Authorities in Minneapolis have arrested and charged a man after he allegedly sprayed Rep. Ilhan Omar with a foul-smelling liquid during a town hall meeting in the city on Tuesday.
Per Reuters, Omar, 43, was criticizing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) operations in Minnesota when the incident occurred. After the man appeared to spray Omar with the liquid from a syringe, he was quickly tackled to the ground by a security guard. Omar did not sustain any injuries.
Minneapolis police said that the man, identified as 55-year-old Anthony Kazmierczak, has since been charged with third-degree assault, ABC News reported.
“Tonight, a man is in custody after he decided to assault a Member of Congress — an unacceptable decision that will be met with swift justice,” the U.S. Capitol Police said in a statement.
The U.S. Capitol Police also said that it is “working with our federal partners to see this man faces the most serious charges possible to deter this kind of violence in our society.”
Prior to the incident, Omar was registering her displeasure with the behaviors of ICE agents and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. She also called for Noem to resign in the wake of the fatal shootings of Minneapolis residents Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti by ICE agents.
After President Donald Trump deployed ICE agents to Minnesota to intensively target and arrest suspected illegal immigrants, tensions have flared between the federal officials and anti-ICE protesters, with the latter demanding that they cease their operations and leave the state.
“ICE cannot be reformed, it cannot be rehabilitated, we must abolish ICE for good, and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem must resign or face impeachment,” Omar said at the town hall meeting.
Not too long after, the man stood up from his front row seat before approaching the Minnesota lawmaker and spraying her with the foul-smelling liquid, Reuters reported.
“You must resign,” the man told Omar. The 43-year-old then approached the man before he was ultimately restrained.
READ ALSO: Ilhan Omar slams Trump’s “deflection” after targeted online attack
Though the event was briefly paused, Omar returned to continue her speech despite her associates’ attempts to have her receive medical care. Her office, in a statement, later said that she was fine.
In a statement, the Minneapolis police said that forensic scientists had responded to the scene and were collecting evidence. A Reuters witness also said the liquid had an ammonia-like smell and triggered a minor case of throat irritation.
“I learned at a young age, you don’t give in to threats,” Omar told the audience after she declined to suspend the town hall meeting. “You look them in the face and you stand strong.”
Omar’s office also issued a statement in the aftermath of the incident. “During her town hall, an agitator tried to attack the Congresswoman by spraying an unknown substance with a syringe,” the statement, which was posted on Omar’s X account, said.
“Security and the Minneapolis Police Department quickly apprehended the individual. He is now in custody. The Congresswoman is okay. She continued with her town hall because she doesn’t let bullies win.”
Omar and her family immigrated to the United States from Somalia in 1995 to escape the civil war in the African nation. She became an American citizen in 2000.
Omar and Trump have also been repeatedly going at each other in public, with the president questioning her patriotism and telling her to return to her native Somalia.
Responding to Tuesday’s incident in a phone interview with ABC News‘ Senior Political Correspondent Rachel Scott, Trump said that he had not watched the video. But he suggested Omar orchestrated the alleged attack.
“I don’t think about her. I think she’s a fraud,” Trump said. “She probably had herself sprayed, knowing her.”
The U.S. Capitol Police said that for the third consecutive year, there has been a spike in attacks on members of Congress. The department said that in 2025, it investigated 14,938 cases linked to statements, behaviors and communications targeted at members of Congress, their families, staff, and the Capitol complex.
The number of such cases the department investigated in 2024 was 9,474.
READ ALSO: Trump suggests Ilhan Omar should be jailed or sent back to Somalia
