The Line Between Protest and Crime in a Hotel Parking Lot
Police in one Minneapolis suburb said a hotel protest had become unpeaceful and moved in with arrests. National coverage quickly shifted attention to some protesters’ long-past convictions rather than what actually happened in the parking lot that night.
Outside a SpringHill Suites by Marriott in Maple Grove, Minnesota, demonstrators gathered after learning that Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino might be staying there. By the end of the night, Maple Grove police had declared the gathering an unlawful assembly, alleged that objects were thrown and property damaged, and arrested 13 people on charges that include riot, damage to property, and obstructing the legal process, according to reporting by Fox News Digital.
From Hotel Protest to Unlawful Assembly
Maple Grove police told local station KSTP that officers responded to reports of a protest at the hotel on a Monday night. The department said the situation escalated when some demonstrators allegedly began damaging property and throwing objects at officers, prompting a dispersal order and an unlawful assembly declaration, as cited in the Fox News report.
MAPLE GROVE: Around 8 p.m., Maple Grove police responded to a protest outside the SpringHill Suites by Marriott in the 11600 block of Arbor Lakes Parkway. The protesters believed Border Patrol’s Greg Bovino was staying inside.
MGPD says the situation escalated and some in the… pic.twitter.com/3Ci0V3mpjN
— MN CRIME (@MN_CRIME) January 27, 2026
In a statement provided to KSTP and quoted by Fox News, Maple Grove police said:
“The Maple Grove Police Department respects and upholds the First Amendment rights of individuals to peacefully assemble and express their views. Our priority remains the safety and security of all residents, visitors, and property within our community. At that point, the activity was no longer considered peaceful. Individuals participating in criminal acts are not protected under the First Amendment and were subject to arrest.”
Police have not publicly released a detailed incident-by-incident account of the alleged property damage or of what was thrown at officers, nor have they released body camera footage in the public reporting available so far. What is clear from the charging descriptions is that officers treated the latter part of the gathering as criminal conduct rather than a protected protest.
13 Names, 13 Different Histories
According to the Fox News Digital report, Maple Grove police arrested 13 people outside the hotel. Most face riot charges under Minnesota law. Others are accused of obstructing the legal process or damaging property.
Among those arrested:
- Justin Neal Shelton was arrested on suspicion of obstructing the legal process. Fox News reports that court records show Shelton previously pleaded guilty in 2007 to first-degree aggravated robbery after prosecutors said he and another person assaulted a pregnant woman while trying to steal her car, as described by the Pioneer Press at the time. Shelton was sentenced to nearly five years in prison. At sentencing, he said, “First of all, I want to say how sorry I am. Even though I was intoxicated at the time, that does not justify my wrongdoing.” The Fox report also notes a 2020 conviction for possessing a firearm or ammunition after committing a violent crime, citing court records.
- Abraham Nelson Coleman, 45, was arrested on suspicion of property damage. According to Fox News, state records show multiple past convictions since 2003, including theft and property damage.
- Several younger adults, including people in their early twenties, face riot charges. Fox News identifies one, Jaylynn Marie Rodriguez, 24, as a first-year law student at the University of Minnesota Law School. Another, Freya Ebbesen, 23, is described as a birth assistant and clinic nurse at a Minnesota birthing center with a nursing degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
- Another person arrested on riot charges, 21-year-old Minneapolis resident Rayna Michelle Alston, uses the phrase “disrupt disturb resist” in her Instagram biography, according to Fox News. A recent Instagram story promoted a “Nationwide shutdown” on January 30 with the text, “No work. No School. No Shopping.”
- Josephine Jay Guilbeau, 37, also faces a riot charge. Democracy Now previously reported that Guilbeau was escorted out of a U.S. Senate hearing in Washington in September after she allegedly disrupted the hearing and accused committee members of being “complicit” in what she called genocide in Gaza, as linked in the Fox News story. In an Instagram video from the Maple Grove protest, cited by Fox, she described the police response as a “military operation.”
The remaining arrestees, including Cashmere Hamilton-Grunau, John Linden Gribble, Samantha Faye Muchowski, Baley Rae Schlosser, Sarah Nicole Workman, Oliver Kilgore Jones, and Megan Ashley Larson, are also reported by Fox News to face riot or damage to property charges, with Gribble having prior impaired driving-related convictions.
The Maple Grove Police Department has not, in the public reporting available so far, commented on why the prior criminal records of some defendants are relevant to the current charges. Those records may influence bail or sentencing if there are future convictions, but they are not evidence that any individual committed a crime at the hotel that night.
What Minnesota Law Says About Riot
Under Minnesota Statutes section 609.71, a riot occurs when three or more people assembled disturb the public peace through intentional acts or threats of unlawful force or violence toward people or property. The severity of the charge can increase if a dangerous weapon is used, if there is substantial bodily harm, or if the property damage reaches certain monetary thresholds.
That definition leaves prosecutors with significant discretion in contested protest situations. They must prove not just that individuals were present, but that they engaged in or aided specific unlawful conduct that meets the statute’s requirements. Defense attorneys in similar cases often argue that their clients were engaged in protected expression or were present but not involved in any violent acts.
The Maple Grove cases are still at the charging stage. No trials have been held, and the individuals arrested are presumed innocent. Prosecutors will need to present evidence tying each person to specific acts beyond protected speech or assembly.
Policing Protest Around Immigration Enforcement
The context for the hotel gathering is a broader pattern of protests in Minnesota over federal immigration enforcement. In recent years, demonstrators have marched in Minneapolis to oppose Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and to call for the removal of federal immigration operations from the state, as documented in prior coverage by Fox News and local outlets.
Commander Bovino, the apparent focus of the Maple Grove demonstration, has been a public figure in debates over national border enforcement. Protesters have increasingly targeted not only offices and detention centers, but also public appearances and travel of senior officials. That shift has, in turn, brought local police departments like Maple Grove’s into the middle of federal policy disputes they do not control.
The Maple Grove Police Department’s public statement emphasizes that its concern was safety and property, not the content of the demonstrators’ message. At the same time, national media coverage has highlighted some protesters’ social media posts, ideological slogans, and criminal records. That creates a layered narrative that mixes current allegations with years-old convictions and lawful online speech.
What We Still Do Not Know
Key details remain unresolved. Public reporting so far does not include:
- A precise timeline of when officers decided the gathering was an unlawful assembly.
- Descriptions, from police reports or charging documents, of the specific objects allegedly thrown at officers and who threw them.
- Independent video or audio that could corroborate or contradict the competing characterizations of a protest that became, in police terms, a riot.
- Any statements from defense attorneys for the 13 people charged.
Until those records are available, the public picture comes mostly from law enforcement statements and a national outlet’s focus on past convictions and activist biographies. Whether Minnesota courts ultimately accept the riot and related charges, and how judges treat defendants’ criminal histories in any sentencing, will determine whether this hotel protest is remembered as a crime, a test of protest policing, or both.
For now, the Maple Grove arrests sit at the intersection of immigration politics, local law enforcement discretion, and the enduring question of when a protest stops being protected speech in the eyes of the law.
