{"id":308428,"date":"2026-01-28T18:29:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T18:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/308428\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T18:29:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T18:29:10","slug":"congresswoman-ilhan-omar-sprayed-with-unknown-substance-in-minneapolis-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/308428\/","title":{"rendered":"Congresswoman Ilhan Omar sprayed with unknown substance in Minneapolis \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar was sprayed with an unidentified substance by a man with a syringe on Tuesday as she gave her first in-person town hall event of the year in Minneapolis<\/a>, during which she called for Ice to be abolished \u201cfor good\u201d and Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem to resign.<\/p>\n

Ms Omar had only been speaking for a few minutes when a man in the audience got up and began to shout, while spraying her with the liquid. People at the meeting said the liquid had an acidic smell.<\/p>\n

Ms Omar walked toward the man after the alleged assault, but he was then swiftly tackled to the ground by a security guard. People inside the North Minneapolis community centre gasped as the scene unfolded.<\/p>\n

Some, such as Minneapolis council member LaTrisha Vetaw, pleaded with Ms Omar to end the town hall early to get checked, due to concerns for her safety because of the unidentified liquid. Ms Omar refused to stop. \u201cTen minutes, I beg you … please don\u2019t let them have the show,\u201d she told the security team.<\/p>\n

After the alleged attacker was subdued, there was applause from the room as he was escorted out. \u201cHere is the reality that people like this ugly man don\u2019t understand, is that we are Minnesota strong,\u201d the congresswoman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned at a young age that you don\u2019t give into threats.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Keith Duggan: Trump climbdown on Alex Pretti killing catches Homeland Security chief and Maga off guardOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The man was then arrested and booked into Hennepin county jail for third-degree assault, and forensics were called to the scene, Minneapolis police spokesperson Trevor Folke said. Jail records identified the man as Anthony James Kazmierczak (55).<\/p>\n

As she left the town hall, Ms Omar told reporters: \u201cI\u2019ve survived war. And I\u2019m definitely going to survive intimidation and whatever these people think they can throw at me, because I\u2019m built that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

She later posted on social media that she was okay, adding: \u201cI don\u2019t let bullies win. Grateful to my incredible constituents who rallied behind me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Omar is among a wave of Democratic politicians to react with outrage and horror to the shooting on Saturday of nurse Alex Pretti (37), the second fatal shooting of a US civilian by federal law enforcement in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n

The fatal shootings have resulted in calls from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers for Ms Noem to resign.<\/p>\n

US \u200bpresident Donald Trump <\/a>on Tuesday said Mr Pretti \u200dshould not have been carrying a gun or fully loaded magazines, comments that put him at odds with gun rights groups \u200dand some Republicans.<\/p>\n

Asked whether he agreed with administration officials who described Mr Pretti as a domestic terrorist, Mr Trump said: \u201cI haven\u2019t heard that, but certainly shouldn\u2019t have been carrying a gun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Trump, speaking to reporters at an Iowa restaurant, later added: \u201cHe had \u200ca gun. I don\u2019t like that. He had two fully loaded magazines. That\u2019s a lot of bad stuff. And despite \u2060that, I\u2019d say that\u2019s … very unfortunate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gun rights groups, including the influential National Rifle Association and Gun Owners of America, said Mr Pretti was legally carrying a concealed gun. \u2060Bystander video of Mr Pretti\u2019s killing was widely shared, showing he never touched his gun before being shot \u2060and contradicting some Trump officials\u2019 initial claims \u2060that he posed a threat to law enforcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou absolutely can walk around with a gun, and you absolutely can peacefully protest while armed,\u201d said Luis Valdes, a \u200dspokesman for the Gun Owners of America. \u201cIt\u2019s an American historical tradition that dates all the way back to the Boston Tea Party.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not happy,\u201d Mr Valdes said of Trump\u2019s latest comments.<\/p>\n

The National Rifle Association issued a statement on Tuesday evening after the president\u2019s comments in Iowa.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NRA unequivocally believes that all law-abiding citizens have a right to keep and bear arms anywhere they have a legal right \u200cto be,\u201d the group \u200cposted on X.<\/p>\n

Gun rights groups are one of the Republican Party\u2019s most loyal voting blocs. Such statements by Mr Trump and other administration officials have opened a rift ahead \u200cof midterm elections in November.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump made his comments while greeting supporters at an Iowa restaurant before a scheduled speech on \u2060the economy. He said his border tsar, Tom Homan, had met Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and was expected to meet Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey later on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Guardian\/Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Congresswoman Ilhan Omar was sprayed with an unidentified substance by a man with a syringe on Tuesday as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308429,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,16142,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,23477,5,7,8,107,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-308428","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-democratic-party","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-latest-news","15":"tag-latestnews","16":"tag-main-news","17":"tag-mainnews","18":"tag-minneapolis","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-top-stories","21":"tag-topstories","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-world","24":"tag-world-news","25":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115974148169127958","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}