A community group said Monday that St. Paul police officers violated department policy during a protest of an ICE operation two weeks ago.

Michelle Gross, Communities United Against Police Brutality president, said she was part of a Board of Peace Officer Standards and Training working group in 2022 that wrote a model policy on police interactions during First Amendment-protected activities.

She said the St. Paul Police Department has corresponding policies. Officers in Payne-Phalen violated them, Gross wrote in a letter to the City Council last week, by:

Spraying people in the face “with large amounts of pepper spray” when they were not violating the law, “including anyone near the intended target.”
Using chemical munitions “as a form of collective punishment even though the crowd was not engaged in illegal activities.”
Shooting pepper ball and “other direct fired munitions … indiscriminately into the crowd and at people’s heads and other nonpermitted areas of the body.” They are “only to be used with individuals who are breaking the law.”
Targeting media members “who were clearly identifiable.”

A St. Paul Police Department spokesperson said Monday their investigation is ongoing and referred to a previous statement from Chief Axel Henry.

“A full review of the department’s response to the incident on Nov. 25, 2025, is under review,” Henry said. “This includes our response to resistance and aggression (RRA) and other related policies or practices.

“We are committed to a thorough review. This consists of viewing hundreds of hours of body camera footage, as well as footage being shared by community members.”

City Council plans to take up investigation at Wednesday meeting

The St. Paul City Council and the city’s Police Civilian Internal Affairs Review Commission have both said they want an independent investigation.

Toshira Garraway Allen of Families Supporting Families Against Police Violence said the city council should have had the matter at the top of their agenda last week.

“When people mistreat other human beings for any reason at all … they should be held accountable,” she said at a Monday press conference at St. Paul City Hall.

The City Council was going to take up the matter at last Wednesday’s meeting and now plans to at their meeting this Wednesday, said Council President Rebecca Noecker.

“We are finalizing the language of that resolution, and really want to make sure that we get it right,” she said at Wednesday’s council meeting.

The council is working to determine who should conduct an independent investigation; they expect the results to be presented to the Police Civilian Internal Affairs Review Commission for review, Noecker said. The council will also be asking the city’s Office of Financial Services to determine the police costs from the operation.

Community members came to last week’s council meeting and wanted to address city council members, Gross said.

The city council typically does not have public comment on resolutions, and there will not be a public hearing this week, according to Noecker. The council is asking Henry to meet in a closed-door session with them to prepare for a broader community conversation.

The resolution will be introduced under suspension of the rules because it was not ready by last week’s deadline to be placed on the city council agenda, Noecker said.

Community leader: Man federally charged was trying to provide a better life

On the morning of Nov. 25, federal deportation officers “were conducting an operation in St. Paul to arrest an undocumented alien who had been previously removed from the United States and who had subsequently re-entered the United States unlawfully,” according to a probable cause statement signed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation officer and filed with a criminal complaint in federal court.

They were carrying out surveillance at the address that was the focus of the law enforcement action in the 600 block of East Rose Avenue.

ICE arrested Victor Molina Rodriguez, who they said is from Honduras and who was previously removed from the U.S. His “rap sheet includes domestic abuse and disorderly conduct. He chose to commit a felony by illegally re-entering the U.S.,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement.

At about the same time, federal officers saw another man — later identified as Jeffrey Lopez-Suazo — leave the same residence. He went to a Toyota parked outside.

Lopez-Suazo drove about half a block, “suddenly jerked his vehicle to the left” and struck the passenger side of the ICE officer’s vehicle, according to the probable cause statement filed in court. He drove back to the address in the 600 block of East Rose Avenue and ran into the home.

Federal law enforcement surrounded the residence. As word spread about an “ICE raid,” the Immigrant Defense Network says nearly 200 people gathered to observe and protest.

“The misinformation that’s being spread out there, that this young man is violent … is not true at all,” said Mary Anne Ligeralde Quiroz, Indigenous Roots Cultural Arts Center co-founder and executive director, on Monday. “Jeffrey is a 26-year-old young man making the best of his life here, supporting his family. He was a main income earner and caretaker of that home. He was just trying to provide a better life.”

He and his family are from Honduras and “here on asylum,” she said, adding, “How is it they’re leaving a country where they were getting persecuted only to come to another country to persecute them again?”

Lopez-Suazo is charged in federal court with assaulting and impeding a federal officer, and improper entry to the U.S. He has entered a plea of not guilty.

Related Articles

New Oakdale group home will support youth impacted by sexual exploitation, human trafficking

Seven takeaways from Mary Lucia’s revealing new memoir

St. Paul City Council pushes back vote for review of police use of force during ICE operation

New Eagan Police Chief Salim Omari cut his teeth in St. Paul

Rosemount police chief resigns following complaints levied in anonymous employee survey