Federal agents shot and killed a woman during a large-scale immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis on Wednesday.

Ilhan Omar, the Democratic Minnesota congresswoman, said the victim was “a legal observer” of action by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which had sent a surge of agents into the city in recent days tied in part to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents.

A witness to the incident, Emily Heller, told local media that the victim was shot in the face multiple times. Heller said she saw a car blocking traffic that appeared to be part of a protest against the ICE operation, and heard an agent telling the driver, a woman, to “get out of here”.

“She was trying to turn around, and the ICE agent was in front of her car, and he pulled out a gun and put it right in – like his midriff was on her bumper – and he reached across the hood of the car and shot her in the face like three, four times,” Heller told MPR News, a Minneapolis public radio station.

A video posted to social media and another video obtained by the Guardian appeared to capture the moment of the shooting as a dark red SUV drove away from agents moving towards it, although the front of the vehicle is obscured.

In a post to X, the homeland security department (DHS) insisted the person was a “domestic terrorist” who “weaponized her vehicle” and attempted “to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them”.

It said several ICE officers were hurt, but expected to make full recoveries.

“An ICE officer, fearing for his life, the lives of his fellow law enforcement and the safety of the public, fired defensive shots. He used his training and saved his own life and that of his fellow officers,” the DHS post said.

The videos mentioned above appear to contradict that statement, as it shows the SUV clearly backing up away from ICE officers as they approach. There is one ICE officer that can be seen partially in front of the car as the car moves forward and then away from the officers. That same ICE officer is seen firing his gun as the car appears to drive by him. Three gunshots can be heard ringing out.

There is no visible sign in the videos of ICE officers being injured.

In a press conference, Jacob Frey, the mayor of Minneapolis, issued the following statement: “I do have a message for our community for our city and I do have a message for ICE. To ICE, get the fuck out of Minneapolis. We do not want you here. Your stated reason for being in this city is to create some kind of safety and you are doing exactly the opposite. People are being hurt. Families are being ripped apart. Longterm Minneapolis residents that have contributed so greatly to our city, to our culture, to our economy are being terrorized and now, somebody is dead.

Frey continued to address ICE: “That’s on you. It’s also on you to leave. It’s on you to make sure that further damage, further loss of life and injury, is not done.”

“They are already trying to spin this as an action of self defense. Having seen the video myself, I wanna tell everybody directly, that is bullshit,” Frey continued.

Large numbers of protesters gathered close to the scene in the south of the city shortly after the shooting, with law enforcement officers firing chemical irritants in an attempt to disperse them.

Brian O’Hara, the Minneapolis police chief, warned on Tuesday that he feared the surge of federal agents would lead to “tragedy”.

“I’ve been concerned for weeks that because the issue is so emotional, because, frankly, some of the way this stuff has been carried out, the greatest risk to me is that there would be unrest or that there would be a tragedy,” he said, reported by CBS News.

“Somebody could get seriously hurt or killed because of what’s happening.”

Live video posted online Wednesday showed a large presence of federal officers, local officers, yellow police tape and cars that had been in a crash. Commander Gregory Bovino, of US Customs and Border Protection was in the group.

Omar, who was born in Somalia, shared news of the shooting on Bluesky, writing: “I’ll continue to monitor the situation closely and will update as soon as I receive information. ICE must stop terrorizing our communities and leave our city.”

Tim Walz, the Democratic Minnesota governor, said he was also trying to establish the circumstances.

“My public safety team is working to gather information on an ICE related shooting this morning,” he posted to X. “We will share information as we learn more. In the meantime, I ask folks to remain calm.”

Video posted to social media showed two vehicles that appeared to have collided. The driving wheel airbag of one the vehicles had deployed and appeared to show blood on it.

In the footage, bystanders can been seen and heard blowing whistles and taunting the federal agents, telling them to go home. A woman said she spoke to an eyewitness who told her the person shot was a woman who “took off” from federal agents.

“They shot her through the windshield. They shot her in the face,” the woman said.

The Guardian has been unable to verify the authenticity of the videos.

Jon Collins, a reporter for MPR News, posted to Bluesky that protesters stopped ICE agents after the shooting and were pepper sprayed.

“ICE tear gassed a lot of people as they drove down the alley. People were stuck in alley and hit hard. Some people are still getting medical treatment,” he wrote.

The Department of Homeland Security said on Tuesday that it had launched an extraordinary immigration enforcement operation, with 2,000 agents and officers expected in the Minneapolis and St Paul area for a crackdown tied in part to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents.

The Immigration Defense Network, a coalition of groups serving immigrants in Minnesota, held a training session Tuesday night for about 100 people who are willing to hit the streets to monitor the federal enforcement.

The Associated Press contributed reporting