Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara is facing intense criticism after seemingly abandoning large swaths of the city to left-wing rioters following the death of Renee Nicole Good, who was shot and killed Wednesday while trying to run over a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent on Wednesday.
In the hours immediately following the shooting, Minneapolis Police officers pulled back from the scene of the shooting after coming under sustained attack from a mob that had gathered. Rioters proceeded to pelt fleeing police vehicles with ice chunks and other projectiles as they exited the scene.
By nightfall, hundreds of protesters had gathered downtown, where they blocked city streets and chanted “no-one is illegal on stolen land.” Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has claimed that demonstrators blocking streets would be met with a response, but this has yet to materialize as of Friday night.
By Thursday evening, rioters had set up makeshift barricades around the shooting site at the intersection of Portland and 34th street. Adorned with signs reading “No Justice, No Streets,” the barricades have effectively cut off access to the residential area.
Conservative commentator Jack Posobiec, whose brother Kevin has been covering the unrest on the ground, noted that the “autonomous zone” had largely dissipated by Friday morning, but not completely. He noted that the site appears to be getting replenished with outside food and supplies, something he described as a sign of outside funding.
The site has drawn comparisons to the “CHAZ” autonomous zone in Seattle during the George Floyd riots in 2020, when Seattle Police surrendered multiple city blocks to far-left rioters. Antifa-aligned militants ultimately set up their own “security forces” in the area, resulting in at least two deaths.
I stopped by what is left of the Minneapolis Autonomous Zone today at the spot where Renee Good attempted to kill an ICE agent
Note the fresh pallet of food and supplies. Evidence of funding pic.twitter.com/mx0d2Ju8oe
— Jack Posobiec (@JackPosobiec) January 10, 2026
While on-the-ground reporters noted that the protests have not reached the intensity of the George Floyd riots in 2020, many noted a distinct lack of police presence when the situation began to devolve further on Friday night. Groups of rioters stormed multiple hotels and assaulted staff members in response to rumors that ICE agents were staying inside.
These disturbances were largely ignored by police until they spiraled out of control, according to on-the-ground journalist Nick Sortor. Footage obtained by Sortor shows a contingent of Minneapolis Police, which included Chief Brian O’Hara, fleeing the scene not long after the situation spiraled out of control.
“They have now RUN AWAY and ABANDONED the area which has been TAKEN OVER by leftist anarchists,” Sortor posted on X. He went on to call on President Donald Trump to federalize the state’s National Guard and to invoke the Insurrection Act in order to quell the unrest.
An unlawful assembly was ultimately declared, but not before several hotels and other businesses had been vandalized. Footage obtained by FreedomNews.tv shows a rioter spitting in the face of a security guard who was attempting to guard a hotel, while additional videos showed rioters trashing the lobby of the Renaissance Hotel after rumors spread that ICE officers were staying at the building.
Anti-ICE protester SPITS at the face of a hotel security guard in Minneapolis, while hunting down ICE agents..
Liberals are horrible people. pic.twitter.com/USJEmQppPz
— American AF 🇺🇸 (@iAnonPatriot) January 10, 2026
🚨 BREAKING: MINNEAPOLIS POLICE SURRENDER TO ANTI-ICE RIOTERS AFTER OFFICERS ATTACKED
They have now RUN AWAY and ABANDONED the area which has been TAKEN OVER by leftist anarchists
IT’S TIME FOR THE INSURRECTION ACT, PRESIDENT TRUMP! LOCAL POLICE HAVE CEDED CONTROL TO ANARCHISTS pic.twitter.com/8u6D93Qi8X
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) January 10, 2026
Former Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf had harsh words for O’Hara, as well as Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, over their handling of the unrest. Frey immediately jumped to a press conference where he labeled claims of self-defense as “bulls***” before any investigation into the Good shooting had been conducted.
“The mayor’s comments were probably some of the most unintelligible, unhinged comments I think I’ve heard in quite some time,” Wolf said while speaking with Fox News. He accused Frey of unfairly blaming federal agents while laying “no blame at all on the individuals that are impeding law enforcement.”
Chris Moore, a retired law enforcement veteran who currently works as a legal analyst for CNN, said he was “floored” by the response from the Minneapolis Police Department as riots were ongoing on Friday night.
Moore told host Elex Michaelson that “for at least a half an hour and and by my count closer to an hour, we didn’t see any Minneapolis Police Department officers there. None.”
He added, “And so my feeling on this is that you couldn’t have that crowd at a hotel trying to enter the hotel, disturbing the peace for hundreds of people around there and have the police not know about it. This was the police, in my opinion, ignoring it. There wasn’t a single police car for about a half an hour. And that’s not an accident.”
