Federal prosecutors have filed assault charges against two women following a violent confrontation with U.S. Border Patrol agents that left one officer permanently disfigured. The incident occurred on Saturday morning in South Minneapolis, just moments after federal agents fatally shot 37-year-old Alex Pretti.
Claire Louise Feng, 27, of St. Paul, and Emily Duchateau Baierl, 37, of Minneapolis, both face federal charges of assaulting a federal officer. The charges stem from a chaotic scene on Nicollet Avenue where a crowd had gathered to protest “Operation Metro Surge,” a controversial federal immigration enforcement initiative.
According to criminal complaints unsealed Monday, the violence erupted shortly after 9 a.m. as agents attempted to establish a perimeter around the scene where Pretti had been killed.
The Alleged Assaults
Federal authorities allege that Feng tackled a Border Patrol agent who had tripped and fallen while attempting to arrest another individual. When a second agent intervened to pull Feng away, she reportedly latched onto his hand.
The complaint describes a gruesome scene: despite wearing tactical gloves, the agent felt a sharp pain in his right hand. Because he was wearing a gas mask to protect against chemical irritants being deployed to disperse the crowd, the agent did not immediately realize the severity of the injury. It was only after he was able to remove his glove later that he discovered the tip of his ring finger had been severed.
The missing portion of the finger was later recovered from inside the agent’s glove. He was treated by medics on-site before being transported to a local hospital for surgery.
In a separate incident during the same struggle, Emily Baierl is accused of biting a different agent’s middle finger while he attempted to remove her mask. Baierl had allegedly been throwing objects at officers prior to her arrest.
Legal Proceedings
Both Feng and Baierl were booked into the Sherburne County Jail over the weekend. During their initial court appearances on Monday, federal prosecutors argued for continued detention, citing the violent nature of the alleged assaults.
If convicted, the women face significant prison time. Under federal law, assaulting an officer with resulting bodily injury carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
Attorneys for the defendants were not immediately available for comment on Monday afternoon.
The shooting of Pretti and the subsequent arrests have sparked renewed calls for transparency regarding federal law enforcement tactics in the region. Further protests are expected throughout the week as the community awaits more information regarding the fatal shooting that served as the catalyst for Saturday’s unrest.
When you’re fighting with someone, it’s not safe to stick your finger near their face — I learned that at about 5 years old.
And ‘he was wearing a gas mask, so he couldn’t feel his finger being bitten off’ — that just doesn’t make sense to me.
Not sticking up for ICE, but I viewed photos of his hand, his bloody glove, and the severed tip of his finger. Many mainstream media outlets covered the story and published the photos.
He was wearing gloves, and felt the pain, but didn’t know the tip was missing until he took his gloves off. From the article:
“Because he was wearing a gas mask to protect against chemical irritants being deployed to disperse the crowd, the agent did not immediately realize the severity of the injury. It was only after he was able to remove his glove later that he discovered the tip of his ring finger had been severed.”
There simply is no way that a human being has the jaw strength and sharp enough teeth to bite through a gloved hand and sever a fingertip, so why report it as face? ICE had said an agent’s finger was bitten off, which is impossible.
More recently, the same ICE agents claimed a handcuffed Latino intentionally ran into the brick wall and sustained critical head trauma. HCMC emergency room medics say to ICE reason is “medically impossible,” because there were multiple points of skull damage and fracture that could not be caused as ICE described.
It is not only possible, but not that uncommon to have part of your finger bitten off. I’ve witnessed happen in an actual street fight.
The photos have been verified and reported on by mainstream media as well, showing the agent, his finger, the severed tip, and bloody clothes.
I applaud the brave heroes who [redacted for promoting violence]
If I were on the jury, I would find both Feng and Baierl Not Guilty. They were both clearly acting in self-defense of our great city. These are very unusual times we are living through, where our City/State is quite literally under attack from the Federal Government. We should not be convicting those who are on the front lines defending our City and our State.