Amid questions and investigations related to the funding and organizations behind the recent surge in protests and rioting in Minneapolis and surrounding areas, several serial agitators have shown up on local booking lists, begging even more questions about the protests’ origins and objectives.
Agitators have conducted several nighttime noise demonstrations and protests in recent weeks outside area hotels where they believed ICE and Border Patrol agents were being accommodated.
The localized riots and destructive acts involving hundreds of participants have come in the wake of the federal government’s ongoing “Operation Metro Surge” immigration enforcement in the Twin Cities. The intense enforcement operation has also resulted in the deaths of two protesters, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both of whom were apparently involved in local anti-ICE collectives.
Some demonstrations in downtown, southeast, and near the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis have been allowed to go on for hours before authorities have intervened. Incidents of property damage, destruction, disorderly conduct, and assaults on officers have occurred by some individuals at most of the gatherings. Similar noise demonstrations have also recently taken place in Maple Grove, Rogers, and New Brighton. Several large daytime protest marches and demonstrations have also taken place over the same period.
Only a relative handful of arrests have been made during the disorderly assemblies. However, some familiar names and faces are among the few publicly available arrest records.
Emily Duchateau Baierl, 37, has been federally charged with assaulting an officer during the Jan. 24 riot following the shooting of Alex Pretti. Baierl is accused of biting an officer. Baierl has previously been arrested on riot charges stemming from a 2021 Minneapolis protest.
Jack Louis Nimz, 28, was arrested during a recent hotel noise demonstration in Minneapolis and charged with unlawful assembly and disorderly conduct. Nimz was previously arrested in October 2024 at the University of Minnesota as part of a pro-Palestine demonstration, where protesters were alleged to have damaged property and restricted or impeded uninvolved parties from exiting Morrill Hall.
Matthew Patrick Norby, 36, of Inver Grove Heights was recently arrested and charged with public nuisance/obstructing the roadway stemming from a protest at the Whipple Federal Building. Norby was cited last year with criminal damage to property, a misdemeanor, for allegedly destroying a permitted Easter display at the state capitol. The case has since disappeared from public court records.
Noah Joyce-Anderson, 33, of Chicopee, Mass., was arrested last weekend outside the Whipple Federal Building on probable cause obstructing the legal process. Joyce-Anderson was listed in January as a speaker at a protest in Providence, R.I., opposing the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro by the Trump administration.
Josephine Jay Guilbeau, 37, of Lewisville, Ohio, was arrested at a noise demonstration outside a Maple Grove hotel on Jan. 26. Guilbeau has been described as a “professional” anti-Israel protester by Canary Mission.
Justin Neal Shelton, 37, of St. Paul, was also arrested at the Maple Grove protest on probable cause obstructing the legal process. Shelton was repeatedly reported as present at disorderly “hotrodder” gatherings in 2020.
Dozens of others have been arrested during recent noise demonstrations and protests where damage has occurred, but many were cited and released on site, making it difficult to obtain their names and charges without formal data requests.
Deputy U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche this week detailed what he called a “massive underground fraud network” allegedly behind the Minneapolis anti-ICE push, Fox News reported. Blanche told Laura Ingraham that unraveling the money trails is a priority for federal law enforcement, though he did not name specific individuals or sources. Blanche also indicated the investigation will take time.
Last week the FBI said it was investigating the ICE Signal chats in Minnesota, following reports that the networks are being used to coordinate efforts to track and obstruct ICE agents. Elected officials and public employees have also been discovered to be organizing anti-ICE activity and have been spotted in the chats.
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Minnesota Crime Watch & Information publishes news, info and commentary about crime, public safety and livability issues in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota.
Crime Watch MN
Minnesota Crime Watch & Information publishes news, info and commentary about crime, public safety and livability issues in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota.
