A person sprayed Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar with an unknown liquid at a city corridor in Minneapolis on Tuesday, however she vowed to not be intimidated and declined to right away depart the occasion to get checked out.
The person was instantly apprehended and was booked into Hennepin County Jail for third diploma assault, the Minneapolis Police Division instructed CBS Information. Police stated Omar was not injured.
Omar, a Democrat, was calling for the abolishment of ICE and for Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem to resign when a person sitting within the entrance row rushed up to her and sprayed her with a substance whereas yelling at her. Native police stated he used a syringe.
Safety personnel grabbed the person, who was led out of the room in handcuffs, whereas different employees tried to get Omar to go away.
Omar refused, saying, “We are going to proceed. These f***ing a**holes should not going to get away with it!”
“This is the fact that individuals like this ugly man do not perceive: We’re Minnesota sturdy and we’ll keep resilient within the face of no matter they may throw at us,” Omar stated, earlier than persevering with to talk and take questions for nearly half-hour.
Reuters
Somebody in attendance stated that no matter was sprayed “smells so unhealthy” and urged Omar to “go get checked.”
The U.S. Capitol Police stated in a press release: “Tonight, a person is in custody after he determined to assault a Member of Congress – an unacceptable resolution that might be met with swift justice.”
“We at the moment are working with our federal companions to see this man faces essentially the most critical prices doable to discourage this sort of violence in our society,” the company continued.
Omar later posted on X that she’s OK.
“I am a survivor so this small agitator is not going to intimidate me from doing my work,” she wrote. “I do not let bullies win.”
The incident at Omar’s occasion comes throughout a tense interval in Minneapolis following the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti by two Customs and Border Protection agents on Saturday, which prompted days of protests.
Hundreds of federal immigration brokers have been deployed to the Twin Cities space since final month as a part of a crackdown by the Trump administration that has drawn stiff criticism from Omar and different native politicians.
Omar is the second Home Democrat to be bodily confronted in latest days. In an unrelated incident, Rep. Maxwell Frost of Florida said Saturday he was assaulted throughout an occasion on the Sundance Movie Pageant. Native police in Park Metropolis, Utah, alleged {that a} man “unlawfully entered a non-public get together” and assaulted the congressman and one different particular person. He was arrested on prices of easy assault and aggravated housebreaking, police stated.
Members of Congress have confronted a big uptick in threats in recent times. The U.S. Capitol Police says it investigated 14,938 threats and regarding statements in opposition to lawmakers, their households and their employees final yr, up from 9,474 in 2024 and eight,000 in 2023.
Omar, the primary Somali-American elected to Congress, has spoken frequently about the death threats she has acquired, lots of which have included racist or Islamophobic language.
