January 9, 2026 • 7 mins
ABC News Law Enforcement Contributor Don Mihalek assesses the actions of the federal agents involved in the Minneapolis ICE shooting incident.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Straight to the hotline and bring in ABC News Law
enforcement contributor and retired senior Secret Service agent Don Mahllick
is back with us, and I do want to note
Don is a former Secret Service senior Firearms and Regional
Training instructor and he's a use of force expert. Don,
I'm so glad that we could talk to you this
morning about the situation in Minneapolis. I'm sure you've watched
(00:22):
the videos multiple times, like all of us have. What
is it that stands out to you about how this
whole thing unfolded?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Well, first of all, I just want to caution people
to make judgments based upon videos, because videos are often
an incomplete source of evidence and information with a use
of force incident. So that's why when you supports incident
happens in law enforcement, especially federal law enforcement, for investigations
ensue where they've take into account the videos, witness testimony,
(00:52):
and other investigation information in order to make a judgment call.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
On a federal level, those four.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Investigations will be done by the Department of Justice looking
civil rights violations, the FBI looking at criminal violations, potentially,
the Department of homelande Security, Office of Inspector General looking
at departmental violations, and then ICE itself looking at policy violations.
So that's my caveat to just making judgments based upon videos.
(01:20):
Having said that, when you watch the video, it's pretty
clear that the officers are trying to stop this vehicle.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
They get out of their car, they go up to
this vehicle.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
One officer goes to the driver's side door, the other
one goes looks like to the front of the car.
It looks to me like the officer at the front
of the car draws his weapon because they probably don't
know what you're dealing with with this individual in the car.
Clearly she doesn't like whatever they're saying. She turns the
wheel and then she heads right at the officer that's
(01:51):
in front of the car, who then spires and then
tries to get out of the way, and it appears
from the video he does get hit in the leg
by the car, and then we see what happens at
the end of the video.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
So that's what the video shows me.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
And by the standards of Graham versus Connor, which is
the totality of circumstances, and you're supposed to put yourself
in the officer's position, not use hindsight to make a
judgment call and a use of force, it's probably going
to go the officer's way, and so far as it'll
be ruled as a justified use of force, which is
(02:31):
a different question than a judgment call of whether the
officer should or should not have put themselves in that position.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
That's actually a training issue.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
We're joined by retired Senior Secret Service Agent Don Mahalik,
who was a Secret Service senior Firearms and Regional Training instructor.
Is there anything in the actions among those federal law
enforcement agents that you saw that you find questionable?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Well, you know, it's always difficult for a federal agency
to go into a local community and do work because
the local community doesn't know who the federal agents are,
doesn't know who the officers were, which is why typically
the federal agencies partner with the local police departments in
order to do their work, because then you have a
(03:22):
local representatives that people know the uniform, they see the uniform,
and they're more apt to to, you know, not confront
or cause a problem. Then it's it always bothers me
when I see and we see this a lot around
the country. Now because of the politics involved that ICE
is out there trying to perform their mission that they're
(03:42):
tasked with, and there is no local police presence in
most cases out of politics. That bothers me as a
law enforcement officer, because I think that's not really helping
the problem. I think that's exacerbating situations like this, and
I would really hope that police arments around the country,
leaders and police farms around the country would really look
(04:04):
at what's going on. I think twice before they just
say no to supporting another agency.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
I've seen reporting that the training these officers are supposed
to receive, especially in circumstances involving a vehicle, that the
training they're supposed to get doesn't quite match what unfolded
in that situation. Is there anything you can clear up
about that?
Speaker 2 (04:30):
There is no training in the world that's going to
cover each and every type of situation and officer is
going to confront. You typically take, you know, the majority
of situations, and you train officers and principles. So with
cars and car stops, you train officers in positioning where
the best position themselves. You know how to properly if
you're doing a you know, regular police training how to
(04:52):
stop a car. It's hard to get into exactly, you know,
each and every type of situation with cars, because because
there's a million of them, so it's hard to do that.
But you do try to train them in principles. But
what typically happens after an incident like this is that
incident at some point will be digested by the training
folks and then they will use that incident as a
(05:13):
training point when they're training, either retraining current ice officers
or future ice officers, they'll probably go over the incident
and maybe go over some training points to impress upon
those officers.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
We're joined right now by ABC News law enforcement contributor
and retired Senior Secret Service Agent Don Mahalek. The woman
was clearly blocking the road, and you know, there are
all kinds of questions as to why she decided to
put herself into that position, but putting that aside for
a moment, the way the law enforcement officers approached her
(05:52):
to try to get her to either move get out
of the car. Is there anything that we should take
away from that? And I think for a lot of people,
they're watching the video and their thing and it's really aggressive,
you know, the language they were using going up to
the door and all of that. Is there a lesson
to be learned from that well, And that goes back
(06:14):
to the totality of circumstances. We don't really know what
was happening beforehand.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
We don't know what was happening with this individual and
the ICE officers beforehand. There are paid protesters out there,
there's targeting of ICE officers around the country. There are
protesters that intentionally go to different locations around the country
to incite and bother and follow ICE officers while they're working.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
We don't know if that was the case here or not,
So we.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Don't know if that's why when the officers got to
this individual there was this heightened you know, they got
out of the car and they were already heightened.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Having said that, you know, it's always.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Best to try to confront a situation in a measured way.
It's hard at times because everybody's human, but that is
typically a better way to confront the situation and being
careful of your language. And these days, for the current
crop of law enforcement officitudes, I think they teach them
uh annoys him about cameras on them and being recorded
(07:15):
and being taped and to be careful what you're saying
was coming out of your mouth. So you know, my
questions go to what was going on that led them
up to this particular situation. That's something I would like
to know because that would inform why they got.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
To the point they were at ABC News, Law enforcement
contributor and retired Senior Secret Service agent Don Mahalick with us. Don,
we always appreciate the time and insight, especially into two
tough topics like this one.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Thanks so much, Thanks, Ryan, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
The Ryan Gorman Show on NewsRadio WFLA.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Ryan Gorman Show,
and find us online at Ryangormanshow dot com.
Straight to the hotline and bring in ABC News Law
enforcement contributor and retired senior Secret Service agent Don Mahllick
is back with us, and I do want to note
Don is a former Secret Service senior Firearms and Regional
Training instructor and he's a use of force expert. Don,
I'm so glad that we could talk to you this
morning about the situation in Minneapolis. I'm sure you've watched
(00:22):
the videos multiple times, like all of us have. What
is it that stands out to you about how this
whole thing unfolded?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Well, first of all, I just want to caution people
to make judgments based upon videos, because videos are often
an incomplete source of evidence and information with a use
of force incident. So that's why when you supports incident
happens in law enforcement, especially federal law enforcement, for investigations
ensue where they've take into account the videos, witness testimony,
(00:52):
and other investigation information in order to make a judgment call.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
On a federal level, those four.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Investigations will be done by the Department of Justice looking
civil rights violations, the FBI looking at criminal violations, potentially,
the Department of homelande Security, Office of Inspector General looking
at departmental violations, and then ICE itself looking at policy violations.
So that's my caveat to just making judgments based upon videos.
(01:20):
Having said that, when you watch the video, it's pretty
clear that the officers are trying to stop this vehicle.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
They get out of their car, they go up to
this vehicle.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
One officer goes to the driver's side door, the other
one goes looks like to the front of the car.
It looks to me like the officer at the front
of the car draws his weapon because they probably don't
know what you're dealing with with this individual in the car.
Clearly she doesn't like whatever they're saying. She turns the
wheel and then she heads right at the officer that's
(01:51):
in front of the car, who then spires and then
tries to get out of the way, and it appears
from the video he does get hit in the leg
by the car, and then we see what happens at
the end of the video.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
So that's what the video shows me.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
And by the standards of Graham versus Connor, which is
the totality of circumstances, and you're supposed to put yourself
in the officer's position, not use hindsight to make a
judgment call and a use of force, it's probably going
to go the officer's way, and so far as it'll
be ruled as a justified use of force, which is
(02:31):
a different question than a judgment call of whether the
officer should or should not have put themselves in that position.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
That's actually a training issue.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
We're joined by retired Senior Secret Service Agent Don Mahalik,
who was a Secret Service senior Firearms and Regional Training instructor.
Is there anything in the actions among those federal law
enforcement agents that you saw that you find questionable?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Well, you know, it's always difficult for a federal agency
to go into a local community and do work because
the local community doesn't know who the federal agents are,
doesn't know who the officers were, which is why typically
the federal agencies partner with the local police departments in
order to do their work, because then you have a
(03:22):
local representatives that people know the uniform, they see the uniform,
and they're more apt to to, you know, not confront
or cause a problem. Then it's it always bothers me
when I see and we see this a lot around
the country. Now because of the politics involved that ICE
is out there trying to perform their mission that they're
(03:42):
tasked with, and there is no local police presence in
most cases out of politics. That bothers me as a
law enforcement officer, because I think that's not really helping
the problem. I think that's exacerbating situations like this, and
I would really hope that police arments around the country,
leaders and police farms around the country would really look
(04:04):
at what's going on. I think twice before they just
say no to supporting another agency.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
I've seen reporting that the training these officers are supposed
to receive, especially in circumstances involving a vehicle, that the
training they're supposed to get doesn't quite match what unfolded
in that situation. Is there anything you can clear up
about that?
Speaker 2 (04:30):
There is no training in the world that's going to
cover each and every type of situation and officer is
going to confront. You typically take, you know, the majority
of situations, and you train officers and principles. So with
cars and car stops, you train officers in positioning where
the best position themselves. You know how to properly if
you're doing a you know, regular police training how to
(04:52):
stop a car. It's hard to get into exactly, you know,
each and every type of situation with cars, because because
there's a million of them, so it's hard to do that.
But you do try to train them in principles. But
what typically happens after an incident like this is that
incident at some point will be digested by the training
folks and then they will use that incident as a
(05:13):
training point when they're training, either retraining current ice officers
or future ice officers, they'll probably go over the incident
and maybe go over some training points to impress upon
those officers.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
We're joined right now by ABC News law enforcement contributor
and retired Senior Secret Service Agent Don Mahalek. The woman
was clearly blocking the road, and you know, there are
all kinds of questions as to why she decided to
put herself into that position, but putting that aside for
a moment, the way the law enforcement officers approached her
(05:52):
to try to get her to either move get out
of the car. Is there anything that we should take
away from that? And I think for a lot of people,
they're watching the video and their thing and it's really aggressive,
you know, the language they were using going up to
the door and all of that. Is there a lesson
to be learned from that well, And that goes back
(06:14):
to the totality of circumstances. We don't really know what
was happening beforehand.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
We don't know what was happening with this individual and
the ICE officers beforehand. There are paid protesters out there,
there's targeting of ICE officers around the country. There are
protesters that intentionally go to different locations around the country
to incite and bother and follow ICE officers while they're working.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
We don't know if that was the case here or not,
So we.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Don't know if that's why when the officers got to
this individual there was this heightened you know, they got
out of the car and they were already heightened.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Having said that, you know, it's always.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Best to try to confront a situation in a measured way.
It's hard at times because everybody's human, but that is
typically a better way to confront the situation and being
careful of your language. And these days, for the current
crop of law enforcement officitudes, I think they teach them
uh annoys him about cameras on them and being recorded
(07:15):
and being taped and to be careful what you're saying
was coming out of your mouth. So you know, my
questions go to what was going on that led them
up to this particular situation. That's something I would like
to know because that would inform why they got.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
To the point they were at ABC News, Law enforcement
contributor and retired Senior Secret Service agent Don Mahalick with us. Don,
we always appreciate the time and insight, especially into two
tough topics like this one.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Thanks so much, Thanks, Ryan, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
The Ryan Gorman Show on NewsRadio WFLA.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Ryan Gorman Show,
and find us online at Ryangormanshow dot com.
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