MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minneapolis couple says that after being inadvertently trapped between protesters and immigration authorities this week, an agent launched a tear-gas canister under their family’s SUV, saturating the vehicle with toxic fumes that left them and several of their six children, including a baby, needing hospital treatment.
The harrowing ordeal the Jackson family endured on Wednesday illustrates how residents living in and around the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul have felt the impact of the Trump administration’s most aggressive immigration crackdown to date, even if they were not among the many residents who have taken to the streets in protest of the operation.
Destiny Jackson, 26, said the family was driving home after attending a middle school basketball game when they reached a blocked street in north Minneapolis, near the site where a federal agent shot a man in the leg after authorities say the man attacked someone during an attempted arrest.
Jackson said people were simply standing around and the scene appeared relatively peaceful, so they stopped to ask what was happening. She then noticed her mother in the street and said she spent 20 to 30 minutes trying to persuade her to leave.
“I was only trying to get her to go home,” Jackson said. “I’ve only seen these kinds of things on TV. Some end well, others don’t.”
The situation grew more tense, she said. She could hear stun devices going off in the street and there was smoke in the air. As protesters crowded the street around them, the family began to back away, but they encountered federal agents who told them to move, she said.
Jackson said they waited for the agents to retreat, because she knew a man had shot and killed Renee Good while she was in her vehicle. She thought that would be their chance to leave, but an agent later fired the tear-gas canister beneath their SUV.
She said she heard a bang and the car’s airbags deployed. The family’s vehicle filled with toxic gas. Jackson said her children cried and shouted that they could not breathe, so she ran to unlock the doors and pull them out. She said the eyes of her six-month-old were closed and he did not move.
Emergency responders reported a baby with breathing trouble, and local authorities said they pushed their way through the crowd to respond. The fire department noted that the infant was breathing and was in stable condition but in grave shape before being taken to the hospital.
Jackson said she, her husband, the baby, a 7-year-old, and an 11-year-old also received hospital treatment.
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said the agents were responding to groups of “disturbers and agitators” and did not target the Jacksons or “their innocent children.”
Jackson says that since posting online about her family’s harrowing experience, she has received frightening threats and messages of hate.
“I try not to pay attention to the negativity. I know what happened. I know what my intentions were,” she said. “I was on my way home.”
