The federal complaint begins not with the riot itself but with three voicemails. In them, prosecutors say, a caller used an FBI agent’s personal details to threaten his life and the lives of his spouse and child.
Those intimate details, authorities allege, trace back to an FBI vehicle broken into during unrest in Minneapolis. The case now sits at the intersection of crowd disorder, stolen government property, and a direct threat to a federal officer’s home life.
The Arrest in Spokane and What Is Alleged
According to a report by Fox News, federal agents in Spokane, Washington, arrested Brenna Marie Doyle after she allegedly left three voicemails threatening to kill a federal law enforcement officer in Minnesota and members of the officer’s immediate family.
A federal criminal complaint, described in that reporting, alleges that on or about January 16, 2026, Doyle threatened to kill the officer. Prosecutors say she did so with the intent to intimidate or retaliate against the officer for official duties.
Breaking:
Breaking: Brenna Doyle arrested in Spokane Jan.26 after using ID stolen from an FBI vehicle in the Jan.14 Minneapolis riot to leave three voicemail threats for an FBI agent and family. According to FOX28 Spokane. What do you think? Comment. #news pic.twitter.com/P5jUaNFYLY
— Patriots Daily News (@pdnewstoday) January 27, 2026
Authorities further allege that Doyle threatened the officer’s spouse and child for the same reason. The complaint reportedly frames the calls as targeted threats linked to the agent’s work in Minnesota.
Doyle has been arrested, not convicted. The allegations outlined in the complaint will need to be tested in court. Publicly available coverage so far does not include a statement from Doyle or any defense attorney, so her account of events is not yet part of the record.
From Vandalized FBI Vehicle to Targeted Threats
The case does not start with the phone calls. It begins, investigators say, with a damaged FBI vehicle in Minneapolis.
Fox News reports that the complaint connects Doyle’s alleged threats to an incident on January 14, 2026, when rioters damaged and looted an FBI vehicle in Minneapolis. FBI Director Kash Patel wrote on X, according to the outlet, that Doyle was arrested “in connection with the Jan. 14 incident in Minneapolis, where rioters destroyed and stole equipment from an FBI vehicle.”
In a separate post quoted by Fox News, the FBI’s Minneapolis field office wrote on X, “Threatening an FBI employee and their family will not be tolerated.” The account added, “If you threaten to harm law enforcement officers or their families, the FBI will find you and hold you accountable.”
The report indicates that identification materials belonging to an FBI agent were stolen from the vehicle that night. Prosecutors say that material was then used to craft the voicemails, which identified the agent and referenced his family. However, the exact wording of the recorded threats has not been made public in the coverage so far.
Patel told Fox News Digital that Doyle’s arrest was one of “nearly a dozen public arrests” tied to the January 14 incident. He is quoted as saying, “Our teams have responded quickly and professionally in the days since, despite a significant number of challenges.” Those challenges are not detailed in the story.
Legal Framework for Threats Against Federal Officers
The charges described in the Fox News report track closely with federal statutes that criminalize threats against certain federal officials and employees. Under 18 U.S.C. 115, it is a federal crime to threaten to assault, kidnap, or murder a federal law enforcement officer or a member of that officer’s immediate family with intent to impede, intimidate, interfere with, or retaliate for the performance of official duties.
Guidance in the Department of Justice Criminal Resource Manual notes that threats against federal officers can be charged when they constitute a true threat rather than protected speech and when they are connected to an officer’s official work. That manual outlines broader enforcement approaches for assaults and interference with federal officers.
In Doyle’s case, prosecutors will need to establish that the alleged voicemails qualify as true threats and that they were intended to intimidate or retaliate against the agent for his duties in Minnesota. Defense counsel, once identified, can be expected to challenge those points, the characterization of the calls, or the evidence tying Doyle to the stolen identification material.
What Authorities Say Happened on January 14
Fox News describes the January 14 unrest in Minneapolis as beginning after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation. The Department of Homeland Security stated, according to the outlet, that an ICE agent shot a Venezuelan national in the leg after agents were “allegedly ambushed and attacked with a shovel.”
In the hours that followed, the FBI says several government vehicles were vandalized and broken into as agents responded to what the Bureau calls a reported assault on a federal officer. The FBI has stated that federal property, including weapons and body armor, was taken from those vehicles, again as reported by Fox News.
The Doyle arrest is not the only case to emerge from that night. The same Fox News story notes an earlier arrest of Raul Gutierrez, described as a 33-year-old who authorities have identified as a member of the Latin Kings gang. Then Attorney General Pam Bondi said Gutierrez was accused of stealing FBI body armor and weapons, and White House border official Tom Homan said he allegedly took a firearm from the FBI vehicle.
Those allegations, like those in Doyle’s case, will require courtroom scrutiny. As of this writing, there is no publicly reported trial record for either defendant within the information available to this newsroom.
Security, Chain of Custody, and Open Questions
The FBI’s public statements focus on deterrence. “If you threaten to harm law enforcement officers or their families, the FBI will find you and hold you accountable,” the Minneapolis field office wrote on X, as quoted by Fox News.
What is less visible so far is how federal agencies are examining the security breakdown that allowed personal identification materials, weapons, and protective equipment to be removed from FBI vehicles during a single night of unrest.
Based on the reporting to date, several basic facts remain unclear to outside observers.
Item 1: Exactly what identification material was taken from the FBI vehicle, how it was stored, and whether existing policy was followed.
Item 2: Whether any internal FBI or DHS audit has produced findings about the security of those vehicles and equipment, and if so, whether any of those findings will be made public.
Item 3: How many of the reportedly stolen weapons and pieces of body armor have been recovered, and whether any have been linked to other crimes.
Item 4: Whether the Venezuelan man shot by ICE agents has been charged with any crime connected to the alleged shovel attack, and what his current medical and legal status is.
Those gaps are not unusual this early in a federal investigation that may involve multiple agencies and ongoing prosecutions. They do, however, shape what the public can and cannot yet know about how a night of unrest escalated into a case involving threats against a federal agent’s family.
For now, the documentary record available through Fox News’ reporting and existing federal statutes presents a narrow but significant chain of events. An ICE operation, a reported ambush, protests, vandalized government vehicles, stolen property, then voicemails that prosecutors say crossed the line into criminal threats.
What internal changes federal agencies will make in response, and what a jury will ultimately decide about Doyle’s alleged role, remain unanswered questions that will determine whether this episode becomes a brief criminal case or a longer-running story about how federal power, public protest, and personal safety intersect.
