By Samuel Short January 29, 2026 at 7:37pm
Leftist agitators are out in full force in Minneapolis after Saturday’s fatal shooting of an anti-ICE protester during a confrontation with Border Patrol agents.
In the days that followed, we’ve seen more arrests, riots masquerading as “protests,” and, unfortunately, more violence leading to bodily harm.
On that last point, a video is making the rounds on the social media platform X that claims to show, as one well-circulated post describes it, agents of “ICE shoot ‘less than lethal’ ammo—blow off a piece of a woman’s bloody hand. She runs holding her hand up to try stop the bleeding—before collapsing down into snow.”
The problem is, the actual video shows nothing of the sort.
The post can be seen here. It’s not embedding properly despite numerous attempts from different browsers, which could simply be a technical glitch, or it could be a reflection of its veracity. It’s tough to say.
In any case, the account — “LongTimeHistory” — has nearly 170,000 followers and the post itself had more 123,000 views. So that alone spread the lie far and wide.
The wording is lurid — downright purple prose:
“‘Medic! Medica!’ she cries out for help. ‘They shot her!’ witnesses yell. ‘Oh my God!’”
Here’s another post that made a similar claim.
BREAKING: ICE shot another protester, blowing off a piece of her hand with non-lethal ammo.
When will this carnage end?https://t.co/xuI6YCixt1
— Really American 🇺🇸 (@ReallyAmerican1) January 26, 2026
“BREAKING: ICE shot another protester, blowing off a piece of her hand with non-lethal ammo,” the post states.
“When will this carnage end?”
Melodrama aside, close inspection of the video shows that “carnage” is a funny word for it. It’s true that the woman runs away from the action, frantically looking for help as her hand does seem injured. But slowing down the footage shows the hand is totally intact.
At 0:04 seconds you can see her thumb and her fingers.
There are several opportunities at 0:05 through 0:08 that also show her hand, not missing any digits.
The resolution is too grainy to conclude whether or not she was bloodied, but there’s a big difference between a wound that draws blood and an injury that “blows off a piece of a woman’s hand.”
Even the fact-checking website Factually.co looked into the story and couldn’t find any backing for the most sensational claims.
Meanwhile, here’s a much tamer interpretation of the incident:
Leftists are claiming ICE shot this woman with non-lethal ammo, making her lose part of her hand. They DEMAND justice because her life will never be the same…
In reality, she decided to PICK UP a flashbang and tried to throw it back at agents. She’s lucky the damage wasn’t… pic.twitter.com/uh63mEyNAV
— Garrett Born (@GarrettEBorn) January 28, 2026
The question then comes to why this reaction? Was she stunned, panicked and in pain (a non-lethal round can still hurt) and this was her reaction?
Was she putting on a show for her comrades, trying to indicate she’s willing to be a martyr for the cause?
Either way, her hand does look — according to the available footage — still in one piece.
An even better question is, why were leftists so eager to put a clearly exaggerated description of the incident out with a video that shows just how exaggerated the description was?
The answer is that their goal is to make things worse.
To make another observation, it’s astounding how surprised leftist agitators are when harm comes to their side. You can hear a bystander — possibly recording the incident — say repeatedly, “Oh my God,” as if in shock at what’s unfolding.
It’s as if, when these people take to the streets to defy federal law enforcement, they expect to be met with little to no resistance.
They are floored that someone would ever put up a fight.
They do not fathom that actions have consequences.
Sam Short is an Instructor of History with Motlow State Community College in Smyrna, Tennessee. He holds a BA in History from Middle Tennessee State University and an MA in History from University College London. The views expressed in his articles are his own and do not reflect the views or opinions of Motlow State Community College.
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