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Tag: Eden Prairie News

  • Video captures 13-year-old boy being detained by ICE in Eden Prairie

    Thursday morning, Jose Gomez left his Eden Prairie, Minnesota, apartment with his 13-year-old son, Jose. They went out to complete a task familiar to most Minnesotans: moving the car after a snowstorm. 

    After days of lying low, this task brought Gomez face-to-face with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, his family tells WCCO. They believe he was randomly targeted in an incident where ICE also restrained his teenage son, who later said he had an abnormal heartbeat thanks to the ordeal. 

    Jose sat down with WCCO alongside his mother, Karina. A family friend, Marion Vazquez, was there to help tell their story in English. 

    “She [Karina] thinks it’s unfair that they treated her son in that manner, even put him in handcuffs, when he wasn’t a threat,” Vasquez said.

    Jose said that he was in the car with his father when an unmarked SUV pulled up alongside them. When the police lights came on, he said that his dad told him to run as a second SUV arrived. Jose said that he was tackled, restrained and put into one of the cars operated by ICE. He said he was questioned about his legal status, but his dad argued that he was only a minor and couldn’t respond. 

    Both Jose and Gomez are undocumented, originally from Mexico. But Karina said that to her knowledge, ICE did not have a warrant for Gomez’s arrest. She believes he was instead profiled by ICE randomly patrolling the area; she was on the phone with Gomez at the time of the detainment, and she said she overheard ICE agents asking him for paperwork and citizenship. 

    Karina told the story through tears, holding their 20-day-old baby girl, the sole American citizen in the family. She said that Gomez first arrived in the United States about three years ago. She said that she and the kids joined last year, beginning the asylum-seeking process through the CBP One app established under the Biden administration. Karina said that back home in Mexico, criminals threatened her family with violence to extort money from them. 

    “She was even robbed at gunpoint at one point,” Vasquez said. “They were also just trying to get money off her.” 

    With Gomez still in ICE custody, 13-year-old Jose said that ICE was willing to drop him off at his aunt’s house around the corner.

    The family provided a video that they say shows the moments right after, with masked agents conferring with one another at the foot of the driveway. 

    Jose said that he then suffered from an abnormal heartbeat; he has an existing heart condition, and the stress from ICE detaining him and his father led him to need medical attention. The family showed WCCO documents indicating he received care at St. Francis Regional Medical Center. The documents list “victim of assault and battery, chest wall pain,” and abrasions of both wrists under “diagnoses.” 

    Karina said that she doesn’t know where her husband was taken, but knows that the family has now lost their sole provider. 

    WCCO reached out to ICE about this incident and has not heard back.   

    Conor Wight

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  • Eden Prairie man pleads guilty to criminal sexual conduct, enticement of a minor

    A 35-year-old Twin Cities man accused of sexually assaulting a teen boy pleaded guilty in state court last week, documents show.

    Michael Bruce Gillis, of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, was charged in both federal and state courts. He pleaded guilty to one count of third-degree criminal sexual conduct in his state case on Wednesday. Last month, he pleaded guilty to one count of enticement of a minor in federal court.

    Gillis is scheduled to be sentenced for his federal case on Jan. 6, 2026 and his state sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 14. If his plea deal is accepted by the state, Gillis will serve his federal and state sentences concurrently.

    Court documents say Mounds View, Minnesota, police received a report on March 2 that a 15-year-old boy had gone missing. Family members reviewed the boy’s electronic devices and found chat communications between him and Gillis, who identified himself as “Nick Miller.” 

    Gillis said in their communications that he “like[s] younger guys” and he expressed no concerns after the boy said he was still in high school, according to the criminal complaint.

    The two exchanged graphic images, and Gillis expressed his desire to have sex with the boy, charges say. Gillis and the boy allegedly made plans to meet in Eden Prairie.

    Gillis ordered an Uber for the boy to the Eden Prairie residence and provided step-by-step directions to make sure he arrived at the correct location, according to the criminal complaint.

    Officers with the Eden Prairie Police Department responded to the address around four hours after Gillis and the boy agreed to meet, and found the boy walking on foot nearby.

    The boy told officials Gillis had sexually assaulted him and that he escaped the residence after Gillis fell asleep, charges say.

    At the time he was charged in the case, Gillis had “two other pending matters involving allegations of child exploitation,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota — one in Hennepin County in August 2024 and one in Polk County, Florida, in October 2024. 

    Nick Lentz

    contributed to this report.

    WCCO Staff

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  • Hit-and-run driver strikes woman, kids in Eden Prairie crosswalk, police say




































    Driver flees after hitting women pulling children in wagon in Eden Prairie



    Driver flees after hitting women pulling children in wagon in Eden Prairie

    00:29

    A hit-and-run driver plowed into a woman pulling children in a wagon in a Twin Cities crosswalk on Thursday night, leaving one child in critical condition.

    The Eden Prairie Police Department said it happened at about 8:20 a.m. on Mitchell Road at Chestnut Drive.

    The woman was walking with two children and pulling a wagon with two other children when a “white sedan traveling north on Mitchell Road” struck her and the wagon and then drove off, police said.

    The woman and one of the children in the wagon suffered non-life threatening injuries, but police say the other child in the wagon “suffered critical injuries.” They were transported to Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis for treatment.

    Anyone with information on the vehicle involved is asked to call 911.

    WCCO Staff

    The WCCO Staff is a group of experienced journalists who bring you the content on WCCO.com.

    WCCO Staff

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  • Eden Prairie man stuck at Jamaican hospital for months has died, family says

    Eden Prairie man stuck at Jamaican hospital for months has died, family says


    Minnesota man in diabetic coma later dies at Jamaican hospital


    Minnesota man in diabetic coma later dies at Jamaican hospital

    00:35

    MINNEAPOLIS — A Minnesota man who was stuck in a Jamaican hospital has died, according to his family.  

    Jeff Anderson of Eden Prairie went into a diabetic coma in November while on the beach in Jamaica. 

    His family had been working to get him back to Minnesota. They were quoted $32,000 to get him to Miami and $67,000 to transport him to Minnesota.

    Anderson’s aunt Gayle Anderson Thomas said he died over the weekend. Funds the family was collecting to transfer him to a domestic hospital will now be used to bring his body home, she said.

    Anderson was put on a ventilator after his coma and had little contact with his family, outside of some visits via cellphone.

    The family recommends setting up a health care directive and creating emergency contacts before you travel. Experts advise looking into travel insurance as well.

    Thomas described Anderson as loving, kind and generous, with a good sense of humor.



    WCCO Staff

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