ICE agent charged with assault in Minneapolis after 'pointing gun at people from moving car'
Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr has been charged with two counts of second-degree assault after another driver said they feared a "crazy person was driving down the road aiming guns at people".
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An ICE agent has been charged with assault in Minneapolis after he allegedly "pointed his gun at people in a car" after pulling up alongside them
The driver of the other car said they thought he was a "crazy person" who was "aiming guns at people".
Prosecutors in Minneapolis said Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr. has been charged with two counts of second-degree assault, which each potentially carrying a seven-year jail term.
The city in Minnesota was filled with thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers from December under the orders of US President Donald Trump.
The 35-year-old was on duty and driving an unmarked rental SUV on the hard shoulder of a highway on 5 February.
A car then moved into the same lane and tried to slow down Morgan's vehicle.
Read more: Minneapolis Border Patrol agents involved in Alex Pretti killing suspended from force
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The other driver did not know Morgan was an officer, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said on Thursday.
Ms Moriarty said that as the other car returned into the legal lane, Morgan allegedly pulled up next to the vehicle and pointed his service weapon at the two people inside.
The driver told investigators they thought he was a "crazy person driving down the road aiming guns at people".
Morgan's SUV then blended in with the traffic in front of the alleged victims who snapped photos of the licence plate, prosecutors said.
Morgan and his partner, who has not been charged, told the investigation they were returning to their base after their shift ended.
They did not tell investigators they were involved in a ""law-enforcement operation or activity or responding to any emergency situation".
Morgan told officers from Minnesota State Patrol that the other vehicle "swerved over in front of him and cut him off".
He "feared for his safety and the safety of others" when he took out his gun, and yelled: "Police! Stop."
But the people in the other car could not tell whether Morgan was an officer and couldn't hear him because their windows were shut, the warrant said.
Three thousand federal officers were despatched to the Minneapolis-St Paul area between December and February in the US Department of Homeland Security's "largest immigration enforcement operation ever".
It led to thousands of arrests of arrests, mass protests and the fatal shootings of two US citizens, Renne Nicole Good and Alex Pretti.
Donald Trump fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in March amid criticism of the officers' aggressive tactics after the Minnesota operation ended.
Local authorities in Minnesota are investigating the conduct of officers in the crackdown, claiming they do not trust the federal administration to investigate.
Neither the DHS, of which ICE is a part, nor Morgan have not commented since the charges against him were announced.