Man Fleeing ICE Injured In Crash At Busy Twin Cities Intersection: Authorities

ST. PAUL — A man being pursued by federal agents was injured Wednesday morning in a crash that damaged vehicles and drew a crowd at a busy commercial intersection in St. Paul’s Cathedral Hill neighborhood, according to authorities.

Officers responded shortly after 9:30 a.m. to Western and Selby avenues, where a large crowd had formed at the scene of the crash, according to St. Paul police.

“The preliminary information we received was that federal agents were pursuing a person in a vehicle when the vehicle crashed,” the police department said in a news release.

The person being pursued suffered injuries that were not life-threatening and was taken to a local hospital, according to police.

Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said in a prepared statement that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers had tried to conduct a targeted vehicle stop of a man from Honduras who was in the country illegally after being released into the U.S. in 2022.

“In a dangerous attempt to resist arrest, this illegal alien tried to evade law enforcement and began driving recklessly and ran red lights, endangering public safety and law enforcement," McLaughlin said in the statement.

The man crashed his vehicle into multiple vehicles, including an ICE vehicle, according to McLaughlin, who said no other members of the public or ICE officers were injured in the crash.

Images published by MPR showed a heavily damaged parked car and the crowd at the scene. Selby Avenue is a central thoroughfare of the Cathedral Hill neighborhood and is lined with local businesses near the Western Avenue intersection, such as Nina's Coffee Cafe, Moscow on the Hill and Red Cow.

In a statement on Wednesday on social media, Mayor Khaoly Her said ICE was “causing chaos, and putting residents at risk in Saint Paul.”

“Because of the reckless way that ICE is running their operation, one person ended up in the hospital for non-life-threatening injuries, and several bystanders had their cars damaged,” the mayor wrote. “This is just another incident that tells us loud and clear: Operation Metro Surge needs to end immediately.”

Gov. Tim Walz said Tuesday that the federal immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota could begin winding down within days, signaling a possible end to Operation Metro Surge after weeks of heightened federal activity that included two deadly shootings by federal agents.