MINNEAPOLIS – A fatal shooting of a 37-year-old woman by immigration agents on Jan. 7 in Minneapolis is sparking outrage over President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement in the area.
Hundreds marched the streets Jan. 7 to mourn the loss of the woman city officials identified as Renee Nicole Good. Lawmakers called for the officer behind the shooting to be arrested in response to video of the incident. Local leaders disputed federal officials’ account of what led to the shooting.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said officers fired “defensive shots” after the woman attempted to ram agents with her SUV. Noem said Good was engaged in an act of “domestic terrorism.” 
Citing video of the shooting, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey blasted Homeland Security officials for their account of what happened. 
“They are already trying to spin this as an action of self defense,” Frey said at a news conference. “Having seen the video myself I want to tell everybody directly, that is bull—-.”
The shooting came during an immigration enforcement action in the Twin Cities, a day after hundreds of Homeland Security agents deployed to the area. Federal authorities say they are targeting the area in response to a federal fraud scandal they say is tied to Somali immigrants.
Video of the incident circulating online showed multiple law enforcement officers approaching a dark red vehicle, and an individual saying “get out of the (expletive) car.” The SUV initially reversed before driving forward, and a law enforcement officer standing near the front of the vehicle on the driver’s side shot into it. The car immediately crashed into a line of other parked vehicles as onlookers screamed.
Gov. Tim Walz described the shooting as “totally avoidable” and urged people to demonstrate peacefully, recalling the protests in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in 2020, which occurred less than a mile from where the federal agent fired.
“To Minnesotans I say this: I feel your anger. I’m angry,” Walz said at a news conference hours after the shooting. “They want a show. We can’t give it to them.”
The FBI is investigating the incident. Separately, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension has launched a probe into the federal agent’s use of force.
Other officials did not name the woman but provided further information: Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar described her as a “legal observer,” and Sen. Tina Smith, a Minnesota Democrat, said she was a U.S. citizen. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said it does not appear the woman was the “target of any law enforcement investigation or activity.”
Minneapolis Public Schools announced there will be no school and all district sponsored programs are canceled on Thursday, Jan. 8, and Friday, Jan. 9, “out of an abundance of caution” in the wake of the shooting.
The district noted in a news release that it will not move to remote learning as it is “only allowable for severe weather.”
Classes will resume Monday, Jan. 12, the district said on X.
By now millions of people have seen the moment where an immigration agent fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good.
Good’s defenders − including city and state leaders − are calling what happened an unjustified attack; federal authorities say the agent was acting in self-defense. 
Whatever Good was trying to do amid an immigration enforcement operation unwelcomed by the city, she was more than the last seconds of her life.
Her mother, Donna Ganger, told the Minnesota Star Tribune that Good lived with her partner in Minneapolis and was a compassionate woman who had “taken care of people all her life.”
“She was loving, forgiving and affectionate,” Ganger told the newspaper. “She was an amazing human being.”
Read more here about what we know about the woman killed by an immigration agent.
— Amanda Lee Myers
The woman shot by immigration agents in Minneapolis is the latest person to be fired on by federal officers amid the Trump administration’s deportation efforts.
Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez, a 38-year-old Mexican immigrant, was shot and killed by federal agents outside Chicago in September. The details of Villegas-Gonzalez’s death remain unclear. Homeland Security officials said the man resisted arrest and dragged an agent with his car. Video evidence shows the agent had described his wounds as “nothing major.” Villegas-Gonzalez’s lawyer and others have called for a full investigation into the shooting.
Also during the Chicago blitz campaign, Marimar Martinez, a U.S. citizen, was shot and wounded by Border Patrol on Oct. 4. Federal prosecutors initially indicted the 31-year-old on charges of assaulting a federal officer, but the case was eventually dismissed. 
Text messages shared in federal court in Chicago show the agent appearing to brag about the shooting. “I fired 5 rounds and she had 7 holes,” wrote Supervisory Border Patrol agent Charles Exum. “Put that in your book boys.”
More: Minneapolis woman latest to be shot amid Trump deportation campaign
At a Wednesday night news conference, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem gave an account of the shooting, saying the officer “followed his training, did exactly what he was supposed to do.”
Noem said a “mob” of protesters with vehicles attempted to block in immigration agents around 10:25 a.m. Good was among the group, Noem alleged. Agents told her to exit her car. She did not obey their orders and proceeded to “weaponize her vehicle,” according to Noem.
The agent fired “defensive shots” striking and killing Good, said Noem, adding the agent was hit by Good and briefly hospitalized.
Noem said the incident in Minneapolis was one of three in the city that involved people using vehicles against immigration agents. Local officials and residents have disputed Homeland Security’s characterization of Good’s actions. 
In the wake of the shooting, Illinois Rep. Robin Kelly announced that she would introduce impeachment charges against Noem.
“Secretary Noem wreaked havoc in the Chicagoland area, and now, her rogue ICE agents have unleashed that same destruction in Minneapolis, fatally shooting Renee Nicole Good,” Kelly said in a Jan. 7 news release. “From Chicago to Charlotte to Los Angeles to Minneapolis, Secretary Noem is violating the Constitution while ruining—and ending—lives.”
The news release said that the charges would be “Obstruction of Congress,” “Violation of Public Trust” and “Self-Dealing.”
In an interview with USA TODAY, U.S. Sen. Tina Smith, a Minnesota Democrat, described Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s comments as “gaslighting.”
“What Secretary Noem did was so irresponsible, because she, without any investigation, is gaslighting the American public by trying to tell us what happened when the video evidence that we’re seeing doesn’t bear that out at all,” said Smith, adding that Homeland Security officials she spoke with did not reveal the identity of the agent behind the shooting.
Smith said that in her assessment, based on videos of the incident, Good “was not at any risk to law enforcement” and that the agents “appear not to have been trained at all in how to de-escalate a dangerous situation.”
“Their actions clearly were escalating a situation and making it more dangerous,“ Smith said.
A vigil to recognize the woman shot by an immigration agent started at 5 p.m. at the site of the incident on Portland Avenue in Minneapolis.
Close to 1,000 people were in attendance as of 5:30 p.m. The crowd chanted the woman’s name, Renee Good, and called for immigration authorities to leave Minneapolis, saying “ICE out now.”
Minnesota State Rep. Aisha Gomez, spoke at the vigil, calling the shooting a “tragedy.” 
“We’re here today because this is a profound tragedy for Renee and her loved ones and her family,” Gomez said.
Gomez said Minnesotans who are opposed to ICE deployment will not halt their opposition after the shooting. 
“You’re terrorizing our communities,” Gomez said. “We’re not gonna stop.”
“I don’t want ICE to be here,” Elle Goode told the St. Cloud Times, part of the USA TODAY Network, ahead of the vigil. “What they’re trying to do has just gone too far.”
Erin Stene, a community organizer in Minneapolis, said people are expected to be at the site for “as long as they need to be.”
“I think people are grieving and processing,” Stene said. “I think folks will be out here as long as they need to be.”
— Corey Schmidt, St. Cloud Times, part of the USA TODAY Network
Several prominent Democratic politicians have called for the agent’s arrest following the shooting.
“There is nothing to suggest the shooting of an unarmed woman in Minneapolis was justified,” said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. “This heinous killing must be criminally investigated to the full extent of the law.”
The Minneapolis City Council’s president also called for the agent’s arrest.
“Regardless of who you are or what agency you work for, if you shoot or kill people in Minneapolis you need to be arrested immediately and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Full stop,” Payne said in a statement. 
A few of Jeffries’ colleagues in Congress also condemned the shooting.
“If that ain’t a murder, I don’t know what is,” said Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts’s 6th congressional district.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz blasted the Trump administration after the shooting and urged people who want to express their frustration to do so peacefully.
“What we’re seeing is the consequences of governance designed to generate fear, headlines and conflict. It’s governing by reality TV, and today that recklessness cost someone their life,” Walz said at a news conference, adding that the shooting was “predictable” and “totally avoidable.”
Walz urged the public to stay calm. He referred to the protests in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in 2020 and said he did not want to give the federal government any reason to take further action.
“From here on I have a very simple message,” Walz said. “We do not need any further help from the federal government. To Donald Trump and Kristi Noem, you’ve done enough.”
President Donald Trump said he watched video of an ICE agent shooting a driver in Minneapolis and blamed the incident on “the Radical Left.”
“It is a horrible thing to watch,” he said in a social media post before backing up federal officials’ allegations that the officer shot the woman in “self defense.”
“Based on the attached clip, it is hard to believe he is alive, but is now recovering in the hospital,” Trump said. “The situation is being studied, in its entirety, but the reason these incidents are happening is because the Radical Left is threatening, assaulting, and targeting our Law Enforcement Officers and ICE Agents on a daily basis.”
After the deadly shooting in Minneapolis, hundreds of people gathered at the scene of the incident to protest the federal intervention.
Videos show protesters holding signs reading “ICE get out” as others threw snowballs at federal agents and blew whistles. Earlier in the day, federal agents deployed pepper spray and tear gas against protesters in Minneapolis.
Local officials, including the Minneapolis police chief and Frey, told residents to remain calm and to protest peacefully.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz disputed the Department of Homeland Security’s account of the incident and vowed to launch an investigation.
“I’ve seen the video. Don’t believe this propaganda machine,” he said on X. “The state will ensure there is a full, fair, and expeditious investigation to ensure accountability and justice.”
Frey gave fiery comments during a news conference after the shooting, accusing federal agents of raising tensions in the city and causing chaos.
“They are not here to cause safety in this city. What they are doing is not to provide safety in America,” Frey said. “What they are doing is causing chaos and distrust. They’re ripping families apart, they are sowing chaos in our streets and, in this case, quite literally killing people.”
“To ICE, get the f— out of Minneapolis,” he later added. “We do not want you here. Your stated reason for being in this city is to create some kind of safety, and you are doing exactly the opposite.”
O’Hara, the Minneapolis police chief, gave further details about the shooting at a news conference.
He said officers responded to reports of a shooting involving federal agents south of downtown. At the scene, they found a woman with a “gunshot wound to the head.” Emergency responders performed CPR and the woman was taken to a local hospital, where she later died, O’Hara said.
The chief said preliminary information indicates the woman was blocking a roadway with her vehicle. At some point, O’Hara alleged, an ICE agent approached her on foot and “the vehicle began to drive off.”
“At least two shots were fired,” and the vehicle crashed into a pole on the side of the road, O’Hara said.
Venus de Mars, a 65-year-old Minneapolis resident who lives near the site of the shooting, told Reuters that paramedics performed CPR on a woman near the crash site.
“There’s been lots of ICE activity but nothing like this,” de Mars told the outlet. “I’m so angry. I’m so angry, and I feel helpless.”
The shooting occurred as the Department of Homeland Security launched its “largest operation ever” in Minnesota, sending 2,000 federal agents into the state on top of an earlier deployment of officers in December.
Contributing: Reuters

source