On Dec. 14, a social media account called Minnesota Burning specializing in man-on-the-street interviews around the Twin Cities posted a video clip of a conversation with a pair of 20-year-old college students.
The shorter of the two had the unfocused stare of a co-ed who’d been served one too many. But, asked by the interviewer if he supports ICE, he grew startlingly lucid and savage in his response.
“Hell fucking nah,” he says. “It’s splitting up families. It’s not right. These people are not illegal. It’s fucking Holocaust shit. That’s Holocaust shit, come on.”
“What do you say to people in the comments who say ICE is just following the law?” the interviewer follows.
“In Germany, they were following the law,” he responds. “And you know what? Following the law does not mean it’s legal. It does not mean it’s right. It does not mean it’s moral. These people voted for this! They voted for this. And that’s wrong.”
The taller friend, meanwhile, serves the role of hype man, interjecting, “That’s what I’m sayin’! That’s what I’m sayin’!”
The endearing duo, paired with the fiery anti-MAGA message, made for irresistible online catnip. The video, posted across Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube, went viral, racking up 3.5 millions views.
Just three weeks later, that exchange might seem eerily prophetic, as Jonathan Ross, a 43-year-old ICE officer deployed in Minneapolis, would fatally shoot Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three.
What has ensued has plunged the country into a nightmare recalling the George Floyd murder of 2020, which unfolded not far from the Good slaying: a social media-fueled miasma of terrifying eye-witness videos, conflicting interpretations and enraged street protests over the use of deadly police force.
Now, for the first time, the vocal student in that Minnesota Burning video has come forward to identify himself.
His name is Zachary Skubitz, and he’s a mechanical engineering undergrad at University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Like the rest of the country, Skubitz has watched in horror as the events of the last days have unfolded in his hometown.
Asked for his thoughts on the crisis, Skubitz offers this statement to The Hollywood Reporter:
“I would like to say that the murder of Renee Good is terrible,” Skubitz says. “And add on to that the right is already trying to spin the clear and obvious video evidence into something it is not.”
Skubitz adds, “I don’t believe it’s a political argument of immigration policies anymore, but a moral argument about human rights.”
The man behind Minnesota Burning, meanwhile, Bam Turay, 25, pledges that more interviews are on the way. “I will be recording next week if my camera gets fixed,” Turay says.
Watch the original viral video below.