Where Is Ilhan Omar? Former State Trooper Demands Answers as Somali Violence Erupts

Former Minnesota State Trooper John Nagel, a 30-year law-enforcement veteran running against Rep. Ilhan Omar in the state’s 5th Congressional District, criticized Democrats for what he described as a failure to confront Somali-American gang violence in the Twin Cities suburbs.

Recent incidents include two teenagers shot outside an Eden Prairie high school football game during homecoming and more than 100 shell casings recovered in a Bloomington neighborhood.

Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher stated that 98 percent of the gang members involved are Somali and called for aggressive prosecution of juveniles, criticizing Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty’s office for not being proactive.

Adam Abedihakeem Adam, 18, was charged with two counts of second-degree assault with a deadly weapon and second-degree riot in connection with the Eden Prairie shooting.

Nagel asked, “Where is Ilhan Omar in all of this? I would think that as a congressman that represents this particular area that she’d be at these meetings or she’d have a statement or she’d be sitting down and saying, ‘Hey, how can we help this? How could we stop this?’ And I don’t see her.”

He argued that law enforcement is “being restrained by politicians, people that are trying soft on crime, people that’re trying to send somebody other than a police officer to take care of issues, and it’s not working.”

Nagel said, “The majority of Democrats don’t want enforcement. The people do. They’re tired of it.”

He attributed the emboldening of gangs to years of Democratic policies under figures including Omar, Gov. Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Moriarty, stating, “Because of how the Democrats have run Minnesota over the years, these gang members and then just crooks in general, they’re emboldened by this.”

Nagel rejected the notion that identifying the gangs as Somali was prejudicial, saying, “We have Latino gangs and Asian gangs and Black gangs, and we have Somali gangs. This is not being prejudicial… It’s a ‘Somali problem’ because that’s ‘who’s showing up.’”

He called for using existing laws to enforce, arrest, and incarcerate, warning, “We need enforcement, we need arrests, and we need incarceration. Otherwise, this is going to continue to spiral.”

Sheriff Fletcher pushed back against broader “East African” labels, insisting “Somali” accurately describes 98 percent of the members.

Fox News Digital sought comment from the offices of Omar, Walz, and Ellison but received no response.