A woman was shot in her vehicle by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Officer on Wednesday, January 7, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The victim was 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, a U.S. citizen and mother of three.
The shooting sparked outrage in Minneapolis and larger communities that are frustrated with ICE’s presence in U.S. cities. Democratic Minnesota Senator Tina Smith posted that “the situation on the ground is volatile” and “ICE should leave now for everyone’s safety.”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security posted on X that the officer “fired defensive shots” and “saved his own life and that of his fellow officers.”
Here’s how the fatal shooting unfolded:
Four videos, including one taken by the offending officer, show Good sitting in her maroon Honda pilot minutes before the shooting, partially blocking a residential road. She reverses to allow vehicles to pass by, which they do until an unmarked federal pickup truck stops and two masked ICE agents get out.
The officers approach her and order her to exit her vehicle. Good begins to reverse while one of the agents reaches into the open window and tries to open the door. Good then drives forward, at which point the other agent shoots three times through the windshield, killing her. Her vehicle continued down the street before crashing into a parked white car.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claimed that the officer was hit and that his life was in imminent danger. However, a New York Times analysis of the videos contradicts the claim that Good was ever weaponizing her vehicle: the officer who pulled the trigger remained on his feet as Good’s vehicle drove away. Additionally, at the moment of the shooting, he was standing to the left of the vehicle while its wheels were turned right, away from the agent, indicating that it is more likely that Good was simply driving away.
Good’s partner, who identified herself after the shooting, was on scene and rushed to the car after it crashed on the side of the road. ICE agents reportedly blocked bystanders trying to provide medical assistance, including one who identified himself as a physician and repeatedly asked to check for a pulse.
Shortly after the shooting, several officers, including the one who shot Good, got into their vehicles and drove away.
First responders arrived more than six minutes after the shooting, at which point Good was taken to the hospital and pronounced dead.
Representative Robin Kelly has announced that she “will be filing Articles of Impeachment against Kristi Noem,” adding that “she has turned ICE into a rogue force, violating the Constitution, tearing families apart, and leaving death in her wake.”
Democrat and Republican lawmakers take a drastically different viewpoint on the shooting: Republicans, for the most part, celebrate it as a heroic act by an ICE officer to protect himself and his colleagues; Democrats instead claim that it was a reckless and illegal execution of a U.S. citizen by unwelcome federal law enforcement forces.
Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota said, “What we’re seeing is the consequences of governance designed to generate fear, headlines and conflict.”
