U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem addresses the press in a property near the Rio Grande River on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, in Brownsville, Texas. (AP Photo/Gabriel V. Cardenas)

After a federal ICE agent shot and killed a woman in Minnesota on Wednesday, federal officials — including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem — have begun spreading demonstrably false statements about the incident.

In a press conference held in Texas hours after the shooting, Noem characterized the incident as “an act of domestic terrorism” and claimed that the officer shot his weapon in self-defense after the woman attacked them.

“It was an act of domestic terrorism,” Noem told reporters. “What happened was our ICE officers were out in enforcement action. They got stuck in the snow because of the adverse weather that is in Minneapolis, they were attempting to push out their vehicle and a woman attacked them and those surrounding them and attempted to run them over and ram them with her vehicle. An officer of ours acted quickly and defensively shot to protect himself and the people around him.”

Noem’s sentiment was echoed by Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin, who said in a statement posted on X that the woman “weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them.”

Videos tell a completely different story

Video of the shooting originally posted on Bluesky by attorney Daniel Suitor does not support these claims. The video shows the woman attempting to turn her vehicle around when ICE agents drove up in a pickup truck and approached her vehicle. The pickup truck was not stuck in the snow.

The agents can be heard aggressively ordering the woman to exit her vehicle, saying “get out of the fucking car.”

A different angle shows the woman waving the pickup truck to go around her car. The agents then exited their vehicle and attempted to open the woman’s driver’s side door One officer reached his arm into the driver’s opened window, presumably in an attempt to unlock the door. As the vehicle moved forward, it clipped a second agent before speeding away, according to another video shared with KTSP. The agent fired three shots into the fleeing vehicle. Witnesses say the woman was shot in the face.

Video provided to the Huffington Post shows ICE agents preventing a nearby doctor from performing emergency medical care on the victim.