A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed a woman Wednesday in south Minneapolis, the latest city to be targeted by the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
The full picture of what exactly happened is still coming into focus, including through eyewitness accounts and videos. But federal officials are describing the killing in starkly different terms from state and local officials.
How did the shooting occur?
Minneapolis Police Department chief Brian O’Hara said officers responded to a report Wednesday morning of shots being fired in an incident involving federal law enforcement.
The city’s officers found a woman with a gunshot wound to the head who was later pronounced dead at a local hospital, the police chief said in a news conference Wednesday.
Watch the news conference in the player above.
O’Hara offered a preliminary picture of what happened: The woman was in her car and blocking a roadway. A federal officer then approached the motorist on foot while the vehicle began to drive away. At least two shots were fired and then the vehicle crashed alongside the roadway.
Neither the ICE officer nor the victim have been identified by authorities. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said the woman was 37 years old. O’Hara said she appeared to be a middle-aged white woman.
The Minnesota Star Tribune reported that the victim’s mother identified her as Renee Nicole Good, saying she was “loving, forgiving and affectionate.”
There was “nothing to indicate that this woman was the target of any law enforcement investigation,” the police chief said.
Videos taken by bystanders and posted to social media show two officers approaching a car that is stopped across the middle of a snowy and icy road. One officer attempts to open the driver’s side door and reaches into the vehicle as it starts reversing. A third officer with his gun drawn crosses in front of the car as it moves away from the agents. That officer, who appears to be knocked backward but not hit, opens fire on the vehicle. The car then speeds toward the curb, crashing into parked vehicles.
What the Trump administration is saying
The Department of Homeland Security said the shooting was an act of self-defense. Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told PBS News in a statement that the ICE officer fired defensively, “fearing for his life” and the lives of others.
Speaking from Texas, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem likened the incident to an “act of domestic terrorism” against ICE officers by a motorist who tried to run them over with her vehicle.
“An officer of ours acted quickly and defensively shot to protect himself and the people around him,” she told reporters.
President Donald Trump weighed in on the shooting on social media, suggesting the driver was “very disorderly” and “viciously ran over the ICE Officer, [sic]” who he said was recovering in the hospital after the incident. DHS’ McLaughlin said in the statement that “the ICE officers who were hurt are expected to make full recoveries.”
What Minnesota officials are saying
Watch the clip in the player above.
Frey strongly rebuked the federal characterization of events, saying that he had viewed footage of the incident.
“They are already trying to spin this as an action of self-defense,” he said. “I wanna tell everybody directly, that is bulls**t.”
A reporter asked Frey whether the woman was driving her car as a “weapon” toward the ICE agent. The mayor said that didn’t appear to be the case.
Frey said the ICE agent was “recklessly using power” that resulted in a person’s death.
“They are not here to cause safety in this city. What they are doing is not to provide safety in America. What they are doing is causing chaos and distrust,” Frey said.
He then said he had a message to ICE: “Get the f**k out of Minneapolis. We do not want you here.”
Gov. Tim Walz addressed Minneapolis residents in a later news conference, saying, “I feel your anger.”
The governor, who mentioned the protests following the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd throughout Wednesday’s news conference, then asked for any protests to remain peaceful. “They want a show,” he said of the Trump administration. “We can’t give it to them.”
He then addressed the Trump administration.
“We do not need any further help from the federal government. To Donald Trump and Kristi Noem: You’ve done enough,” the governor added.
Why is ICE in Minneapolis?
Members of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement gather at the scene where a driver was shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Photo by Tim Evans/Reuters
Minneapolis is the latest major U.S. city to see a surge of immigration enforcement activity. The Trump administration sent more than 2,000 federal agents to the area earlier this week. ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons told Newsmax that this is the “largest immigration operation ever.”
The deployment followed mounting scrutiny from federal investigators over fraud allegations targeting Somali child care providers in the state. Trump has also singled out Somalis in his anti-immigrant rhetoric.
In his social media post, Trump claimed that the “Radical Left is threatening, assaulting, and targeting” law enforcement officers and ICE agents on a “daily basis.”
Walz, who had called the deployment a “war” against Minnesota, responded to DHS’ social media post about the shooting, saying he had viewed video of the incident.
“Don’t believe this propaganda machine,” the governor wrote. “The state will ensure there is a full, fair, and expeditious investigation to ensure accountability and justice.”
PBS News’ Daniel Cooney contributed to this report.
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