Ryan Ecklund dropped his son off at school in Stillwater, then drove to Woodbury, where he lives, to get groceries. When he arrived in the Cub Foods parking lot in Tamarack Village, he said, he saw what were “clearly ICE vehicles.”

Ryan Ecklund (Courtesy of Ryan Ecklund)

“I didn’t start my day by looking for ICE agents to follow or record or anything like that,” Ecklund said.

Ecklund says he was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Monday after following that vehicle. He said the agents forcefully entered his vehicle, slammed him to the ground and took him to the Whipple Federal Building at Fort Snelling, where he was detained for nine hours in a holding cell.

“I wasn’t causing a scene,” Ecklund said. “I didn’t flash my lights or honk my horn or yell anything out my window. I was simply following that vehicle and recording them.”

ICE has been contacted by the Pioneer Press on this matter. A response has not been received. Ecklund referred to the officers as ICE agents but he said they never identified themselves so he can’t be sure what agency they were with.

‘I’m a U.S. citizen’

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Ecklund said when he arrived at the Cub Foods parking lot, he saw a “police-type vehicle with dark-tinted windows, no license plate on the front, an out-of-state plate on the back and a man in tactical gear and a face covering driving the car.”

He said he decided instead of getting groceries to follow the car and start recording. Ecklund said he followed the driver to a different parking lot in the shopping center, then the driver stepped out and took a photo of him.

“I didn’t know it at the time, but it’s very obvious now that they ran my plate or did some sort of facial identification, because they then proceeded to leave that shopping center and drive into the neighborhood that I live in,” Ecklund said.

Ecklund said the driver returned to the shopping center, and when Ecklund followed, the driver stepped out of the vehicle and gave him a verbal warning.

A still image from video taken by Ryan Ecklund on his phone Jan. 12, 2026. (Courtesy of Ryan Ecklund)

“I said, ‘I don’t need a warning,’” Ecklund said. “’I’m a U.S. citizen who’s allowed to record you. I’m not impeding your movement or your investigation. Have a good day.’”

After close to three minutes, Ecklund said he followed the driver east of the shopping center, and an additional black truck turned off of Radio Drive onto Parkside Drive. The two vehicles parked in front of and behind Ecklund, he said. Five ICE agents walked up to his vehicle and opened the car door, Ecklund said. One climbed in the back seat and put his arm around Ecklund’s neck and headrest so he couldn’t move, he said.

Ecklund said he was then put in handcuffs and taken to the Whipple Federal Building, where he saw protesters demonstrating outside the building. He said he was put in a holding cell from 10:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

“At no point in time was I told why I was being detained,” Ecklund said. “What was told to me by the DHS officers was that I can be detained without being charged for anything for up to 48 hours.”

10-hour panic attack

Ecklund said he requested a phone call, as he was not offered one when interviewed by the Department of Homeland Security officer. He said he called his wife, Tamara Ecklund.

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“I had a 10-hour-long panic attack,” Tamara Ecklund said. “To say that I was terrified is an understatement.”

While her husband was held at the Whipple Federal Building, Ecklund was on the phone with an attorney and posted videos to Instagram, explaining the situation.

“The biggest piece of advice is, if you have a loved one who’s detained, please, please, please seek legal help, because I really think that was the only reason the needle moved for us at all,” she said.

Tamara Ecklund said the killing of Renee Good has had her thinking about how unlawful and unjust it all felt. She said they talked to their 12- and 10-year-old sons about it “and tried to frame it for them in a way that they could comprehend, which is impossible because I can’t comprehend it.”

“When my older son said, ‘Mom, do you think that ICE will come to Woodbury?’ I said, ‘No, honey, I don’t think they will.’ I was wrong,” she said.

A responsibility

Ecklund said that though he has political opinions and personal values, he does not consider himself a political activist.

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“I simply considered it my right and my responsibility to record them (ICE agents) in the event that they did something illegal to somebody else,” Ecklund said. “If my recording them and my presence stopped them from doing something illegal to somebody, then that was my responsibility as a citizen.”

He said a lot of people in his community are terrified of the uncertainty that ICE brings up, especially for immigrants “who are here legally looking for a better life, who are here to work and work hard and continue to build our communities, because they’re built by immigrants.”

“The biggest emotion that I felt was disbelief,” Ecklund said. “I think it’s important that everybody understands that if you think ICE isn’t in your community, you’re mistaken.”

Adam Thielen was supposed to sail off into the sunset in Minnesota after getting his highly anticipated homecoming last summer when the Vikings acquired him in a trade with the Carolina Panthers.

That never happened.

After struggling to carve out a niche for himself with the Vikings this season, Thielen requested his release last month with hopes of playing a bigger role somewhere else. He was claimed off waivers by the Pittsburgh Steelers less than 24 hours later.

“This is tremendously difficult for me to write and certainly not how any of us imagined this to go,” Thielen wrote on social media at the time. “This organization means the world to us from the top down and this locker room is filled with true professionals.”

Now the 35-year-old receiver is ready to hang up the cleats for good.

After taking some time to reflect after the Steelers lost to the Houston Texans in the first round of the playoffs, Thielen took to social media on Wednesday afternoon to announce his retirement from the NFL. His post on Instagram included various pictures of him with his wife Caitlin, his sons Asher and Hudson, and his daughter Cora.

“What a ride it has been!” wrote Thielen, who finished his career with 704 receptions for 8,497 yards, and 64 touchdowns, playing for the Vikings, the Panthers, and the Steelers. “Have been blessed with so many great relationships and mentors over the years that I am forever grateful for!”

The underdog story has been told countless times since the Detroit Lakes native burst onto the scene more than a decade ago.

Originally signed by the Vikings as an undrafted free agent out of Minnesota State Mankato, Thielen bided his time on the practice squad, took advantage of his opportunities on special teams, and went on to establish himself as a household name.

If Stefon Diggs was Batman for the Vikings throughout the mid 2010s, Thielen was every bit his Robin in that span. Together, Diggs and Thielen formed a dynamic duo at the position, making life miserable on opposing teams that often struggled to take both of them away at the same time.

The steady production from Thielen wasn’t enough to keep him around long term. He was eventually cut by the Vikings in a move designed to free up some salary cap space. He signed with the Panthers shortly after his release and continued to be productive.

The rumors of a reunion with the Vikings popped up last summer and quickly became a reality after some tough negotiations. Though the homecoming came to a rather unceremonious end, Thielen will forever be celebrated for everything he did on and off the field during his time with the Vikings.

It’s only a matter of time before Thielen gets inducted into the Vikings Ring of Honor. It also wouldn’t be a shock to see his No. 19 jersey hanging in the rafters at some point.

The only receivers in franchise history with more receptions than Thielen (542) are Cris Carter, Randy Moss, and Justin Jefferson. The only receivers in franchise history with more yards than Thielen (6,751) are Cris Carter, Randy Moss, Justin Jefferson, and Anthony Carter.

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Two more men have been sentenced to life in prison for their roles in the fatal shootings of a woman, her son and husband in Coon Rapids nearly two years ago.

Brothers Demetrius Shumpert and Omari Shumpert, along with Alonzo Mingo, posed as UPS drivers and went into the family’s home with guns looking for money, leading to the killings of Shannon Jungwirth, 42, her son Jorge Reyes-Jungwirth, 20, and her husband, Mario Trejo Estrada, 39.

Alonzo Pierre Mingo, Demetrius Trenton Shumpert and Omari Malik Shumpert (Courtesy of the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office)

Mingo fatally shot Jungwirth and Reyes-Jungwirth, while Omari Shumpert killed Trejo Estrada after he fought back, prosecutors said.

All three victims were shot in the head, and the killings were caught by video cameras inside the home in the 200 block of 94th Avenue Northwest. Two small children, both under the age of 5, were also in the home at the time of the killings but not injured.

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Demetrius Shumpert, 33, and Omari Shumpert, 20, both of Minneapolis, were sentenced last week in Anoka County District Court after juries convicted them last year of aiding and abetting first-degree murder and other charges in the Jan. 26, 2024, killings.

Jurors in August found Mingo, 39, of Fridley, guilty of the same charges and he was sentenced to life in prison in September.

Court records say that Trejo Estrada was suspected of drug trafficking and that law enforcement was on his trail in the days leading up to the killings.

By KIMBERLEE KRUESI

Reproductive rights advocates say they have dropped a legal challenge against the Trump administration for withholding millions of dollars of federal funding for family planning, contraception and other services after officials agreed to restore the money.

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Last year, the American Civil Liberties Union sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services after federal officials alerted 16 organizations, including Planned Parenthood affiliates, that the department was pausing $27.5 million to investigate whether they’re complying with the law.

At the time, HHS didn’t specify which laws or executive orders the groups were suspected of violating. However, in a Dec. 19 letter to the organizations, HHS officials cited “federal civil rights laws” and that the groups had taken actions to show they were in compliance.

The letter reminded the organizations of their “ongoing obligation to comply with all terms of the award, including by not engaging in any unlawful diversity, equity or inclusion-related discrimination in violation of such laws.”

The ACLU then filed to voluntarily dismiss the lawsuit on Jan. 13.

“We should never have had to sue to protect essential health care like cancer screenings, STI tests, and birth control,” said Arthur Spitzer, senior counsel at the ACLU of the District of Columbia. “Restoring funding is a victory, but the larger fight to protect everyone’s reproductive freedom continues.”

An email seeking comment to HHS was sent on Wednesday.

Since taking office, Trump has issued executive orders targeting programs that consider race in any way, some of which have been put on hold by judges.

Republicans have long railed against the hundreds millions of dollars that flow every year under the Title X program to Planned Parenthood and its clinics, which offer abortions but also birth control, cancer and disease screenings, among other things. The program provides services mainly to low-income women, many of them from minority communities. Federal law prohibits taxpayer dollars from paying for most abortions.

According to the ACLU, when HHS withheld 22 federal Title X grants last spring, 865 family planning service sites were unable to provide services to an estimated 842,000 patients across nearly two dozen states.

Brigitte Amiri, deputy director of the Reproductive Freedom Project at the ACLU, said in a statement that while funding has been restored, “we know that the Trump administration will continue to attack reproductive freedom, and the ACLU will be ready to use every lever we have to fight those attacks and defend the Title X program.”