Press exposed to tear gas, other chemical irritants at Minnesota protests

Protests erupted across the Minneapolis, Minnesota, area in January 2026, after a sweeping federal immigration enforcement surge heightened tensions between residents and federal agents. More unrest followed after a woman was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, an ICE officer shot and wounded one man, and Border Patrol agents shot and killed another.

As demonstrations unfolded, some journalists covering them were threatened with arrest, while others were repeatedly exposed to chemical irritants such as tear gas and pepper spray. At times, the exposure forced reporters to pause their coverage, retreat to other areas or wash out their eyes — echoing the types of disruptions seen at similar immigration protests in Illinois and California last year.

The Department of Homeland Security has not responded to requests for comments about journalists affected by its use of the munitions.

While these January incidents are not formally classified as press freedom violations under the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s 11 established categories, we’ve provided a roundup of them below, organized by date and location. This roundup will be updated as additional incidents are verified.

To learn more about how the Tracker documents and categorizes violations of press freedom, visit our FAQ page.

Jan. 7, 2026

In Minneapolis

• Videographer Oliya Scootercaster, founder of FreedomNews.TV, was exposed to tear gas while capturing video of protesters after an ICE officer shot and killed Minneapolis resident Renee Good nearby.
• KMSP-TV reporter Karen Scullin and other media were affected by chemical irritants after ICE officers pepper-sprayed protesters blocking the road. “Got hit just being near. That stuff hurts bad,” Scullin wrote on social media. “Skin, eyes, lungs. Waiting it out.”

Jan. 8, 2026

In Fort Snelling

• During a video report outside the Whipple Federal Building, CNN correspondent Ryan Young can be heard coughing as he says, “The pepper ball spray is very strong. They use that to make sure that the crowd stays back.” Later in the video, smoke is seen filling the air. “They have deployed an agent, folks,” Young said.

Jan. 11, 2026

In Fort Snelling

• Status Coup journalists JT Cestkowski and Jon Farina told the Tracker they were repeatedly caught in the clouds of tear gas and impacted by federal agents’ deployment of stun grenades. “No distinction was made between press and protesters,” said Cestkowski, who was also shot in the arm and buttocks with pepper balls that day. Farina was also struck by a crowd-control munition during the coverage.

Jan. 14, 2026

In Minneapolis

• Reporter Wali Khan said in an Instagram post that an ICE officer threatened him with arrest while he was filming the aftermath of protesters flattening the tire of an unmarked ICE vehicle. “Just press,” Khan said in the Instagram video. “I don’t give a fuck if you’re the press,” the officer responded. “We’re giving everybody a fucking warning: If they fuck around, they’re going to get arrested.”
• Status Coup journalist Zach Roberts and photographer Jon Farina were exposed to tear gas fired by various law enforcement agencies. Also that day, Roberts was hit in the head with debris from a crowd-control munition.
• CNN correspondent Whitney Wild said on air that she and her crew were hit with chemical irritants. “It’s a little hard to breathe because they just let off several flash bangs, multiple tear gas canisters.” She added that she and her producer, Meridith Edwards, got separated from photographer Jonathan Schaer at one point because it was so foggy from the tear gas, as shown in another CNN video.

Jan. 15, 2026

In Fort Snelling

• Photographer John Abernathy was subjected to intense tear gas and deliberately pepper-sprayed as federal officers detained and arrested him. “As soon as that hit me, I was 100% defenseless. It was extreme pain. My eyes were burning, my face was burning and that was near my last breath,” Abernathy told the Tracker of the pepper spray.
• Martha Kelner, a reporter for Sky News, struggled to report after federal officers fired chemical irritants into the air. “As you can see, the police, with their weapons drawn, they’re firing tear gas, pepper bullets, too,” she said before she was overwhelmed. “Apologies, as you can hear that tear gas is really catching in the throat of everyone here.”
• Reporter Wali Khan can be heard reacting in pain and coughing as he is exposed to tear gas fired by federal agents in an Instagram video taken outside the Whipple Federal Building, which houses ICE.

In Minneapolis

• CNN correspondent Julia Vargas Jones told the Tracker that she, her producer Sarah Moon and photojournalist Orlando Ruiz were affected by pepper ball residue. “We were in the crowd where federal officers were shooting to disperse the crowd,” Jones said. Ruiz’s eyes were especially irritated by the gust of the chemical irritant, and he needed to stop filming to clean them before continuing to report.
• In a CNN video, reporter Shimon Prokupecz retreated, coughing, from the area of a protest as law enforcement deployed tear gas and percussion grenades. “Wow. This is nasty,” Prokupecz said as he continued to choke through his report.

Jan. 21, 2026

In Fort Snelling

• Daniel Knowles, a Midwest correspondent for The Economist, told the Tracker he had RSVP’d to a DHS news conference but was denied entry for security reasons. “Pretty much all the foreign press there were excluded from what I could tell,” he wrote in an email.

Jan. 24, 2026

In Minneapolis

• CNN reporter Sara Sidner and photographer Jerry Simonson were inundated by a cloud of tear gas while reporting from the area where Minneapolis resident Alex Pretti was killed by a Border Patrol agent. In a video posted to Instagram, Sidner chokes violently after federal agents deploy the gas. “I can’t breathe,” she said, as the sound cuts on and off. Later, in another Instagram video, she said, “There was no physical reaction from protesters; the only thing they were doing was speaking their minds, and suddenly we were all gassed and munitions fired toward us.”
• KARE television reporter Samie Solina reported that she was sprayed with tear gas as crowds gathered where federal officers shot Pretti. “I was kind of coughing up and throwing up a little bit earlier in the day because of that chemical irritant,” Solina said.
• Wall Street Journal reporter Mariah Timms reported that federal agents deployed tear gas in the area where she was reporting, causing people around her to start wretching from the exposure. “It was getting cloudier down in that intersection,” she said in a video, adding that she quickly got her mask on, though it was not properly secured in the frenzy. “It was that sort of spicy, back-of-your-throat, difficult-to-catch-your-breath feeling,” she said.

Jan. 25, 2026

In Minneapolis

• Independent journalist Nick Valencia posted on Instagram that federal agents pointed a gun at him. “You show up with a camera, they show up with a gun and point it at you,” he wrote. “Last night in Minnesota, I repeatedly identified myself as a journalist and was repeatedly told by the feds they didn’t care who I was. They would shoot me.”