Tear-gassed infant is hospitalized amidst Lyndale unrest
Shawn and Destiny Jackson pose in the door of their SUV that they were in when chemical irritants were deployed during the unrest in North Minneapolis on Jan 14, affecting them and their six children. Photo by Azhae’la Hanson
By Azhae’la Hanson, Reporter
Destiny and Shawn Jackson were driving home with their six kids from a basketball game when they found their route blocked off by flashing lights, ICE agents and protestors.
They unknowingly drove through a chaotic scene on Jan. 14 when an ICE agent shot a person in the leg. With a growing crowd of onlookers and protesters, their SUV was stuck. The couple panicked as ICE approached them, yelling for them to move.
“I said, ‘Shawn, don't move that car, you've seen what happened to Renee,’ ” said Destiny, referring to the shooting death of Renee Macklin Good the week before. “You move this car, they're gonna do something to us.”
A tear gas canister rolled under their van and exploded, sending thick, toxic smoke through the vehicle’s vents. Two of their children have asthma, and one of them, 6-month-old D’Iris, stopped breathing.
Destiny gave her son mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. D’Iris survived. The whole family eventually made it to North Memorial Hospital, where they all received chemical decontamination and breathing treatments.
The shooting and the unrest that followed on the Northside put yet another spotlight on Minneapolis as thousands of ICE officers in Minnesota continue to aggressively patrol neighborhoods for undocumented immigrants.
The Jackson family’s story was covered by national press stationed in the Twin Cities to document the surge of immigration enforcement.
“We were on the way home, and we got caught up,” Destiny said.
The family's typical routine involves a packed car. They do everything as a family. They were high school sweethearts. Ever since they had their first child, now 11, they’ve juggled basketball games, school, and community events together as a family.
The start of their Wednesday night was no different. They had packed their kids into their SUV to watch their eldest’s basketball game. They stopped for groceries before taking their usual route home down Lyndale Avenue.
Nearing 23rd Street and Lyndale Avenue, the couple spotted police lights and thought it was a routine stop. As they got closer, they realized that they happened upon a tense scene of unrest following an ICE shooting.
Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis was shot in the leg by an ICE agent shortly before 7 p.m. on Jan. 14 on the 600 block of 24th Avenue North, where Sosa-Celis lived. Close to 200 protestors had gathered after the shooting.
They say they got out of the car to encourage Destiny’s mother, who had congestive heart failure, to go home. That’s when they got trapped in their vehicle.
Destiny described a chaotic scene that unfolded when ICE agents began to throw tear gas and percussion grenades on the streets.
The streets were filled with scrambling protestors and an increasingly aggressive crowd of ICE agents that were widening their perimeter around the neighborhood in all directions.
The Jacksons’ car was stuck, with nowhere to go.
The couple began to panic as ICE agents started to yell, “Get the (f—) out of here.”
The two say they were paralyzed with fear, recalling the exact scenario taking place with the recent ICE killing of Renee Good.
“I said Shawn, don't move that car, you've seen what happened to Renee. You move this car, they're gonna do something to us,” Destiny said.
When the ICE agents walked by, Destiny said they went near the back of their car and tear gas rolled under. She reported that the car lifted off of the ground.
“The airbags were being deployed, and slowly, the car started to fill with the tear gas,” she said.
What followed was every parent's worst nightmare.
Their ears were ringing, all of the airbags deployed flipping a carseat ajar in the process, and the doors locked everyone but Shawn inside.
Destiny said she climbed out of Shawn's door and began taking kids out of the car and into a nearby resident's home.
One by one the Jacksons made it indoors. Their children were coughing and shielding their eyes.
When Destiny saw D’Iris, she looked for signs of life.
“Nothing,” she said. “When he came in, he was lifeless, and there was foam around his mouth.”
She immediately began giving him mouth to mouth, while others poured milk on the other children's eyes.
“I'm trying to wipe the tear gas away from his airways. I can remember just crying, and still also trying to catch my breath, because I couldn't breathe.” Destiny said. “And I just started praying, and I just remember saying, ‘I'm gonna give you every breath until you take yours. I'm gonna give you all of mine until you take yours.’”
Shawn recalled trying to approach an ICE agent for help.
“My baby isn’t breathing because of tear gas,” he said he told an ICE agent.
He said the ICE agent gripped his gun and told him to calm down.
Brian Feintech, who oversees communications for the police, fire, and neighborhood safety departments, said first responders arrived at the scene 1 minute and 17 seconds after the 911 call. They assessed D’Iris and reported the baby breathing within three minutes of the initial call.
“Due to conditions at the scene, paramedics could not immediately reach the home where the baby was being treated by firefighters,” he said in a statement to North News. “MPD officers needed to escort firefighters and the children through the crowds and the perimeter established by ICE. Paramedics then transported the children to the hospital.”
The family is in stable condition. The couple say they are now facing the psychological impacts of the traumatic night.
They said their children looked at the car that was rendered inoperable, and asked if they were going to get a new car, and if it could be bullet-proof.
The Jacksons thank their neighbors for the immediate help that night.
“We have to stick together no matter what is going on,” Destiny said.
A GoFundMe was published by the Jacksons to support them after the incident.