Police body-camera video of the arrest of Minnesota state Sen. Nicole Mitchell, captured when she was suspected of breaking into her stepmother’s home, was played at her trial on Wednesday, according to reports.
Mitchell has pleaded not guilty to first-degree burglary and possession of burglary or theft tools in connection with the alleged April 22, 2024, break-in at about 4:45 a.m.
Mitchell, a member of the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party elected in 2022, said she went to her stepmother Carol Mitchell’s Detroit Lakes home—where Carol, she noted, suffers from Alzheimer’s—to collect some of her late father’s belongings.
On Wednesday, after presenting police bodycam footage of the responding officers, prosecutors rested their case.
“She’s my stepdaughter,” Carol Mitchell tells a responding officer. “She’s also a Minnesota senator.”
“She’s a senator?” an officer asked.
“Yes, well was,” Carol tells the officer before he asks if she’s currently serving in office.
“Well, she is. I meant after this…” Carol responded, referring to the pending arrest.
The bodycam footage shows Mitchell cuffed inside a police cruiser being questioned. She told an officer that she was “just trying to get some of my dad’s things” and added “clearly, I’m not good at this.”
According to the criminal complaint, Sen. Mitchell told officers her father had just died and that her stepmother refused to return sentimental items—his ashes, photographs, clothing, and other keepsakes.
Police found her in the basement wearing all black, with a flashlight wrapped in a black sock. They also retrieved a black backpack wedged in a window that contained two laptops, a cellphone, her driver’s license, Senate ID, and various Tupperware items.
In the body-cam footage, Mitchell is seen lying face-down on the floor as officers place her in handcuffs.
“I was just trying to get some of my dad’s things because she wouldn’t talk to me anymore,” she said.
Prosecutors argued that Nicole Mitchell strategically parked a short distance away as part of a calculated plan, while her defense maintained she was simply a concerned stepdaughter trying to help a family member.
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In her testimony, Carol Mitchell said she felt “extremely violated” by the alleged break-in.
Last month, two Minnesota Democrats and their spouses were shot by a man reportedly impersonating a police officer.
State Sen. John Hoffman was shot in Champlin, and State House Speaker Melissa Hortman was shot in Brooklyn Park.
Both lawmakers were shot in their homes, along with their spouses. Hoffman and his spouse survived, but Hortman, a former state House Speaker, and her spouse, however, both died from their wounds.
“Our state lost a great leader,” Gov. Tim Walz said at a press briefing following the shootings. “Speaker Hortman was someone who served the people of Minnesota with grace, compassion, humor and a sense of service.”
“This was an act of targeted political violence,” Walz added. “Peaceful discourse is the foundation of our democracy. We don’t settle their differences with violence or at gunpoint in the state of Minnesota.”
Authorities eventually arrested Vance Boelter and charged him in the shootings and murders.
Joseph Thompson, acting US attorney for Minnesota, revealed that Boelter got in a shootout with police at the home of former House Speaker Melissa Hortman before barging in and killing her.
“Before he entered the home, two Brooklyn park police officers arrived at the scene. They had been dispatched… When they arrived at the scene, they saw Boelter’s black SUV parked in the driveway with the emergency lights flashing,” Thompson said.
“But the details of Boelter’s crime are even worse, they are truly chilling,” he added. “It is no exaggeration to say that his crimes are the stuff of nightmares. They saw Boelter standing in front of the house several feet from the door. When Boelter saw the officers get out of the car, he drew his weapon and began firing.”