Was anyone arrested at church for violating covid lock downs in Minnesota?
Executive summary
No credible reporting in the provided sources indicates anyone was arrested at a Minnesota church for violating COVID lockdown orders; instead the coverage documents a January incident in which anti-ICE protesters disrupted a Sunday service at Cities Church in St. Paul and the U.S. Department of Justice opened an investigation into the disruption [1][2][3].
1. What actually happened inside the church that Sunday
A group of protesters entered and interrupted a Sunday service at Cities Church in St. Paul, chanting and confronting worshippers while livestream and social media video of the disruption circulated, and local police reported responding to roughly 30 to 40 protesters at about 10:40 a.m., but the available reporting frames the incident as a protest disruption, not an enforcement action for violating pandemic rules [1][4][5].
2. Federal reaction: a DOJ probe and talk of charges, not pandemic arrests
The Justice Department announced it was investigating the church disruption and said it intended to pursue charges against those involved, invoking protections such as the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act in public statements and prompting calls from federal officials for prosecution; none of the contemporary reporting links that probe to enforcement of COVID lockdown orders at the church [6][7][2][1].
3. Competing narratives — organizers, church leaders and ICE
Protest organizers, including Black Lives Matter Minnesota, presented the action as a targeted protest against an ICE official they believe is affiliated with the church and sought to spotlight alleged ICE tactics in the region, while church leaders and allied religious figures called the interruption lawless harassment and demanded protection for worshippers; ICE and some federal officials characterized the incident as intimidation of law enforcement and religious worshippers, creating sharply divergent interpretations of motive and propriety in the same event [8][9][10][5].
4. The question of identity and presence of the ICE official
Reporting repeatedly notes that protesters said one of Cities Church’s pastors, identified in public filings as David Easterwood and named in ACLU filings as acting director of ICE’s St. Paul field office, is the reason for the demonstration, but journalists and outlets reported uncertainty about whether Easterwood was present or leading that particular service, with several pieces saying he did not lead the livestreamed portion and that confirmation of his presence was unclear [3][8][11][9].
5. Arrests in the broader enforcement context — not arrests at the church for COVID violations
Some coverage places the church incident amid a wider, tense period of protests and federal enforcement in Minnesota, with outlets citing that thousands of arrests have occurred in the broader Operation Metro Surge or related actions in the region; however, those reported arrests concern clashes with law enforcement and immigration enforcement operations, and the sources do not report anyone being arrested at the church specifically for breaching COVID lockdown rules [10][4][5].
6. Limits of the reporting and the unanswered pieces
The assembled sources consistently describe a protest disruption and a DOJ investigation but do not address — one way or another — whether any person was arrested at the church for violating COVID-related restrictions; therefore, the available evidence supports a definitive answer to the user’s precise question: there is no reporting among these sources that anyone was arrested at the church for violating COVID lockdowns, and the record instead centers on protest disruption and a federal probe [6][1][2][3].