ST. PAUL, Minn. — In Ramsey County, a question keeps coming back—quietly at first, then louder—after a video of a federal arrest went around and refused to fade.
Ramsey County Attorney John Choi and Sheriff Bob Fletcher said Monday they’re investigating the January arrest of ChongLy “Scott” Thao, a Hmong American man, after it was captured on video as a potential case of kidnapping, burglary and false imprisonment. Ramsey County includes the state capital of St. Paul, so the case landed close to where people live, not somewhere far away.
At a news conference, Fletcher didn’t dress it up. “There are many facts we don’t know yet, but there’s one that we do know. And that is that Mr. Thao is and has been an American citizen. There’s not a dispute over that,” he said. Then he added what he called the core issue: “There’s no dispute that he was taken out of his house, forcibly taken out of his home and driven around.” It’s a blunt way to put it, and you could feel the room leaning in.
The arrest was carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. According to the officials, agents bashed open the front door of Thao’s St. Paul home at gunpoint without a warrant, then led him outside in just his underwear and a blanket in freezing conditions. Fletcher pointed to that sequence too, asking: “Is that good law enforcement, to take an American citizen out of their home and drive them around aimlessly, trying to determine what they can tell them?” For anyone who’s ever stepped outside in real cold weather, that detail—just a blanket—doesn’t sound abstract.
Choi said the county is trying to determine whether any crimes were committed that they could prosecute under state or federal law. “This is not about any type of predetermined agenda other than to seek the truth and to investigate the facts,” he said. It’s the kind of line that sounds steady, even as the video and the allegations keep raising sharper edges. Misryoum newsroom reported that DHS, which oversees ICE, has refused so far to cooperate with other state and local investigations into the killings by federal officers of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
Agents eventually realized Thao was a longtime U.S. citizen with no criminal record, Thao said in an interview in January. They returned him to his home after a couple of hours. Homeland Security later said ICE officers had been seeking two convicted sex offenders. Thao told Misryoum he had never seen the two men before and that they did not live with him. Videos captured the scene—people blowing whistles and horns, neighbors screaming at more than a dozen gun-toting agents to leave Thao’s family alone. One moment that keeps replaying in people’s minds is that neighbors weren’t just watching; they were actively trying to get the situation to stop.
The broader backdrop matters here, even if it doesn’t explain everything. Misryoum newsroom reported that the state and the chief prosecutor in Hennepin County, which includes Minneapolis, sued the Trump administration last month to gain access to evidence they say they need to independently investigate three shootings by federal officers in Minneapolis, including the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. The lawsuit accuses the federal government of reneging on its promise to cooperate after the surge of around 3,000 federal law enforcement officers into Minnesota. Minnesota and Hennepin County also appealed to the public to share information about federal officers’ potentially illegal activities, citing refusals by federal authorities to provide evidence. The Justice Department in January said it was opening a federal civil rights investigation into Pretti’s killing, and two officers have been placed on leave—while a similar federal probe was not warranted in Good’s death.
Where all of this lands for Thao’s case is still being decided. Choi and Fletcher say they will pursue information from the Department of Homeland Security that they need for their investigation into the arrest. And for now, there’s an unresolved tension—between what federal officers say they were trying to do and what neighbors, video, and state investigators are pushing to understand. Honestly, the “truth” part is going to take time, and it won’t feel quick to the family involved. Maybe that’s the point—maybe not.
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