Did an ice agents finger really get bit off?
Executive summary
The preponderance of contemporaneous reporting and court filings says yes: a Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) officer suffered a fingertip injury that investigators allege was bitten off during the chaotic protests in Minneapolis, and federal prosecutors charged two people in connection with separate biting incidents [1] [2]. Department of Homeland Security officials publicly displayed graphic photos and senior officials—including DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin and Attorney General Pam Bondi on social media—described the finger as bitten off, and law enforcement affidavits submitted to federal court describe a missing fingertip recovered from the agent’s glove [3] [4] [2].
1. The claim and how it entered the public record
Within hours of the Minneapolis shooting that sparked protests, DHS officials and allied political figures publicly claimed an HSI officer’s finger had been bitten off, posting graphic images on X and making statements at news conferences that the agent “will lose his finger,” which quickly fed into national headlines [5] [3] [4].
2. What the contemporaneous court records say
Federal charging documents and an HSI investigator’s affidavit allege that Claire Feng bit the right ring fingertip of an agent “from the nailbed,” leaving bone exposed, and that the fingertip was found inside the agent’s glove; the affidavit’s description and included photos were cited by local reporting and the federal complaint [2].
3. Media corroboration across outlets
Multiple mainstream and local outlets repeated the DHS assertions and the contents of the affidavits: Fox9 reported the affidavit’s language that the injury “left the agent with a tip of his finger bitten off,” NBC and USA Today relayed DHS briefings and quotes from officials, and several national sites reproduced the DHS images and officials’ statements [1] [5] [6] [3].
4. The defendants and the charges
Two people—Claire Feng and Emily Baierl—were federally charged after separate alleged biting incidents during the unrest; one affidavit links Feng to the ring fingertip injury and another alleges Baierl bit a different agent’s middle finger, with both defendants accused of assaulting and interfering with federal officers [1] [2].
5. Political context and competing narratives
Officials from DHS and allies used the incident to underscore a narrative of violent anti-federal unrest, while critics and family members of the man shot by a Border Patrol agent disputed aspects of the enforcement action and raised alarms about federal tactics; news reporting notes those competing frames without DHS fully explaining operational details at the time [5] [7].
6. Limits of available public evidence
Public reporting relies on DHS statements, the court affidavits, and photographs posted by DHS and officials—sources that document the injury and the fingertip found in a glove—but independent, third-party medical confirmation released publicly has not been cited in the reporting provided here, and some officials acknowledged that details were still being clarified amid protests [3] [2] [5].
7. How to weigh the evidence
Given that federal affidavits used in criminal charges describe a fingertip removed down to the nailbed and recovered, and DHS officials circulated photos and statements to the same effect, the assembled public record supports the factual claim that a fingertip was bitten off; however, because reporting to date rests on law enforcement affidavits and agency-released images rather than an independent medical report released publicly, a narrowly literal certainty about every clinical detail depends on evidence not disclosed in the sources provided [2] [3].