Former Minnesota state trooper John Nagel says Somali gang violence will keep spiraling without real enforcement, and he is demanding to know why Rep. Ilhan Omar stays silent.

Residents in Eden Prairie and nearby Twin Cities suburbs say they no longer feel safe after a string of gang-linked shootings this month, and the Republican running to unseat Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., is putting the blame squarely on soft-on-crime Democrats.

Fox News Digital reported that Nagel, a 30-year state trooper and Minnesota native, is challenging Omar in the 5th Congressional District and is calling out what he describes as political restraint on police work that has left gangs emboldened.

Two teens were shot outside an Eden Prairie High School homecoming football game. In a Bloomington neighborhood, officers recovered more than 100 shell casings. Those are not distant city problems. They landed in the suburbs.

Nagel’s question is blunt: local leaders hold meetings and issue statements, but the congresswoman who represents the area is nowhere to be found.

Nagel asks where Omar is while neighborhoods absorb the gunfire

Nagel told reporters he expects a member of Congress to show up when her district is dealing with this kind of violence.

"Where is Ilhan Omar in all of this?" Nagel said.

"I would think that, as a congressman that represents this particular area, that she'd be at these meetings, or she'd have a statement, or she’d be sitting down and saying, ‘Hey, how can we help this? How could we stop this?’ And I don't see her."

Fox News Digital reached out to Omar’s office for comment. The same outreach went to Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison. No responses appear in the available reporting.

Omar has faced separate scrutiny in recent months, including after Minneapolis police raided her son’s home and seized guns and ammunition tied to a felon roommate.

Nagel is not treating the latest shootings as isolated noise. He argues the pattern follows years of Democratic control in Minnesota that treats enforcement as optional.

Charges filed in Eden Prairie case while Bloomington waits

On Friday, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty’s office charged 18-year-old Adam Abdihakeem Adam with two counts of second-degree assault with a deadly weapon and second-degree riot in the Eden Prairie football game shooting.

Moriarty said in a press release that the defendant would face consequences.

"Mr. Adam will be held accountable. Violence in our communities is completely unacceptable, and it requires a professional, coordinated response, which happened here."

That charging decision covers one incident. The Bloomington case is still upstream. Spokesperson Daniel Borgertpoepping said no cases from that neighborhood shooting scene have been submitted for charging consideration yet, though any that arrive “will be thoroughly reviewed.”

Nagel has accused Democrats, including Moriarty’s office, of keeping their “heads in the sand.” He says officers are being held back by politicians who prefer anything other than a police response.

"They're being restrained by politicians, people that are trying soft on crime, people that are trying to send somebody other than a police officer to take care of issues, and it's not working," Nagel said.

He added that a majority of Democrats “don’t want enforcement,” while “the people do” and “they’re tired of it.”

Voters tracking Omar’s record have seen other flashpoints, including coverage of how Ilhan Omar dodged questions after the police raid connected to her son’s residence.

Sheriff says most of the gang problem is Somali and needs plain talk

Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher held a news conference this week and refused to sand down the demographics of the gangs driving the violence.

Fletcher said a “big chunk of the problem” is the failure to hold gang members accountable, and he argued Moriarty’s office needs to be more “aggressive” prosecuting juveniles.

He went further on who is filling those ranks.

"98% of these gang members are Somali"

Fletcher said broader labels like “East African” are not fair to other communities and added, "I think we just have to say what it is and not run away from the term."

Nagel made the same point from a street-level enforcement view. He listed Latino, Asian, Black, and Somali gangs and rejected the idea that naming them is prejudice.

"It's ridiculous," Nagel said. "I'm a police officer. I don't care who you are. I don't care what color you are."

His prescription is not a new pile of statutes or more grant money for favored groups. It is prosecution under the laws already on the books.

"We don't need to pass any more laws. We don't need any more people asking for money to help their group. We need to take the laws that we have and prosecute people. We need enforcement, we need arrests and we need incarceration. Otherwise, this is going to continue to spiral."

Nagel also floated a gang task force as one practical tool. The core demand remains the same: arrests that stick and jail time that follows.

That public-safety focus sits beside other long-running questions about Omar’s personal and immigration history, including reporting on a DHS investigation into whether she married her brother to help him enter the country.

Suburban fear meets statewide political incentives

Nagel ties the boldness of local gangs and ordinary crooks to how Democrats have governed Minnesota for years. In his view, weak follow-through taught the wrong lesson.

"Because of how the Democrats have run Minnesota over the years, these gang members and then just crooks in general, they’re emboldened by this," he said.

The political calendar is already set. Nagel will face Omar and independent candidate DeVelle Jackson in the midterm contest for the U.S. House seat.

Walz, for his part, has drawn attention for a separate $10 million emergency relief proposal aimed at small businesses affected by federal immigration enforcement. That package does not answer the shell casings in Bloomington or the teens shot outside a high school game.

Readers following Omar-related federal scrutiny have also seen claims that a DHS secretary said an investigation found she married her brother, raising deportation questions that keep her name in the national debate.

Nagel’s campaign lane is narrower and more immediate: stop treating gang gunfire in the Twin Cities suburbs as background noise, quit substituting social programs for handcuffs, and force elected Democrats to own the results of the policies they defend.

Similar pressure has already been building in coverage of how an ex-trooper challenged Omar and Democrats as Somali gang violence hit the Twin Cities, underscoring that this fight is no longer confined to one news cycle.

When more than 100 casings hit a neighborhood and teenagers take bullets outside a football game, the public does not need another listening session. It needs prosecutors who charge, judges who sentence, and members of Congress who show up. Silence from the people in charge is a choice, and voters can see who is making it.