Did a witness swear an affidavit about being afraid to go home after ICE shooting

1. What the reporting actually says about a sworn affidavit of fear

ABC News reported that “a witness in a federal court filing” described being pepper‑sprayed and tackled by agents and said elements of the encounter are described in a sworn declaration by Minneapolis Assistant City Attorney Heather Robertson, indicating court filings contain sworn material about the scene and bystanders’ conditions ^[1]. Local outlet Fox9 published a firsthand account stating a witness “says they feel afraid” and “in the hours after the shooting they don't feel like they can go home because they heard ICE agents were looking for them,” language presented as a witness claim rather than raw court text ^[2].

2. How to read “sworn declaration” and “federal court filing” in these stories

The ABC piece explicitly uses the phrase “sworn declaration” for the assistant city attorney’s filing, which carries legal force in federal litigation and means the signer attests under penalty of perjury to the contents of the document ^[1]. The Fox9 report relays a witness’s fear in journalistic summary form rather than reproducing an affidavit verbatim, so that fear is reported as the witness’s statement rather than as an attached affidavit excerpt ^[2]. Neither news excerpt provided here reproduces the full affidavit or affidavit language, so reporting confirms the existence of sworn court material but does not allow independent verification of every quoted sentence.

3. Official and opposing narratives in the record

Federal authorities have offered a different account, saying the person shot had approached agents with a 9mm handgun and resisted disarmament — a narrative the Department of Homeland Security and other federal spokespeople have defended, and which is central to federal investigations and litigation over the incident ^{[1] [3]}. Advocacy groups such as the ACLU have characterized the federal presence and conduct as aggressive and have demanded accountability after related incidents, signaling a clear adversarial framing of the government’s actions ^[4]. These competing accounts matter because whether a witness reasonably fears returning home can hinge on both what agents did and how they behaved afterward, a point raised across reporting ^[5].

4. Context: why fear and witness‑intimidation concerns matter legally and practically

Longstanding legal frameworks treat credible fear of intimidation as a basis for witness‑protection measures, and advocacy organizations and legal briefs cited in reporting raise concerns about observers being tracked or led to their homes during ICE activity — allegations that, if substantiated, would fit common patterns of witness intimidation and warrant protective orders or other remedies ^{[6] [5]}. Federal guidance and criminal statutes recognize relocation, anonymity, and other protections where witness safety is threatened; news reports about court orders enjoining destruction of evidence underscore the litigation stakes and the court’s recognition that witness statements and scene handling are material to the dispute ^{[1] [7]}.

5. Limits of available reporting and what remains unverified

The assembled reporting shows witness fear being reported by Fox9 and indicates sworn filings exist per ABC, but the primary affidavit or declaration alleging fear are not attached in the materials provided here; therefore it cannot be independently confirmed from these sources whether the quoted language appears verbatim in a sworn affidavit, who exactly signed it, or whether multiple witnesses filed similar statements ^{[2] [1]}. Additionally, federal claims about the suspect’s actions and weapons remain part of the official investigative record and are being litigated, so context and motive disputes remain unresolved in the sources supplied ^{[1] [3]}.

6. Bottom line

Contemporaneous news coverage and court filings reported in ABC News and Fox9 indicate that at least one witness told reporters and appears in court filings to have expressed fear of returning home after the ICE‑involved shooting in Minneapolis; the ABC piece frames that material as a sworn declaration in a federal filing while Fox9 quotes a witness saying they felt targeted and unsafe ^{[1] [2]}. The underlying documents are not included among the provided sources, so while the reporting establishes that a sworn court filing and witness accounts exist describing fear, independent verification of the exact affidavit language, signatory, and corroboration require inspection of the primary court records themselves ^{[1] [2]}.