The warning came days before the chaos. A neighbor brushed it off as dark humor. Then, in a packed Minneapolis town hall, a 55-year-old man lurched forward, syringe in hand, and sprayed a foul, amber liquid toward Rep. Ilhan Omar as she spoke about ICE. She chased him. The crowd screamed. Security tackled. Now, that casual text — “I might get arre…” — suddenly looks like a chilling missed alarm… Continues…
In the days leading up to the town hall, Anthony Kazmierczak sounded more like a grumbler than a threat. He asked his neighbor, Brian Kelley, to watch his dog, hinting he “might get arrested” at Omar’s event, then casually backed off. Kelley, used to his conservative neighbor’s links and complaints about the congresswoman, assumed it was all talk from a man worn down by pain, medication, and Parkinson’s.
Inside the Urban League Twin Cities hall, that assumption shattered. As Omar spoke about abolishing ICE, Kazmierczak suddenly rushed forward, spraying the unknown, foul-smelling liquid from a syringe. Omar instinctively ran after him before security slammed him to the floor and police hauled him away on a third-degree assault charge. Shaken but uninjured, she wiped herself off, refused to leave, and kept talking — a surreal calm after a moment that exposed how fragile public life has become.