MARSHALL — During a town hall meeting in Marshall, state legislators got a couple of questions from area residents about the fatal shooting of a woman by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on Wednesday. Both state Rep. Chris Swedzinski, R-Ghent, and Sen. Gary Dahms, R-Redwood Falls, said they wanted to avoid prematurely drawing conclusions on the incident, and said Minnesotans should let an investigation of the ICE agent’s actions play out.

“I think we need to let the investigation play out,” Dahms said in response to questions from an audience member in Marshall on Thursday morning. “We’ve got way too many people coming to a conclusion.”

The same day that Dahms and Swedzinski were holding town hall meetings before the upcoming state legislative session, Sleepy Eye Police said several unmarked SUVs were reported in Sleepy Eye, and ICE agents detained and later released a Sleepy Eye man. Sleepy Eye Police said they received a call about suspicious activity around 1:40 p.m Thursday. Police confirmed several ICE agents detained and interviewed a man outside a residence for about 20 minutes before releasing him. Sleepy Eye Police talked to the man after the encounter and verified that he was all right, Police said.

During Marshall’s town hall meeting Ghent resident Darwin Dyce read a statement about the Minneapolis shooting, and how Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had called the woman’s actions leading up to the shooting an act of domestic terrorism. Dyce said it was “a statement far from the truth.” Dyce said President Donald Trump had also pardoned rioters who had attacked police at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

“Why do you and so many members of your party stand by and allow such disinformation and immoral acts by ICE and our president to go unchallenged?” Dyce said.

“I’ve maybe seen the video at a glance,” Swedzinski said of the shooting incident. “There is laws in effect, that if that particular individual ICE agent made a mistake or not, I don’t know. I wasn’t there . . .I think it’s important that we don’t paint broad brushes, right? Whether we throw a whole community under the bus, whether we throw law enforcement under the bus, whether we throw a federal agency under the bus or a party under the bus, right? So I think we all get ourselves in trouble when we decide we’re going to chuck everyone,” Swedzinski said. “And I think it is a concern if that individual law enforcement officer shot that person. I wasn’t there.”

Dahms said Dyce did not know if the ICE agent’s life was in danger in the shooting incident.

“You weren’t there. You don’t know that. You could look at different sides of that and make a different conclusion,” Dahms said. “My opinion is, let’s let the investigation play out and see what they come up with.”

“And are we OK with Donald Trump pardoning the January 6 rioters?” Dyce asked.

“I’m a state legislator,” Swedzinski said.

“I’m just, I’m not going to even discuss that,” Dahms said of the Jan. 6 riots. “Some of the Democrats have just been playing this game, election after election after election. You want to hang your hat on something, let’s look to the future and not the past.”

A second audience member asked why legislators hadn’t seen video of the Minneapolis shooting.

“I have seen parts of the video, and my comment is going to be the same. Let’s let the investigation play out,” Dahms said. “I’m not going to jump on the bandwagon and say you’re guilty or not guilty. Let’s let the investigation play out.”

Dahms and Swedzinski also received questions about the Minneapolis shooting during a town hall in Canby later on Thursday.

Swedzinski told Canby constituents that the matter will be “exceptionally investigated.”

“Whenever you see an individual being shot, or a cop being put in that situation, it’s a very sad (situation),” Swedzinski said. “That’s what cops do every single day is put themselves into dangerous situations.”

Fritz Busch and Josh VanKlompenburg contributed to this story.