“They were blowing whistles and screaming at the Border Patrol people to get away from the school, get away from the students,” Carol said. “The agents started scuffling with the people.”
In the midst of that, Carol said, she saw a Border Patrol commander, Gregory Bovino, dressed in camouflage like the agents, walk to one of the school’s entrances trailed by an agent who appeared to be recording him.
Unlike most of the other Border Patrol officers, Bovino made no attempt to cover his face.
“They were filming this whole thing like it was a reality TV show,” Carol said. “He was standing in the doorway and one of his men was filming him and he was looking at us with contempt, like we were not even human beings.”
Carol also provided NBC News with video she recorded of the incident, which shows residents cursing and yelling “Shame! Shame! Shame!” at Bovino and the Border Patrol officers before they left the school.
DHS said in a statement that it was at Roosevelt High School because a U.S. citizen who had rammed his car into a government vehicle while it was conducting “immigration enforcement operations” had led them on a 5-mile car chase that ended at the school.
“While the subject was being removed from his vehicle, an individual who identified himself as a teacher proceeded to assault a border patrol agent,” DHS said in a statement. “While this was happening, a crowd began to form and grow—rioters threw objects and dispersed paint on the officers and their vehicles. Despite repeated warnings to cease, the crowd continued with their hostilities and assaults. Officers used targeted crowd control for the safety of law enforcement and the public. No tear gas was deployed.”
The Minneapolis Federation of Teachers posted a statement on Facebook saying that an educator was arrested and released. And while DHS denied using tear gas, the union alleges that agents had deployed tear gas on people at the scene.
“We will not tolerate ICE inhibiting our city’s youth from their constitutional right to attend school safely or inhibiting educators from doing their job,” the union said.
NBC News has asked the agency whether anybody was arrested or taken into custody stemming from the incident. It did not immediately respond.
Carol’s account mirrors earlier reports from local media like MPR News, which was among the first to report on the incident.
Kate Winkel, who lives nearby, told MPR News she saw Border Patrol personnel scuffling with school staff members and parents at the school.
“I think school property should be off-limits. I think our kids need to feel safe at school,” Winkel said. “The federal government doesn’t need to attack schools.”
Those outlets also published photos of Bovino at the school.