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By Jordan King
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Conservative influencer Nick Sortor said he was robbed of his $1,000 camera in Minneapolis by assailants who then “dragged me down the street as my hand got trapped in their door handle.”
Sortor blamed “Somali thugs” for the robbery on Sunday, claimed Minneapolis Police told him he was “the problem” and that he needed to leave the area, and called on the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to “track this thief down”—the FBI responded, saying it was “on it.”
In a video showing a conversation with Minneapolis Police officers, one can be heard asking Sortor’s group to leave the area after residents said they were harassing people, and to help “keep the peace.” He also says he and his colleagues will be “looking for the car” involved and explains that there is a “process we have to follow.”
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The Minneapolis Police Department's Sergeant Garrett Parten told Newsweek it is investigating theft after a "report of a robbery and identified an adult man with an apparent non-life-threatening injury to his hand." It is investigating theft - no arrests had been made as of midday on Monday.
The FBI declined to comment. Newsweek reached out to Sortor via direct message on X for comment.
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Why It Matters
There has been ongoing unrest in Minneapolis since the killing of 37-year-old Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, which has sparked protests and calls for ICE to leave the city.
Sortor, who has previously been involved in confrontations during protests, linked the alleged attack to the wider situation, saying in a post on X: “REFUSING to arrest Somali thieves is EXACTLY WHY America is in this situation to begin with.”
What To Know
Sortor posted on X on Sunday: “BREAKING: A group of Somali thugs just ROBBED me of my $1,000 camera in the Cedar Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis. They then DRAGGED ME DOWN THE STREET as my hand got trapped in their door handle. NOBODY bothered helping. DHS MUST RAID THIS PLACE!”
The clip, which contains multiple profanities, shows someone pulling something out of Sortor’s hand while it was hanging out of a moving car window.
Sortor then gets out of the passenger seat, and a scuffle ensues before he is seen running alongside a red car, seemingly with his hand stuck in the door handle. The person filming can be heard saying several times: “She took Nick’s camera.”
Once Sortor is free from the car, a man with his face covered says to him: “That’s what you f****** wanted right?” Several other people surround Sortor, telling him to leave, and the man with his face covered calls Sortor’s group “Nazis.”
“We’re not Nazis and I’m not racist—I condemn all racism,” Sortor’s associate, who is still filming, responds.
In another clip, taken from the person in the backseat behind Sortor, the woman who takes the item out of Sortor’s hand can be heard saying to him first: “Get the f*** out.”
“Why is it not our place, this is America?” Sortor responds before the woman pulls the camera from his hand.
Later on, Sortor posted a video of him talking to a police officer who can be heard saying, “We have a ton of calls stacked that we have to answer."
“My point is you guys needs to not be in this area,” he says. “I can’t tell you that you have to leave but if we’re getting calls that you guys are harassing people…we don’t need this stuff to keep happening.”
“There’s a process that we have to follow,” the officer adds later. “We take the report, we document everything that happens, it goes to our investigators, and they can dig deeper into it. We have the vehicle information with the plates so that’s very helpful, so if we see the car, we can go from there.”
“We’ll be looking for the car,” another officer is heard saying. “But you guys gotta do us a favor and stay out of this area.”
“I’m not justifying what they did but we’re trying to keep the peace at the end of the day,” he added.
The MPD's Parten told Newsweek that, according to "preliminary information," three people were driving around the Cedar-Riverside area for around 45 minutes, during which time the department received several 911 calls reporting that "the occupants were recording individuals in the neighborhood and being verbally aggressive."
At around 4:25 p.m. local time, while the car was parked near the intersection of 6th Street S and 15th Avenue S., "the occupants were approached by a group of individuals who were recording them on their phones."
"The injured man also began recording the group," Parten said. "The woman took the camera from his hand and ran to a vehicle. The injured man grabbed the vehicle’s door handle and was pulled alongside the car for approximately half a block."
Sortor, a conservative known for covering riots and protests for his 1.4 million followers, was detained on January 11, after violently clashing with protesters outside an ICE facility in Minneapolis.
Sortor posted videos on X, including one that showed him driving through a crowd of protesters that had surrounded his vehicle.
Sortor wrote in the post that protesters had surrounded his vehicle and were "smashing my windows, and attempting to kill @CamHigby and me."
He added: "I was forced to drive away to save our lives, repeatedly warning those standing in front to GET OUT OF THE WAY. They didn't listen, so I had no choice but to go anyway."
He wrote that he was detained because "these idiots called the police on me saying I had a gun and was 'running innocent protestors over.'"
What People Are Saying
Nick Sortor said in the caption accompanying the footage of him talking to police officers: “INFURIATING: After Somali thugs commit FELONY ROBBERY against me, Minneapolis Police tell me *I’M* the problem and *I* need to leave NO. REFUSING to arrest Somali thieves is EXACTLY WHY America is in this situation to begin with. I’m DOUBLING DOWN, and I WILL NOT LEAVE.”
Elon Musk commented on the FBI’s response to Sortor saying: “Cool.”
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin recently told Newsweek: "We aren't going anywhere. While these sanctuary politicians refuse to protect Americans, DHS law enforcement will. We have removed thousands of murderers, scores of rapists, pedophiles, known and suspected terrorists, gang members and other public safety threats out of America's communities."
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat, wrote on X on Friday: "Trump sent thousands of armed federal officers into our state, and it took just one day for them to kill someone. Now he wants nothing more than to see chaos distract from that horrific action. Don't give him what he wants."
Walz added in another post: "We will fight with peaceful expression, in court, through public debate, and at the ballot box. Keep the peace. And keep the faith.
What Happens Next
The FBI has said that it is investigating the alleged robbery, though no arrests have been reported as of Monday morning. Protests against ICE are expected to persist, and local leaders have urged calm amid mounting unrest.
Update 1/20/26, 9:26 a.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Sergeant Garrett Parten of the MPD.
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