ICE Deployed Tear Gas On Family Car With Six Children Inside, Their Parents Say
Their mother, Destiny Jackson, performed CPR on her 6-month-old baby to save his life.
Waking up every day, it’s hard to imagine the news could possibly contain more tragedy than it already does. ICE agents have taken Minneapolis, Minnesota by storm, leading to the January 7 murder of Renee Good and, this week, the alleged tear-gassing of six children, including a 6-month-old infant who was hospitalized, according to their parents.
In interviews with both The New York Times and CBS News, Shawn and Destiny Jackson say they were driving home from their son’s basketball game the evening of January 14 when they drove through a part of town where protestors were clashing with ICE agents. Earlier in the day, an ICE officer shot a man in the leg — a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security told The New York Times the officer had been attacked by the man first and feared for his life, which sparked a new wave of tension between Minneapolis citizens and ICE agents.
The Jackson family passed through by accident. While trying to turn around, ICE agents swarmed the vehicle, telling them to leave the area, which the family assured them they were trying to do.
A wave of agents began blocking the street; Ms. Jackson said they did not want to move the car toward them because of what happened to Renee Good, in an interview with CBS Minnesota. Then, ICE began to deploy crowd-control grenades and tear gas canisters to quell the protest. Ms. Jackson told The Times that something rolled beneath her vehicle and there was “a concussive blast.” It set off the airbags throughout their SUV, flipped their 2-year-old’s car seat over, and triggered the vehicle’s doors to lock automatically, trapping the family inside as tear gas filled the car.
“It felt like our lungs was burning,” Mr. Jackson told NYT, before pointing out that two of his children have severe asthma. “Water didn’t help. Nothing helped at that moment.”
Mr. Jackson kicked open his door, and the parents began pulling their children out of the vehicle. Bystanders began bringing the children into their home while others tried to free their 6-month-old baby, who was stuck in the car seat. As soon as her youngest child was freed, Ms. Jackson saw he was not breathing and had foam around his mouth. She began performing mouth-to-mouth and CPR with instruction from EMS over the phone.
“I couldn’t even breathe myself and all I remember is between every breath I was saying, ‘I’m gonna give you every breath I have until you get yours back,’” Ms. Jackson recalled.
Meanwhile, residents in the area poured milk on the other children to neutralize the tear gas. The couple and three of their children, including their infant, were taken to the hospital for treatment, according to the NYT.
Footage posted to social media and a GoFundMe for the family show the damage to the family’s vehicle following the incident. The Jacksons say funds will be put toward a new car for the family and to pay bills until they can secure a new one, as they currently have no way to transport their children to daycare or get to work. DHS has not yet issued a public response to the Jackson family’s story. Scary Mommy has reached out for comment.
