One day after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot a woman in Minneapolis, tensions are palpable nationwide between state and federal officials.
Wednesday’s shooting has become a lightning rod in the debate about federal immigration enforcement patrolling the streets, with Democrats accusing the administration of putting public safety at risk and the administration criticizing protesters for what they say is impeding law enforcement.
The latest shooting in Minnesota has heightened the disagreement between the two sides.
Here are all the relevant details to know about the ICE-involved shooting.
What happened in Minnesota?
On Wednesday, an ICE officer opened fire on a woman in her vehicle while an anti-ICE protest was happening on the street.
As several officers approached the stationary vehicle, the woman started driving. Her behavior prompted one ICE officer in front of the vehicle to fire three gunshots. At least one bullet pierced the windshield. The driver crashed into a parked vehicle nearby.
The woman, identified as 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, died from the gunshot wounds.
Since then, tensions have been high in Minneapolis. The Minnesota National Guard is on standby to respond to any violent unrest in the city.
Video footage sets off ‘propaganda’ firestorm
Good’s death is being heavily disputed by both sides of the aisle.
The Trump administration blamed the woman for her behavior leading up to the shooting, suggesting the situation could have been avoided if she had complied with law enforcement.
President Donald Trump called the woman a “professional agitator” and described her as “very disorderly, obstructing and resisting.” He also accused her of “violently, willfully, and viciously [running] over the ICE Officer” and said the officer shot her in self-defense.
Trump added that he came to that conclusion after reviewing the video footage of the scene, but clips posted on social media appear to dispute his narrative that she intended to run over the officer since she did not angle her tires at the officer. It’s possible she panicked and decided to flee. Meanwhile, the officer reacted to what seemed like a car coming directly at him.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem made a similar statement about the account of events, justifying the officer’s actions by disclosing his previous injuries during a vehicle-ramming attack months earlier.
“The very same officer who was attacked today had previously been dragged by an anti-ICE rider who had rammed him with a car and [dragged] him back in June,” she said at a press conference.
Noem called Good’s actions an “act of domestic terrorism,” implying malicious intent on her part.
Trump also said the officer who was in front of the vehicle was recovering in the hospital, though footage showed him walking around seemingly unharmed after the incident.
Meanwhile, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) led Democrats in denouncing the ICE-involved shooting that caused Good’s death. He used the incident as evidence for why the federal government should withdraw its presence from Minnesota.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey was more livid in his response, telling ICE to “get the f*** out” of his city and calling “bulls***” on the Trump administration’s self-defense argument.
ICE officer’s actions are being investigated
An investigation into the incident is now being solely led by the FBI after the U.S. attorney’s office cut off state investigators’ access to evidence, according to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
“The investigation would now be led solely by the FBI, and the BCA would no longer have access to the case materials, scene evidence, or investigative interviews necessary to complete a thorough and independent investigation,” BCA Superintendent Drew Evans said on Thursday, adding that the bureau “has reluctantly withdrawn from the investigation.”
Evans expressed hope that the FBI would eventually share investigative materials with state prosecutors, but shutting out the state agency from the case hampers prosecutors’ ability to bring state charges against the ICE officer in question. Cooperation between local and federal entities was initially expected based on comments made by Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt on Wednesday.
White House border czar Tom Homan said he would not comment on an investigation when CBS News presented a video of the scene.
“It’d be unprofessional to comment on what I think happened in that situation,” Homan said. “Let the investigation play out and hold people accountable based on the investigation.”
Walz said his administration’s public safety team is reviewing the shooting, and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison vowed to hold anyone who broke the law accountable.
Law enforcement’s reaction to the shooting
Much of the national debate centers on whether the officer’s actions were justified or not.
Kenneth Gray, a criminal justice professor at the University of New Haven, was reticent to say whether he considered the officer’s actions unnecessary based on the limited amount of information amid an investigation. Whether the act was unnecessary depends on several factors, including whether the officer was standing in the path of the vehicle and what the woman was doing in her vehicle leading up to the shooting.
“Was he at risk? And if he was at risk, was this a reasonable action on his part? At first blush, it appears that it is a legitimate shoot, that it’s a good shoot,” Gray told the Washington Examiner. “That being said, it really depends upon the evidence that is determined and all the circumstances. Without having that, I could not tell you whether it was a good shoot or not.”
He cited the Justice Department’s use of deadly force policy that prohibits officers from discharging firearms to disable a moving vehicle except in exigent circumstances.
“In this case, the vehicle is operating in a manner that threatens to cause death or serious physical injury to the officer or others,” he said, repeating the policy’s language. “No other objectively reasonable means of defense appear to exist, which includes moving out of the path of the vehicle.”
Gray added that the investigation team needs to determine if the woman’s actions meet the anti-government violent extremist definition for domestic terrorism used by Noem.
The professor also warned of the dangers that come with politicizing this incident without all the known facts. He noted it’s essential for investigators to “determine exactly what the details were, as opposed to immediately leaping to a conclusion on one side or the other.”
Amy Swearer, a senior legal fellow at Advancing American Freedom, argued the law enforcement officer’s use of deadly force was legally justified in this case.
“That officer faced an unknown subject who, while ignoring lawful commands, pointed a 3000+ lbs. car at him and evidenced an intent to continue driving that car. He shot the driver (1) after the driver made physical contact with his body and (2) through the front windshield,” Swearer posted on X.
“You can slow down the video all you want and spend minutes analyzing micro-seconds to make after-the-fact assessments of the likelihood the driver actually intended to use the car as a lethal weapon,” she wrote. “In reality, during those micro-seconds in real time, it’s reasonable to presume that a driver ignoring your commands to stop is about to floor the gas peddle, turn the wheel into you, and run you over. It’s no different than the reasonable presumption that the suspect who ignores your commands to keep their hands up and reaches for the gun in their waistband intends to use it against you rather than toss it away.”
Shooting sparks fears of George Floyd-era response
Minneapolis has a documented history of violent protests, including those during the 2020 Black Lives Matter riots following the death of George Floyd. Good died about a mile away from where Floyd was killed by a police officer.
The most recent death is already sparking tensions between local residents and federal officials.
TOM HOMAN SLAMS LAWMAKERS’ ‘RECKLESS’ REACTIONS TO ICE SHOOTING
Anti-ICE protests are underway in response to Wednesday’s shooting, both in Minnesota and across the United States. Numerous more are planned for Thursday.
Walz has urged the public to protest peacefully, despite their outrage. It remains to be seen whether heated tensions will boil over into widespread violence.