A family of eight traveling in their car was caught in the crossfire between protesters and ICE agents in north Minneapolis, and it left three of their six children — including a six-month-old — hospitalized. Well, I shouldn’t actually say crossfire, because one group was yelling and throwing snowballs while the other was using live weapons. I’ll let you guess which was which.
Shawn Jackson, the child’s father and the driver of the car, told FOX 9 KMSP at the scene that his children, who are between six months and 11 years old, were injured when a flashbang stun grenade (or possibly tear gas) detonated nearby. As he stood next to his SUV, which was covered in some sort of chemical residue, Jackson told a reporter that the blast from the non-lethal (but incredibly dangerous) explosive device was strong enough to set off the airbags in what appeared to be his GMT800 Chevy Tahoe.
Even though half of Jackon’s children ended up in the hospital, all the lucky ones involved didn’t end up much, much worse. Here’s what he and his wife Destiny told FOX 9:
“The officers fired flash bangs and tear gas at my car. I found six children in the car […] My 6 month old baby can’t even breathe. It’s upside down,” Shawn said, holding his child’s car seat. “My car is full of tear gas, I’m trying to pull my kids out of the car.”
His wife, Destiny Jackson, told FOX 9 that their 6-month-old infant stopped breathing and lost consciousness. She then performed CPR on her child while others poured milk on her other children in an attempt to avoid the tear gas.
Along with the six-month-old baby, their 11-year-old and seven-year-old, who has asthma, were admitted to the hospital. Both of Jackson’s parents also had to undergo treatment.
People in the area quickly jumped into action to help the Jacksons. Destiney says witnesses immediately began feeding their babies milk to try to lessen the effects of the tear gas. Others called EMS and trained her in CPR on the infant.
“There were a lot of people in the community trying to help us in that situation,” she said.
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How did it happen?
I’m sure there are many people who are ready to type FAFO in the comment section with a cry/laugh emoji and say they shouldn’t interfere in government work, but before you do that, take a step back, reevaluate your life and listen to what I’m trying to tell you. The Jacksons were not part of any protests.
They were on their way home from their oldest child’s basketball game, and their path went through a protest, which they didn’t know. She says they saw police lights and protesters, but the road was not blocked and everything was very quiet, so they continued on their way.
While driving, Shawn briefly stops to ask people on the street what’s going on, and that’s when Destiny spots her mother in the crowd and tries to get her to leave “before something happens”. Destiny says that after about half an hour of begging her mother to go home, she agreed, and as they were getting ready to leave, ICE descended on the scene in their car.
“A couple of them started yelling at my window, and they were saying, ‘Get out of here. Get out of here.'” Destiny told FOX 9. She said she told the yelling ICE agents that if they walked away from their car, they would happily leave, which is what they were trying to do the whole time.
“We know what happened when Renee tried to move. You said she hit you,” Destiny said in the interview. It’s certainly not just Renee Goode, 13 people have been shot by ICE agents in their cars.
After not driving their cars, the Jacksons were stuck. That’s when ICE agents walked up behind his vehicle and rolled a teargas bomb under it, and it went off, according to Destiny. Gousling behavior.
“My kids were innocent, I was innocent, my husband was innocent, this shouldn’t have happened,” Destiny said. “We were just trying to get home.”
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