Protester jailed on federal charges following last week’s federal operation is longtime activist

ELK RIVER ― More than 70 supporters gathered outside the Sherburne County jail on Wednesday morning calling for the release of Isabel Lopez, a Twin Cities activist and poet facing federal obstruction charges days after protesters and law enforcement squared off during an operation at a Lake Street Mexican restaurant.

They were outraged at the arrest of Lopez, 27, who on Tuesday was charged in federal court with two counts of assaulting officers and a third for obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder. Outside the jail, which houses inmates facing federal charges, Adam Reynoso said he doesn’t believe Lopez should have been arrested and that she was acting in self-defense.

“It’s horrible. They’re just trying to shut down her voice,” said Reynoso, 23, of Columbia Heights. “She’s another voice they don’t want to be heard. She was a powerful voice.”

On Wednesday, some in the crowd of protesters held signs reading “Free Isa.” As the protesters chanted outside a metal gate and listened to drum performances, several jail employees watched from the second and third floors, some taking pictures.

One Twin Cities woman who declined to give her name said she’s a close friend with Lopez. She described Lopez as a “prominent community organizer” and an artist with experience in poetry, writing and visual art.

“She’s full of light, full of joy,” she said, also describing her as “very fiery, very feisty.”

On June 3, Lopez was among an estimated 100 protesters as masked federal officers arrived unannounced in fatigues and armored vehicles to serve a warrant at a Mexican restaurant in south Minneapolis on suspicion it was tied to a “transnational criminal organization.” Days earlier, 900 pounds of methamphetamine were discovered in a Burnsville storage unit during a related search, which sparked the investigation of the restaurant, one of eight warrants served that day.

The federal indictment alleges Lopez is seen on body-camera footage kicking an FBI officer as the crowd of protesters attempted to restrain her, before breaking free and pushing another FBI officer. About 6 minutes later, she was standing on a trash can in the middle of the street and FBI officers attempted to remove her, the charges say. The charges say Lopez “refused” to cooperate and she slipped and fell.

As officers assisted her in getting off the trash can, Lopez pushed and kicked at the officers, the complaint says.

The indictment says Lopez additionally threw a softball at deputies who were removing a person from the front of the officers’ vehicle convoy. In a press release, acting U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson wrote that Lopez “physically attacked” officers “even as the crowd tried to hold her back.”

“When the defendant was arrested, she doubled-down, punching an FBI agent in the head,” Thompson said. “Let me make clear: It is against the law to assault or obstruct federal law enforcement agents. We do not punch cops.”

In an Instagram post, Lopez offered a different account. Lopez wrote that she was “yank[ed] down” off the trash can by officers before being “slam[med]” to the ground.

A video posted on Instagram shows an FBI agent pinning Lopez to the ground next to the trash can and pushing her arm toward her neck. The officer then pulls Lopez up to her feet before pushing her over the can.

Reynoso agreed with Lopez’s account, saying that he saw her actions as self-defense.

“These officers came off threatening towards everybody,” he said. “In my eyes, the way I saw how things went, I saw it as defense. Not only for her, but for everybody.”

Six days later on Monday, Lopez was arrested on the street after leaving an interview in St. Paul with independent journalist Georgia Fort, a video posted by Fort showed. Fort wrote in the caption that the arrest was “minutes after I finished interviewing her” at Fort’s downtown office. During the interview, Lopez told Fort she was assaulted by agents at the protest.

Fort, who witnessed Lopez’s apprehension on Monday, said, “None of the agents were wearing badges. Our requests for their badge numbers and names were ignored.”

The location of Lopez’s arrest, Fort continued, is “raising serious concerns about media suppression and First Amendment protections.”

Fort said that a request for further details about Lopez’s arrest has been submitted under the federal Freedom of Information Act “to determine if the location of Isabel’s arrest was coincidental or if agents had intelligence that she was speaking to the media.”

Lopez posted videos of herself on her Instagram page reading social justice poetry in English and Spanish. Two days before her arrest, she filmed herself describing ICE as “a very young entity,” as it was created in 2003.

“It’s a spoiled child in this bureaucracy,” she said. “Please understand that ICE is literally terrorizing this community.”

Lopez’s attorney did not immediately return a request for comment Wednesday afternoon. She is due to appear Thursday morning in U.S. District Court in St. Paul, court records show.

Paul Walsh of The Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.