Feds charge Minneapolis man with threats after early morning raid

A Minneapolis anti-ICE activist has been arrested on charges that he cyberstalked and threatened federal agents on his social media accounts, according to the Justice Department.

Kyle Wagner, 37, was charged in U.S. District Court in Eastern Michigan after investigators allege his Facebook and Instagram posts showed a progression of “escalating threats” toward law enforcement amid the federal immigration agent deployment to Minnesota in the past month.

Wagner was arrested Thursday morning, Feb. 5, at his apartment building on E. Franklin Avenue and will make his first court appearance the same day. He did not have an attorney listed prior to the hearing.

According to the criminal complaint, Homeland Security investigators reviewed several videos posted to Wagner’s Facebook and Instagram accounts that they allege showed an effort to mobilize others “to take direct action against federal officers.”

On Jan. 8, the complaint said Wagner posted a video on his Instagram directly threatening Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, saying “we’re [expletive] coming for you.” The following day, investigators in the complaint said he published a Facebook post with instructions to follow ICE agents and their vehicles, including directions to “hunt ice — vehicles can be sacrificed — disable their vehicles surround them and disarm them — arm yourself and work in crowds.” He continued that “ICE needs to be locked down and disarmed and detained until a national Investigation is conducted.”

In another video on Jan. 13, investigators allege Wagner called for the identification of “every single” ICE agent for prosecution and “if that has to be done at the barrel of a gun, then let us have a little [expletive] fun.”

Investigators referred to one of Wagner’s videos posted following the fatal Jan. 24 shooting of Alex Pretti as an act of “violent resistance” against ICE. The complaint said Wagner identifies himself in the video as antifa, short for anti-fascist, to “go and [expletive] fight them.”

“Wagner’s alleged actions were an attempt to spread fire into our peaceful community. That is not going to happen,” U.S. Attorney Jerome Gorgon Jr. for the Eastern District of Michigan said in a prepared statement.

Word of a federal raid on Franklin, as well as videos spread on social media as images of masked agents marching past shattered glass were shared, prompting critics to question whether immigration officials were truly drawing down forces or tempering their tactics, as border czar Tom Homan said the day before.

“Less than 24 hours ago, Tom Homan announced the end of large convoys in Minnesota,” Minneapolis City Council Member Aisha Chughtai posted from the scene.

Homan had also said agents would focus more on targeting known suspects.

Jose Piedra, a worker tasked with cleaning up the broken glass outside the apartment building, was finishing putting up plywood where agents had broken a glass panel to gain entry Thursday morning.

He noticed that agents had taken electronic devices from the apartment including a TV that was hanging on the wall above a stereo.

“They opened everything,” Piedra said. “They were looking for something.”

Inside the apartment were scattered mortar-style fireworks, Piedra added. And on the bed, he saw a fake skull depicting the Mexican folk deity Santa Muerte.

Ellen, a resident of the building who did not give her last name out of fear of retribution, said she slept through the arrest but heard from neighbors that at least four federal squad cars showed up and about 15 agents armed with rifles raided the building.

The detainee, whom she only knew as Kyle, presented himself on social media as a member of antifa.

She got a text just before 6 a.m. of the agents storming the apartment building. Ellen added that she felt bad for the man’s dog who was inside when the arrest took place, and that she felt the number of agents and their weaponry was unnecessary.