ICE agent criminally charged in Minnesota for pointing gun at drivers, prosecutors say

Prosecutors in Minnesota have criminally charged a federal immigration officer with assault in what appears to be a first-of-its-kind case following surges of agents into cities under Donald Trump’s administration.

Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr. faces two counts of second-degree assault for allegedly threatening victims with his firearm, according to a criminal complaint announced by Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty on Thursday.

Morgan is accused of speeding up alongside a victim’s car, pulling out a gun and repeatedly pointing it at people inside during a February incident.

Local law enforcement has issued a warrant for Morgan’s arrest. If convicted, he could face up to 36 months in prison.

The charges mark the first against an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer for actions during Operation Metro Surge, which saw hundreds of federal agents deployed to the state for dragnet-like arrests targeting immigrants and protesters. The surge also included the fatal shooting of two Minnesota residents in scenes that sparked outrage throughout the nation.

On February 5, Morgan — behind the wheel of an unmarked rental SUV — was illegally driving on the shoulder of Highway 62 when another car briefly moved into the shoulder to slow him down, according to Moriarty’s office.

When the victim moved back into traffic, Morgan sped up and then matched the pace of the other car, opened his window, and pointed his gun “directly at both victims in the other vehicle while continuing to drive illegally on the shoulder,” her office said.

The charges “reflect an important milestone in our efforts to seek accountability for the harms inflicted on community,” Moriarty said in a statement.

Asked during a press conference whether her office is concerned about potential blowback from the Trump administration, which has resisted efforts from local law enforcement to investigate federal agents who have shot and killed Minnesota residents, Moriarty said it is “not a concern of ours.”

“Our role, by the way, is to hold people accountable if they violate the laws of Minnesota,” she added. “In this particular case, we feel strongly that this agent committed second-degree assault against both of these victims. We have charged the case, and our intent is to hold them accountable.”

The Trump administration has also suggested federal agents possess “absolute immunity” from state-level prosecutions, and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, in a statement shared by Homeland Security, has told agents that “no one” — including city and state officials — “can prevent you from fulfilling your legal obligations and duties.”

Moriarty told reporters that the administration is “wrong” to believe that agents possess absolute immunity from criminal prosecution.

The Department of Justice could, however, try to remove a state-level case to federal court, where state prosecutors could continue to press a case against the officers.

“The burden is on the agent to show that what they were doing was in the scope of their authority as a federal agent,” Moriarty said.

“Our opinion is that illegally driving on a shoulder, pulling up to a car, and pointing a gun at the heads of two community members ... is well beyond the scope of their authority as federal agents,” she said. “We will litigate that in court.”

The Independent has requested comment from Homeland Security.

Moriarty’s office is investigating several other violent incidents involving federal officers, though she has accused the administration of “obstructing” efforts to collect evidence.

In this case, her office was able to collect evidence from state and local law enforcement, including Minnesota State Patrol, Minneapolis Police and the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office.

Officials in Minnesota are separately investigating the arrest of a U.S. citizen after ICE broke into his home at gunpoint and dragged him outside into freezing conditions while he was wearing only boxer shorts and Crocs sandals.

The arrest of 56-year-old ChongLy “Scott” Thao is being reviewed as a potential case of kidnapping, burglary and false imprisonment, officials in Ramsey County announced earlier this week.

ICE and Border Patrol agents killed three people in Minneapolis — Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, Renee Good and Alex Pretti — within the month of January alone. But more than two months later, the status of those investigations remains unclear.

A lawsuit filed by Minnesota officials last month calls on a federal judge to force the Trump administration to share evidence it collected after the shootings, alleging that Homeland Security and federal law enforcement agencies have stonewalled attempts for information about incidents that triggered national demonstrations against the president’s mass deportation efforts.

In the cases of Good and Pretti, both 37-year-old U.S. citizens, Homeland Security officials insisted that both protesters posed a direct threat to law enforcement officers when they were fatally shot.

In the weeks after their deaths, Trump’s border czar Tom Homan assumed control of Minnesota operations from Border Patrol’s Greg Bovino, who was relieved of his “commander-at-large” duty and sent back to his role in southern California.

Homan announced in February that immigration agents would be winding down operations in the state, which resulted in the arrests of thousands of immigrants and drew dozens of lawsuits alleging illegal use of force and unconstitutional arrests.