ST. PAUL, Minn. — An ICE agent is charged with pointing his duty weapon at two people in another vehicle on the highway, the first federal officer charged in connection with Operation Metro Surge, Hennepin County’s chief prosecutor announced Thursday.

Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr., 35, was heading to the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building to end his shift on Feb. 5, said County Attorney Mary Moriarty.

He later told investigators the driver of another vehicle swerved in front of him and cut him off on the Crosstown at Minnesota 62 and Interstate 35W. Morgan was driving illegally on the shoulder, the criminal complaint said.

He said “he feared for his safety and the safety of others so, in response, he pulled along (the other vehicle), rolled down his window, drew his firearm, and yelled ‘Police Stop,'” according to the complaint. Morgan said he was trying to get the other driver to “back up.”

The driver reported Morgan had shouted something indiscernible. Both the driver and passenger reported they did not know the Expedition’s driver was associated with a law enforcement agency — he was not wearing a uniform and there were no markings on the vehicle indicating it was being used by law enforcement.

“Mr. Morgan’s conduct was extremely dangerous,” Moriarty said. “Driving while pointing a weapon out of your moving vehicle at the victims who were in another moving vehicle could have led to yet another disastrous incident in a community that has already suffered too many.”

An attorney for Morgan wasn’t listed in the court file as of Thursday afternoon. Spokespeople from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement didn’t respond to a Pioneer Press inquiry.

Last month, Moriarty and the state sued the Trump administration to gain access to evidence they say they need to independently investigate three January shootings by federal officers in Minneapolis, including the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, during Operation Metro Surge.

Prosecutors were able to bring charges in the February case because “virtually none of the obstacles around evidence collection that exist for the January shootings exist in this case,” Moriarty said. Thursday’s charges are the first of their kind that Moriarty said she knows of around the U.S. during the Trump administration crackdown on immigration enforcement.

Morgan is charged with two counts of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon in Hennepin County District Court and a nationwide warrant was issued for his arrest. The complaint lists an address in Temple Hills, Md., a suburb of Washington, D.C., though Moriarty said it’s not known if he still lives there.

Traffic dispute at Crosstown merge

The Minnesota State Patrol received a report at 4:22 p.m. Feb. 5 that a driver of a Ford Expedition had pointed a gun at the occupants of another vehicle on eastbound 62 at the 35W interchange just past the Portland Avenue exit. The location is Richfield, according to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office.

With traffic and the interchange reducing from two lanes to one lane for a short distance, investigators “are aware that occasionally … a driver will flout the need to merge into one-lane traffic, drive illegally on the right shoulder, pass slower-moving traffic, and then merge later, saving a few seconds on a commute while irritating other drivers on the roadway,” the complaint said.

A driver reported waiting behind other vehicles when a black Expedition approached from behind, driving illegally on the right shoulder. The driver “moved their car partially onto the shoulder in front of the Expedition, attempting to ‘cut him off a little bit’ and block the Expedition driver’s effort to bypass traffic unlawfully,” the complaint continued.

The driver returned to the legal traffic lane and Morgan continued on the shoulder. Traffic cameras showed that Morgan “had an opportunity to proceed well past” the other vehicle “or merge behind,” the complaint continued.

The driver reported that, instead, the Expedition’s driver pulled alongside, rolled down his window and pointed a handgun at the heads of the driver and passenger. They both felt threatened, Moriarty said of their reports.

The passenger shared cellphone videos that showed the Expedition’s license plate. State Patrol investigators determined it was a rental vehicle leased by an ICE employee and Morgan was identified as his law enforcement partner.

Morgan voluntarily talked to the State Patrol. He said he and his partner were conducting surveillance for ICE in Minneapolis and then was driving to the Whipple Federal Building to end his shift and get gas.

He “made no claim that he was conducting any law-enforcement operation or activity or responding to any emergency situation during the incident,” the complaint said. Morgan’s partner confirmed the Expedition had no markings or lights to indicate they were associated with law enforcement.

Meanwhile, the driver of the other vehicle believed “only that there was a ‘crazy person driving down the road aiming guns at people … the type of individual that should [not] be out there but they are,'” the complaint said of the driver’s report to the State Patrol.

Immunity at issue?

In January, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection employee from Texas was charged with drunken driving after authorities say he was found passed out and “covered in vomit” in a car in St. Paul at about 3:30 on a Tuesday morning, but the nature of Thursday’s case is different.

Officials in the Trump administration have said ICE officers have “absolute immunity” from state prosecution, though Moriarty said that assessment is incorrect. She said she expects the agent may try to say he was working within the scope of his authority.

“We view him as acting in a way that was certainly not at all what he was authorized to do as an ICE agent,” Moriarty said. “He says he was driving back to Whipple after the shift was over to gas up the car. But what we firmly believe is that pointing a gun at somebody, pointing a gun at their heads … was clearly not within his authority as a federal agent.”

Michael Gerhardt, a constitutional law professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said federal officers are granted immunity for actions within the scope of their official responsibilities.

He said the actions described in the arrest warrant don’t seem relevant to the officer’s duties. But because he was on-duty at the time, the officer could petition to move the charges to federal court and make a claim for immunity.

“When you look at it more closely, flashing a gun is a serious threat,” Gerhardt told the Associated Press. “And there’s a good argument that isn’t part of his official duties … it’s abusing his powers.”

Ramsey County Attorney John Choi and Sheriff Bob Fletcher announced Monday that they’ve investigating the January arrest of a St. Paul Hmong-American man by federal immigration officers as a potential case of kidnapping, burglary and false imprisonment.

The lawsuit filed last month by Moriarty and the state accuses the federal government of reneging on its promise to cooperate with state investigations after the surge of some 3,000 federal law enforcement officers into Minnesota.

The Trump administration has suggested Minnesota officials don’t have jurisdiction to investigate. State and county prosecutors say they need to conduct their own inquiries.

Minnesota and Hennepin County officials have appealed to the public to share information about federal officers’ potentially illegal activities, given the refusal by federal authorities to provide evidence. Moriarty announced in March that they are investigating 17 cases, including Border Patrol Cmdr. Greg Bovino allegedly throwing a gas canister in the direction of a park.

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