Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino faced literal and figurative blowback after lobbing a smoke bomb toward protesters.
The 55-year-old crackdown commander was shown on video struggling to deploy the smoke canister Wednesday afternoon as protesters gathered as federal officers had boxed in a vehicle and pulled out a teenage boy and a girl near Mueller Park, witnesses told the Minnesota Star Tribune.
“I’m gonna gas, get back, gas is coming," Bovino can be heard saying on the video. "Gas is coming, second warning – second warning."
“Gas on film, gas on film!” says the person recording the video, who was identified by the newspaper as Ben Luhmann.
"Third warning – gas, gas, gas,” Bovino says, and then tosses the canister and pushes bystanders away from the street.
However, Bovino failed to account for the wind and is shown on the video enveloped in plumes of green and gray smoke.
That incident came a short time after agents were photographed holding a person on the ground as one sprays bright orange chemical irritant directly into their face, and both encounters occurred soon after the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily stayed a lower court order that had forbid immigration agents from detaining and pepper-spraying protesters and observers.
"How it started: 8th circuit removed restrictions on ICE using pepper spray etc. against peaceful protestors," posted The Tennessee Holler account. "How it’s going: 3 goons hold a man down, another pepper sprays him in the face — as Bovino uses green chemical gas for no reason with kids around."
"Hahahaha, Bovino decided to look tough by throwing a gas canister at legal protestors," jeered X user Turnbull. "It takes him a few minutes to figure out the pin and then, like a total nimrod, he throws it into the wind and the gas blows back on him and his men."
"Look what they’re doing to my beautiful city," lamented activist Will Stancil. "This is Bovino’s massive armed convoy, rolling through the Wedge, one of the nicest, friendliest residential areas in Minneapolis, doing nothing but posturing, starting fights, and then deploying chemical weapons at a park many children play in."
"Bovino is a Nazi wannabe," replied Bluesky user Heidi. "He even has the Nazi haircut. Why can’t people see that?"
"It’s incredible how casually CBP and Bovino himself especially use chemicals," noted journalist Garrett Graff. "They’re usually the only violence at the scene."
"This video of PeeWee Bovino committing a crime will be good evidence for the Minneapolis Trials," noted popular Bluesky user Kim Wexler's Ponytail.
"Bovino committing crimes!" agreed Bluesky user Miriam Likes Pie.