MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota activist who was charged for her role in an anti-immigration enforcement protest at a church released her own video of her arrest Friday after the White House posted a manipulated image online.
The White House on Thursday posted a picture on its X page of civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong crying with her hands behind her back as she was escorted by a blurred person wearing a badge. The photo was captioned in all caps: “Arrested far-left agitator Nekima Levy Armstrong for orchestrating church riots in Minnesota."
A photo posted by Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem's account showed the same image with Levy Armstrong wearing a neutral expression.
Levy Armstrong, who was arrested with at least two others Thursday for an anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protest that disrupted a service at a church where an ICE official also serves as a pastor, released her own video. Levy Armstrong and Chauntyll Allen, a St. Paul school board member who was also arrested in connection to the protest, were both released Friday, according to a post by Levy Armstrong's organization, the Racial Justice Network. Their attorneys declined to comment.
The video shot by Levy Armstrong’s husband, Marques Armstrong, shows several federal agents approaching to arrest her.
“I’m asking you to please treat me with dignity and respect,” she said to the agents.
“We have to put you in handcuffs,” one agent said, while another held up a phone and appeared to record a video.
“Why are you recording?” Levy Armstrong asked. “I would ask that you not record.”
“It’s not going to be on Twitter,” the agent filming said. “It’s not going to be on anything like that.”
“We don’t want to create a false narrative,” the agent said.
At no point in the more than seven-minute video -- which shows Levy Armstrong being handcuffed and led into a government vehicle -- did Levy Armstrong appear to cry. Instead, she talked with agents about her arrest.
“You know that this is a significant abuse of power,” she said. “Because I refuse to be silent in the face of brutality from ICE.”
“I’m not in here to get in a political debate,” the agent filming said.
In an audio message that Levy Armstrong’s spokesperson shared with The Associated Press, Levy Armstrong said the video of her arrest exposes that the Trump administration had used AI to manipulate images of her arrest.
“We are being politically persecuted for speaking out against authoritarianism, fascism and the tyranny of the Trump administration,” said Levy Armstrong, who recorded the message Friday morning during a call with her husband from jail.
The Department of Homeland Security didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Associated Press reporters Giovanna Dell'Orto in Minneapolis and Tiffany Stanley in Washington, D.C., contributed.
FILE - Nekima Levy Armstrong holds up her fist after speaking at an anti-ICE rally for Martin Luther King Jr., Monday, Jan. 19, 2026, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis, File)
Three people have been killed in an apparent tornado in southern Michigan on Friday, authorities said, as powerful storms ripped across the state, tearing the roof off a home improvement store and knocking down trees.
The Branch County Sheriff’s Office said three people were also taken to the hospital after the apparent tornado hit the Union Lake area, which is about 125 miles (200 km) west of Detroit.
At least one tornado was confirmed in southern Michigan, near Union City, on Friday, according to the National Weather Service, and there may have been others.
At Lisa Piper's home near Union City, she can be heard repeatedly yelling out, “Oh my God,” as she films from her back deck a ferocious rotating column of air that appears to be a tornado tear through an section of buildings across the lake from her. As its size grows, pulling large pieces of debris into the air, she says, “It’s lifting houses.”
“Oh my heart is pounding,” she says in the video. “Oh, I hope they’re OK.”
The state had the right conditions for a tornado because of a weather system that pulled moisture out of the Gulf of Mexico and a warm front that moved north, said David Roth, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland. The system encountered much cooler air in the Great Lakes area.
Michigan gets an average of 15 tornadoes a year, which is much less than 155 for Texas and 96 in Kansas, he said.
In St. Joseph County, Michigan, next to the Indiana border, the sheriff’s office told residents to “seek shelter immediately” following reports of an unconfirmed tornado, a severe thunderstorm watch and possible winds more than 60 mph (96.6 kph).
“Citizens should anticipate power outages, closed roadways and/or neighborhoods and cellular/internet interruptions,” the office said on Facebook.
The state activated its Emergency Operations Center as officials responded to serious wind damage.
In Edwardsburg, Michigan, area, near the Indiana border, officials reported downed trees and several homes that had been heavily damaged, and warned residents to avoid the area.
Powerful storms formed Friday afternoon from Michigan, all the way to North Texas.
In an eerie scene captured on video Thursday, a first responder drove straight at a storm near the western Oklahoma town of Fairview, where flashes of lightning illuminated a giant funnel that appeared to reach the ground. That storm, among the first outbreaks of severe weather on the verge of the spring storm season, was filmed by a camera mounted on the deputy's car.
Nearby, a 47-year-old woman and her 13-year-old daughter from Fairview were found dead in a vehicle near an intersection of a highway and a county road at about 10 p.m. Thursday, authorities said.
“Severe weather struck Major County last night and tragically claimed the lives of a mother and daughter," Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt said in a statement Friday. "I am praying for the family as they grieve this tragic loss, as well as all those impacted by the storms.”
More than 7 million Americans were at the highest risk of severe weather Friday in an area that includes the metropolitan areas of Kansas City, Missouri; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Omaha, Nebraska, according to the national Storm Prediction Center. Nearly 25 million people were at a slightly lesser risk in a zone that includes Dallas, Oklahoma City, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Severe, scattered thunderstorms are expected Friday evening from areas of the Plains states to the Ozarks and Midwest, the National Weather Service said.
The general setup for the strong storms is a clash between warm air streaming north from the Gulf Coast and cooler Canadian air behind cold fronts, according to meteorologists with the private forecasting service AccuWeather.
The spring storms in the forecast come near the start of what many call tornado season, which generally begins at various times in different parts of the U.S. Experts recommend a few simple safety steps to take before tornadoes hit, including having a weather radio and a plan for where to take shelter.
The weather began to ease Friday in some areas of the Northeast, but Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut remained under weather advisories. In Ohio, flood warnings were issued in the southern part of the state.
In parts of the southern U.S., the weather pattern is also expected to usher in extremely warm temperatures for this time of year by the weekend.
“Temperatures will be 20-30 degrees above average, with 80s reaching as far north as parts of the Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic,” federal forecasters wrote in their long-range forecast discussion. “Daily records could become widespread.”
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McCormack reported from Concord, New Hampshire, and Martin reported from Atlanta. Associated Press Writer Patrick Whittle in Portland, Maine, contributed.
Damage is seen at Menard's store after a severe storm in Three Rivers, Mich., Friday, March 6, 2026. (Devin Anderson-Torrez/Jackson Citizen Patriot via AP)
Damage is seen after a severe storm in Three Rivers, Mich., Friday, March 6, 2026. (Devin Anderson-Torrez/Jackson Citizen Patriot via AP)
Damage is seen after a severe storm in Three Rivers, Mich., Friday, March 6, 2026. (Devin Anderson-Torrez/Jackson Citizen Patriot via AP)
Damage is seen at the Menard's store after a severe storm in Three Rivers, Mich., Friday, March 6, 2026. (Devin Anderson-Torrez/Jackson Citizen Patriot via AP)
FILE - This photo shows the National Weather Service monitoring station in Brownville, Texas, May 23, 2014. (David Pike/Valley Morning Star via AP, File)
This image taken from video provided by the Fairview, Okla., Emergency Management shows a severe weather system west of Fairview, Okla., late Thursday, March 5, 2026. (Danny Giager/ Fairview Emergency Management via AP)
