An ICE Agent Shot and Killed a Woman in Minneapolis
On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security said an ICE officer fatally shot a 37-year-old woman in Minneapolis during what the agency calls its “largest immigration operation ever.” Her mother has identified her as Renee Nicole Good, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported.
The shooting occurred on Portland Avenue in south Minneapolis, about a mile away from where George Floyd was murdered, where locals were blocking ICE agents from advancing. Local police say the woman did not appear to be the target of any law-enforcement operation or activity, according to NBC News.
In a statement, Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin claimed the ICE officer had shot at the woman in self-defense. “Rioters began blocking ICE officers and one of these violent rioters weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement in an attempt to kill them — an act of domestic terrorism,” the statement read. But local officials say eyewitness footage appears to dispute this narrative. One video shows several officers approaching the driver’s side of a maroon Honda Pilot; as the car slowly reverses, one of them attempts to yank open the driver’s door, and then another officer who is standing in front of the car raises his gun and shoots through the windshield when it begins to drive forward.
“Having seen the video of myself, I want to tell everybody directly that is bullshit,” Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey said in a press conference, contesting DHS’s self-defense claim before calling “for ICE to leave the city and state immediately.” DHS has said that it plans to dispatch more than 2,000 ICE agents and officers to the Minneapolis–St. Paul area.
The shooting is being investigated jointly by the FBI and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, Minneapolis police chief Brian O’Hara confirmed. Minnesota governor Tim Walz slammed DHS as a “propaganda machine” on X, adding, “The state will ensure there is a full, fair, and expeditious investigation to ensure accountability and justice.”
ICE agents have previously claimed self-defense after shooting at two people, one of them fatally, during operations in Chicago last fall. DHS accused Miramar Martinez, a U.S. citizen who was shot at five times, of “aggressively” pursuing an ICE agent and hitting his car; a judge later dismissed the charges against Martinez after that narrative fell apart in court. An ICE agent shot and killed Silverio Villegas Gonzalez, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, after the agency claimed Villegas Gonzalez tried to drive his car at agents attempting to arrest him.
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