This article is based on information as of Thursday, April 30 and will be updated as the story develops.

On Sunday, April 26, Gaz Mulvaney from Maplewood, Minn., who participates in ongoing weekly anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protests outside of Cities Church, was arrested at the intersection of Summit Ave. and Pascal St.

On Jan. 18, a group of protestors accompanied by independent journalists interrupted Cities Church’s Sunday service, alleging that one of the church’s pastors, David Easterwood, leads a local ICE field office involved in federal enforcement of Operation Metro Surge. Since then, small groups of demonstrators have been gathering on Sunday mornings outside of Cities Church, which is located a block away from Macalester’s campus.

A December 2025 cease-and-desist letter from former St. Paul City Attorney Lyndsey Olson about preventing ICE and Department of Homeland Security agents from using St. Paul parking lots without authorization, named Easterwood as the “Acting Director” of the “Saint Paul Field Office [for] United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”

St. Paul Police Department (SPPD) Public Information Officer/ Analyst Alyssa Arcand wrote in an email to The Mac Weekly that “Saint Paul Police officers have been working contracted overtime during church services since the beginning of February at Cities Church.”

Mulvaney, who had planned to protest next to the church that Sunday, was initially pulled over by SPPD Officer Ryley Reschke on Summit Ave. near Cities Church while driving to the protest.

Mulvaney said that she was driving around the block when Reschke began following behind her. Mulvaney said that she made a right turn onto Summit Ave. from Snelling Ave., on a yellow light, when Reschke flashed the car’s lights and pulled her over.

She was issued a traffic citation for “failure to obey traffic control device” and “no proof of insurance” at 8:35 a.m.

“I found [proof of insurance] and had managed to get logged in [to the app] right as he was walking away [from the car],” Mulvaney said in an interview with The Mac Weekly.

A few moments after issuing the citation, Reschke allowed Mulvaney to leave.

As Mulvaney began driving away on Summit Ave., Reschke, who was still standing near the car, said that she “almost ran over my foot.” Reschke followed Mulvaney’s car until reaching the intersection with Pascal St., where he pulled Mulvaney over again.

In the arrest footage posted to Instagram and Facebook, Mulvaney was asked by Reschke to step out of the vehicle and was told by Reschke that she almost ran over his foot. Mulvaney apologized, and the officer responded: “No, you’re not [sorry]; you did it on purpose.”

According to the SPPD arrest report obtained by The Mac Weekly, Mulvaney was then cited and arrested at 9:18 a.m. by Reschke for “Reckless driving; Drives Consciously Disregarding a Substantial or Unjustifiable Risk” and was taken to the Ramsey County Law Enforcement Center.

According to the video posted to social media, after Reschke placed Mulvaney in the SPPD vehicle, a bystander on the sidewalk shouted expletives at the officer. Reschke returned to the vehicle and approached Mulvaney’s husband and requested his identification, later detaining him for not wearing a seatbelt. Reschke later returned the man’s identification and let him go without a traffic citation.

“This traffic stop does not relate to [Cities Church]. An officer made a routine traffic stop,” Arcand wrote.

Moments after Mulvaney’s arrest, three additional demonstrators arrived at the median across from the church along with two counterprotestors.

Protesters present spotted a vehicle with tinted windows. It later parked next to Cities Church at 9:10 a.m. In the following minutes, a second vehicle with tinted windows also appeared on the scene.

The Mac Weekly was unable to independently confirm if any vehicles present were operated by federal law enforcement agencies.

Many protestors traveled to the area surrounding the Ramsey County Law Enforcement Center to oppose the SPPD’s arrest of Mulvaney. She was released shortly, over an hour after her arrest.

Demonstrations next to Cities Church have occurred weekly in the wake of the Department of Justice arresting a total of 39 individuals in the aftermath of the Jan. 18 protest, including former CNN anchor Don Lemon.

Individuals pleaded not guilty to “felony charges of conspiracy against the right of religious freedom at a place of worship and injuring, Individuals not associated with the initial Jan. 18 protest have continued to demonstrate on the median next to Cities Church while Sunday services are conducted inside.

“Since protesters [from Jan. 18] are not allowed anywhere near the church again, we took lessons learned,” protester Andrew Lindell said. “We’re not going into the church, we’re not going through the church, but we are coming here to hold the line … we’re trying to keep the conversation open.”

Lindell joined the weekly demonstrations outside of Cities Church after witnessing ICE agents outside of the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, where he was demonstrating.

“[I’ve] been protesting ever since [going to Whipple] and I’ve seen a lot more examples of their ugliness and their bloodlust that [ICE] came here with,” Lindell said. “If I had heard anything in the news about that pastor, David Easterwood, trying to do anything from the inside trying to fix ICE for the better, in the face of all the ugliness that they’ve been doing, I wouldn’t be here protesting.”

This isn’t the first arrest to happen during the subsequent demonstrations. On April 5, Emily Phillips was arrested by SPPD outside of Cities Church while Easter Sunday service was being held inside. SPPD at the time said that Phillips had stepped off the median onto the sidewalk next to Cities Church with a noisemaker and a speaker. SPPD said to reporters that they had arrested Phillips to prevent the noise from disrupting church services.

“[Phillips] had already put down her amplified device because the police had warned her,” Lindell, who witnessed the interaction, said. “She wasn’t even holding it, and then they jumped up and arrested her the moment the church service began, because they felt that she was shouting too loud … from my understanding, it was just the police trying to wear us down.”

Phillips was charged with “four misdemeanor counts for violating noise rules and interrupting a religious observation.” The charges were dropped the next day by Ramsey County Judge Maria Mitchell.

Cities Church has not responded to The Mac Weekly’s request for comment. SPPD was unable to comment further with additional information at this time. 

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