism of federal immigration enforcement tactics.
Local leaders have lambasted federal enforcement tactics, arguing that the presence of ICE agents has only heightened fear among communities.
Senior Trump administration officials have publicly defended the ICE agent that shot Good, saying the use of force was justified and characterizing the woman’s actions as a threat to law enforcement. However, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and other local officials have pointed to video footage they say contradicts the government’s account, rejecting the “self-defense” narrative and calling for independent investigations into the shooting.
