An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed a woman Wednesday during an operation in Minneapolis, immediately escalating tensions over the Trump administration’s decision to send some 2,000 immigration agents into the city.
“We’ve dreaded this moment since the early stages of this ICE presence in Minneapolis,” an angry Mayor Jacob Frey said at an afternoon news conference. Federal agents, he said, are “sowing chaos on our streets, and in this case, quite literally killing people.”
The Minnesota Star Tribune identified the woman as 37-year old Renee Nicole Good. Good’s mother, Donna Ganger, told the outlet that her daughter was “loving, forgiving and affectionate” and that she was “probably terrified” during the encounter.
The incident, coming on the heels of the Trump administration’s expanded immigration operations in blue states and cities, immediately became politicized. After watching video of the encounter, President Donald Trump claimed the woman who was shot “violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense.” He also said it was “hard to believe” that the ICE agent is alive and added that he is recovering at a hospital.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a Wednesday evening news conference that the woman was “blocking” officers who were attempting to dislodge their vehicle from the snow.
“ICE agents repeatedly ordered her to get out of the car and to stop obstructing law enforcement. But she refused to obey their commands,” Noem said. “She then proceeded to weaponize her vehicle and she attempted to run a law enforcement officer over.”
Noem said the ICE officer, “fearing for his life and the other officers around him and the safety of the public,” fired shots defensively.
Noem said the officer had been released from the hospital and was with family. “Any loss of life is a tragedy…all of us agree in this situation, it was preventable,” she said.
The incident, coming on the heels of the Trump administration’s expanded immigration operations in blue states and cities, immediately became politicized.
Democrats, however — including Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, with whom Noem said she spoke — questioned Trump and Noem’s accounting of the events. Walz warned in his own press conference that Trump “would make this about me” and that the shooting was “so, so preventable” and “so unnecessary.”
Walz called on Minnesotans to remain calm and said he is prepared to activate the National Guard if needed. Police Chief Brian O’Hara told Minneapolis his officers last month to intervene if they see ICE agents using excessive force against residents or risk losing their jobs.
Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said officers were “conducting targeted operations when rioters began blocking ICE officers and one of these violent rioters weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them — an act of domestic terrorism.”
McLaughlin said the officer feared for his life and “the safety of the public.”
“He used his training and saved his own life and that of his fellow officers,” she said. “The alleged perpetrator was hit and is deceased. Thankfully, the ICE officers who were hurt are expected to make full recoveries.”
And Stephen Miller, a senior presidential aide and architect of Trump’s mass deportation strategy, called video he posted of the incident “domestic terrorism.”
Local Minneapolis officials, however, feel differently.
According to Frey’s office, Minneapolis police officers responded to the reports of shots fired “just after 9:30 a.m., and found a woman with life-threatening gunshot wounds. Minneapolis firefighters removed the woman from the vehicle and immediately began lifesaving measures until paramedics could respond.” She was transported to a local hospital, where she eventually died.
Frey accused the Trump administration of trying to “spin this as an action of self-defense.”
“Having seen the video … myself, I want to tell everybody directly that is bullshit,” the mayor said. “This was an agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying, getting killed.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., was similarly skeptical.
“There is no evidence that has been presented to justify this killing. [DHS] Secretary Kristi Noem is a stone-cold liar and has zero credibility. The masked ICE agent who pulled the trigger should be criminally investigated to the full extent of the law for acting with depraved indifference to human life,” Jeffries said.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris called the incident “shocking,” and said the video “makes it clear that the Trump administration’s explanation of this shooting is pure gaslighting.”
O’Hara said the woman was not the target of the law enforcement investigation, was unarmed and was shot in the head.
Bystander video verified by MS NOW clearly contradicts key parts of Trump’s description. It shows the car partially blocking a two-lane street in a snowy residential neighborhood.
The footage, which begins moments before the shooting, shows a handful of people milling about, filming the agents as they walk around and toward the vehicle. Whistles — a tactic used by “ICE observers” to warn people that agents are in the area — can be heard. One of the officers puts his hand on the driver’s door handle and loudly repeats, “Get out of the car!” The car briefly moves in reverse, then starts to drive off when three gunshots ring out, and the car crashes into a parked vehicle. The officer who fired his gun was standing in the street in the direction the car was facing. The agent holding the door handle stumbles but stays on his feet as the car drives off. None of the other officers comes in contact with the car, and none appears significantly injured, if at all. Several people at the scene are heard yelling expletives right after the shots were fired. Residents who spoke to MS NOW at the scene said they saw what appeared to be blood on the deployed airbag on the driver’s side. Shortly after the shooting, residents gathered around federal agents in vehicles, shouting at them and calling the location a crime scene. The Trump administration launched a massive immigration enforcement operation in the Minneapolis area this week, deploying approximately 2,000 federal agents to the state. Federal law enforcement officials have been sent to other Democratic-led cities over the past year, sparking fierce criticism from local lawmakers. In October, a federal agent shot a woman five times during an immigration crackdown in Chicago in what the administration similarly characterized as a defensive act. Federal prosecutors brought assault charges against her, but moved to dismiss them after the agent’s text messages bragging about the shooting were presented in court. At the news conference, Frey addressed the federal immigration enforcement agency directly. “I have a message for ICE: Get the fuck out of Minneapolis. We do not want you here,” he said. This is a developing story. Please check back for updates. ___ Nnamdi Egwuonwu contributed to this report.
Alex Tabet is a reporter for MS NOW.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter and producer for MS NOW. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian. Recommended
