ICE kills woman during Minneapolis protest

The 37-year-old woman appeared to be driving away when she was shot

An onlooker holds a sign that reads "Shame" as members of law enforcement work the scene following a suspected shooting by an ICE agent during federal law enforcement operations
Law enforcement works the scene following a shooting by an ICE agent in Minneapolis
(Image credit: Stephen Maturen / Getty Images)

What happened

An unidentified ICE agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, 37, on Wednesday during what federal officials said was an immigration enforcement action on a residential street in Minneapolis. Multiple bystander videos of the shooting show three ICE agents approaching Good’s SUV, which backs up and is turning to drive away when an agent near the front of the car fires three shots into the vehicle. Good’s killing was “at least the fifth death to result from the aggressive U.S. immigration crackdown the Trump administration launched last year,” The Associated Press said, and it “quickly drew hundreds of angry protesters.”

Who said what

President Donald Trump claimed on social media shortly after the shooting that Good “violently, willfully and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense.” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Good had weaponized her car in an “act of domestic terrorism.” Witnesses and state and local officials disputed those characterizations.

“Don’t believe this propaganda machine,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) said, calling the shooting the “totally predictable” and “totally avoidable” result of Trump’s surge of ICE officers to the city. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) called the self-defense “spin” a “garbage narrative” and “bullshit” and told ICE to leave town. The “narrative they’re pushing clearly doesn’t match up with the videos we’re all seeing,” Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) said on social media.

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According to eyewitnesses, ICE agents “gave mixed orders” to Good in the moments before opening fire, said Minnesota Public Radio, with one agent “ordering her to drive away from the scene” as another “yelled for her to get out of her car as he reached for the door handle.” The ICE agent who fired into the car “was filmed immediately after the shooting walking without apparent injury,” The Washington Post said.

What next?

Walz said he had issued a “warning order” to prepare the Minnesota National Guard for deployment if violence broke out, but he urged Minnesotans not to “take the bait.” Trump and his team “want a show,” he said. “We can’t give it to them.” The FBI and Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension are investigating the shooting, but Minneapolis prosecutors are “pushing hard for a local investigation,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty told Fox 9, “which is the only way to ensure full transparency.”

Rafi Schwartz, The Week US

Rafi Schwartz has worked as a politics writer at The Week since 2022, where he covers elections, Congress and the White House. He was previously a contributing writer with Mic focusing largely on politics, a senior writer with Splinter News, a staff writer for Fusion's news lab, and the managing editor of Heeb Magazine, a Jewish life and culture publication. Rafi's work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GOOD and The Forward, among others.