Gov. Tim Walz (02:54):
Thank you all for being here. I'll have a short statement then I'll turn it over to Department of Public Safety Commissioner Bob Jacobson to update the situation. Joined here by Hennepin County Sheriff Witt, State Patrol Colonel and General Minke, the Adjutant General of the Minnesota National Guard. As I said last week, this federal occupation of Minnesota long ago stopped being a matter of immigration enforcement. It's a campaign of organized brutality against the people of our state. And today that campaign claimed another life. I've seen the videos from several angles and it's sickening. But I have a strong statement here for our federal government. Minnesota's justice system will have the last word on this. It must have the last word. As I told the White House in no uncertain terms this morning, the federal government cannot be trusted to lead this investigation. The state will handle it, period.
(03:58)
Let me say something else, and this is critically important. All of us understand what happened this morning and the tragedy of and my deepest sympathies to the family. [inaudible 00:04:15]
(04:18)
Thank you all for being here. I'll have a short statement, then I'll turn it over to Department of Public Safety Commissioner Bob Jacobson to update the situation. Joined here by Hennepin County Sheriff Witt, State Patrol Colonel and General Manke, the adjutant general of the Minnesota National Guard. Well, as I said last week, this federal occupation of Minnesota long ago stopped being a matter of immigration enforcement. It's a campaign of organized brutality against the people of our state. And today that campaign claimed another life. I've seen the videos from several angles and it's sickening. But I have a strong statement here for our federal government. Minnesota's justice system will have the last word on this. It must have the last word. As I told the White House in no uncertain terms this morning, the federal government cannot be trusted to lead this investigation. The state will handle it, period.
(05:22)
Let me say something else, and this is critically important. All of us understand what happened this morning and the tragedy of it, and my deepest sympathies to the family of a 37-year-old Minnesota resident, a lawful firearm concealed permit carrier, something that I've heard been lectured to by Republicans for decades that is not only your right, it's your duty. We know that the potential to further inflame tensions is high. And to Minnesotans, there's a difference. We want calm and peace and normalcy back to our lives. They want chaos. We cannot and we will not give them what they want by meeting violence with violence. Minnesota and our local law enforcements, as you have seen, have done everything possible to deescalate.
(06:22)
Local media has reported extensively on the cooperation to deescalate this situation. Donald Trump, I call on you once again. Remove this force from Minnesota. They are sowing chaos and violence. We've seen deadly violence from federal agents again and again and again. But in contrast to that on these frozen streets, what you witnessed yesterday was the best of Minnesota, peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights. And I attended in the church basement hundreds of Minnesotans from all faiths packing care packages for families that have been ripped apart.
(07:05)
Despite the horrific acts by this federal government, Minnesotans are standing up for the rule of law. They're protesting loudly and urgently, but peacefully. It must stay that way, Minnesota. Minnesotans are witnessing and we're creating a log of evidence for the future prosecution of ICE agents and officials responsible for this. They're helping their neighbors, they're walking their kids to school, they're feeding families. I salute their courage and their restraint, and I call on all Americans to see the decency that this state is exhibiting and the horrific cruelty, unprofessional, absolute abomination that is passing for what these ICE agents are doing on our streets. They think they can provoke us into abandoning our values. Well, they're dead wrong. We'll keep the peace. We'll secure the justice with our neighbors and we'll see this occupation ends. Minnesotans and Minnesota law enforcement that continuously is being denigrated by this administration will continue to be the adults in the room, the professionals in the room, the decent human beings in the room that will keep the peace.
(08:17)
With this, I'd like to turn it over to Department of Public Safety Commissioner Bob Jacobson to update you on the situation as we know it.
Bob Jacobson (08:23):
Thank you, Governor. I'm Bob Jacobson, Commissioner of Public Safety for the Department of Public Safety. And again, it's my honor to serve in that position. A man was shot and killed this morning in Minneapolis. I want to pause and remember what cannot get lost in this moment. A man died. His family and friends are feeling unimaginable heartbreak and trauma. And I know Minnesotans and I know our community will rally around this man's family and friends to support him. I also understand clearly that people are upset. They're scared. They're confused. And I want to assure you that this state's public safety officials and our local law enforcement partners are doing everything in our power to get answers to help return a sense of normalcy back to our communities.
(09:30)
You have the right to demonstrate peacefully. We recognize that demonstrations are often driven by strong emotions, beliefs, and a desire to be heard. But please, please remain peaceful. And I want to say it again because it is important and it is critical. Peacefully demonstrate. By doing so, you help local authorities to get answers. You help us to do our investigations. By remaining peaceful, you help ensure nobody else may be killed or injured. The thousands and thousands of people who gathered yesterday in Minneapolis prove that Minnesotans can make their voices heard peacefully and they can do so without violence and they can do so without destruction. And state resources are available and ready to support our local law enforcement partners as requested. And those resources include the Minnesota State Patrol, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and the Minnesota National Guard. With that, we'll stand for questions.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Governor, you've made this request before. Is there any reason to believe that it will be answered differently? Have you had any conversations with the President, with the federal government, and is there any indication that they are going to pull out [inaudible 00:10:58]?
Gov. Tim Walz (10:58):
Well, I spoke twice this morning, shortly after I received the call of this shooting. I spoke with the President's chief of staff, and first request was to get her people out of there to get these federal agents out of there. They were going to cause more chaos. And second call is with no uncertain terms that we will investigate this. We will not be stonewalled. What we've already seen, and you saw it this morning, before any investigation is done, you have the most powerful people in the federal government spinning stories and putting up pictures and unrelated people who we don't know anything about and a picture of a firearm to try and spin a narrative. And I ask Americans, this will end when enough Americans say this will end. Do I have any confidence Donald Trump will do the right thing? No, I don't have a lot of confidence Donald Trump will do the right thing.
(11:57)
I do have a lot of confidence that the majority of the American people will do the right thing. And I think there cannot be very many people across this country looking right now after all the reporting that's been done, after everything that's been said under the pretense that they are here about immigration reform, and quit referring to these people as law enforcement. They are not law enforcement. We have law enforcement who do an incredible job. And to listen to Greg Bovino, denigrate the work of our people who are out there cleaning up their mess, no, I don't have a lot of confidence that he himself will do it, but here's what I do have confidence in. There's a whole lot of Republicans for whatever reason cannot find their spine, but they might find the ability to know that they're not going to win another election as long as they live unless they stand up for what's right and stand up for the rule of law and stand up for human decency, and that's the moment.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
So then just to follow up, because then if that is not the case, what are the people of Minnesota supposed to do who are in the middle right now? Because if they do stonewall and you're trying to investigate, is that forcing [inaudible 00:13:01]?
Gov. Tim Walz (13:00):
No it's a good question. And look, I speak to the people of Minnesota right now. I hear that scream from you and I'll continue to plead and ask you for peace. And I know the answer is "You ask us for peace and we give it and we get shot in the face on the streets coming out of a donut shop." We cannot give them what they want. I don't know how to say this in so many terms to watch the madness that we've witnessed over this last week coming out of the White House and what it's doing here. My confidence is, and I'll say it to Minnesotans, as I've said, exercise your First Amendment rights, speak out, bear witness and document legally. But I understand the risk in that. And I understand the courage that it takes to have people out there doing this. Thank God, thank God we have video because according to DHS, these seven heroic guys took an onslaught of a battalion against them or something.
(14:00)
It's nonsense people. It is nonsense and it's lies. So my confidence is this, Minnesotans. You know who you are and you demonstrate it every single day and we damn sure know who these people are. The American public knows and this needs to be the event that says enough.
(14:21)
Go ahead.
Caroline Cummings (14:22):
Governor, Caroline Cummings, WCCO. Neither you or Commissioner Jacobson speak to the fact that you talk about you don't trust the federal government to handle this investigation. We know with the Renee Good shooting, BCA said that they were blocked from accessing evidence. Has there been any suggestion that BCA is not allowed to do this investigation? Do you have officers on the ground doing an investigation right now?
Bob Jacobson (14:44):
The question was related to whether or not the BCA is on the ground currently with the investigation and a reference to previous investigations that the BCA have attempted to be a part of. What I'll tell you right now is that we no longer have BCA agents or Public Safety State Patrol of Minneapolis on the ground at that crime scene.
Caroline Cummings (15:04):
And is that an instruction by the federal government or did you pull your agents out?
Bob Jacobson (15:08):
What I will tell you, and not to get further into the investigation, but DHS pulled out of the scene leaving that to Minnesota State Patrol of Minneapolis. We did not have enough resources to be able to hold that ground safely, and we had to leave that scene because of the number of people that were available and the safety of those in the public and the safety of our teams.
(15:32)
We were able to get there, but at that time we're not able to hold that scene to do a crime scene investigation. I can't talk any more about those details.
Caroline Cummings (15:43):
Who is handling the investigation then, if not neither DHS nor state officials right now?
Bob Jacobson (15:47):
We'll have more on that, but the BCA is engaged and involved, and we are working at the request of the Minneapolis Police Department on the scene and in this investigation. So we are there, we're available. We want to make sure that we continue to work on this and engage with our federal law enforcement, but at this point we don't have anything more to share about the crime scene. Again, we were not able to hold it. We wanted to make sure and keep people safe, but federal law enforcement left the scene and left us there.
Ernesto (16:22):
Governor, Ernesto, with the New York Times. Have you activated the National Guard? I noted that Sheriff Witt has requested for additional assistance. Can you tell us whether they're going to be playing a role in keeping the peace?
Gov. Tim Walz (16:32):
Yeah. Yes. The answer is yes, we have. As we said last week, and we staged those troops. I'll have General Manke talk about where they're at. And again, use this as an opportunity to stress to Minnesotans, the frustration you have, and as you saw this, they killed a man, created chaos, pushed down protestors, threw gas indiscriminately, and then left the scene, and then we were left to clean up. I understand the anger. I understand trying to parse who were the law enforcement on the scene when you got there after a man was killed is difficult for folks who are out there, but I can't stress enough, our goal, and I'll have General Manke talk about what the role of these guard troops are in conjunction with incredible work from the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office, from mutual aid across, and of course the state patrol of trying to get to the point where what we're saying is we can handle this and Minnesotans can express their First Amendment rights and have our folks on the streets and get these people out of here.
(17:33)
And so Shawn, if you want to talk a little bit, but the answer is yes, there's activated. He can talk to you about numbers.
Caroline Cummings (17:38):
To be clear, Governor activated different than having them staged.
General Manke (17:41):
So the question is, what's the National Guard doing right now? So we have been on state active duty for over a week, so we've had soldiers prepared in the metro area to respond in a much rapid manner than if they were not mobilized. So we have a request from the Hennepin County Sheriffs to support them, and that is to help them free up additional resources for other work that they need to do. And we have started coordinating with them this morning on that, and that first area of support will be assisting them with their requirement to provide security to the Whipple Building. So we'll be helping them there. And then we are in parallel planning with other organizations within the state of Minnesota to include the State Patrol, the Minnesota DNR and other local agencies to render assistance if requested.
Ernesto (18:33):
Can you say how many are deployed?
General Manke (18:37):
I would say that the number that we have is adequate for the requests that we have right now. And I will also tell you that we are bringing more resources that will be able to respond in a timely manner that are not fully mobilized yet, but we are mobilizing more soldiers as we talk at this time. I'd like not to get in the specific numbers for an operational security standpoint, but right now we have all the resources to meet the requests that we have.
(19:03)
Governor Walz.
Gov. Tim Walz (19:04):
I would note on this one too that we'll be billing the federal government for the cost of the National Guard because they are incurring the costs that are falling on us by their reckless actions. Yes, sir.
Speaker 7 (19:16):
You've alluded to this earlier, but are you projecting the narrative that has been presented by federal officials that this man, this 37-year-old citizen of Minneapolis posed a threat to these agents? And do you reject any idea that he played some role with his weapon in leading to his death.
Gov. Tim Walz (19:31):
I'm rejecting the rush to judgment within 15 minutes of this, which they did last time, that that's why you need to have a fair investigation. And that's why a video can show one thing, but what happened beforehand, but they already will slander this individual. They've already made this the case. And I will just say you will all start to see it, and some of you probably have. There's multiple angles of this. And I'll go back to what we talked about before. They're telling you not to trust your eyes and ears, not to trust the facts that you're seeing in front of them. And at some point in time, you're reporting, and I think the reporting this week has been spectacular across Minnesota, that there's not two sides to every story. But in this situation, what I'm saying is we need to have a fair investigation understanding what's happening and held accountable.
(20:16)
We continue to hear, and we heard it from the vice president that these folks can do whatever they want. They can have full immunity. And what I'm telling you is they will not. There will be justice to Minnesotans, continue to gather the information. So I won't say where it is because I think it's irresponsible to make that judgment, but what I see with my eyes and what you're going to see with your eyes makes that pretty hard to believe. And I would imagine as a federal officer, they would have come out and sounded like these professionals sound and say, "We need to gather the information. We need to gather all the facts. We need to put them forward and then we can make some informed decision based on the facts." They've written the narrative already and the audacity to critique the police chief of Minneapolis after what work that those heroic officers are trying to do and to be critiqued by this guy.
(21:07)
I mean, I don't know, I've said it a lot, but America, as you're listening, enough is enough. Enough is enough of this. End this, end this. And we see them moving to Maine. If you're in Boston, you're in Chicago, you're in Philly, you're in Miami, it doesn't matter. We can't live like this. Our children are in trauma. A five-year-old, you saw the picture, the bunny hat and the Spider-Man, these are not like some narrative to throw around, a parade around in some coat you had made and act like you're a tough guy or whatever. These are people's lives and we have rule of law. So I'll let the investigation play itself out. We will do our best to find it. But I don't know, you kill a man and then you just leave, your law enforcement, you just leave. Is there a single case in America history where you just walk away and say, "I guess that just happened and we're not going to clean up our mess." I'm proud of Minnesotans.
(22:01)
I'm proud of law enforcement here and our partners and we'll get to the bottom of it. I think we have time for another one.
Brittany Ermon (22:07):
Brittany Ermon with KSTP Channel Five. ICE Commander just said in the press conference within the hour that they're calling on state and local law enforcement to quote, "Help coordinate to get violent criminals off the street." What's your response to that request?
Gov. Tim Walz (22:20):
I'm better off to let these guys, the professionals. I have my thoughts.
Bob Jacobson (22:25):
So the question was, what are we doing to assist federal law enforcement on getting violent criminals off the street, if I understand the question?
Brittany Ermon (22:33):
[inaudible 00:22:34]. So what is your response there?
Bob Jacobson (22:40):
State and local law enforcement are always ready and willing and able to arrest violent offenders. We do not stand down from that no matter where we get that information from. If there are violent offenders or violent criminals or violent crimes, we will investigate and we'll bring those to justice. If the federal government would like to work with us, to continue to work with us as they have in the past to locate those violent offenders, we are always open to those discussions and always willing to assist. We do not ignore that. We are ready and able and we do do that. All of you as part of the media hear us arresting violent offenders all the time.
(23:22)
We have not stood down. That is our mission. The federal government is not alone in arresting violent offenders. State and local law enforcement does that every day at great risk to their life, at great risk to the community. We do it because we want a safe Minnesota and the federal government is not the only one to do that.
Speaker 9 (23:51):
Thank you. Thank you.