Minnesota must play a role in investigating the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, Gov. Tim Walz insisted Thursday, pushing back against the Trump administration’s decision to keep the investigation solely in federal hands.
A day after the ICE officer shot Renee Good in the head as she tried to drive away on a snowy Minneapolis street, tensions remained high, with dozens of protesters venting their outrage outside of a federal facility that’s serving as a hub for the administration’s latest immigration crackdown on a major city.
“We should be horrified,” protester Shanta Hejmadi said as demonstrators shouted “No More ICE,” “Go Home Nazis,” and other slogans at a line of Border Patrol officers, who responded with tear gas and pepper spray. “We should be saddened that our government is waging war on our citizens. We should get out and say no. What else can we do?”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, President Donald Trump and others in his administration characterized the shooting as an act of self-defense and cast Good as a villain, suggesting she used her vehicle as a weapon to attack the officer who shot her.
Vice President JD Vance weighed in Thursday, saying the shooting was justified and that Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was a “victim of left-wing ideology.”
“I can believe that her death is a tragedy while also recognizing that it is a tragedy of her own making,” Vance said, noting that the officer who killed her was injured while making an arrest last June.
But state and local officials and protesters rejected that characterization, with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey saying video of the shooting shows the self-defense argument to be “garbage.”
An immigration crackdown quickly turns deadly
The shooting happened on the second day of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown on the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, which the Department of Homeland Security said is the biggest immigration enforcement operation ever. More than 2,000 officers are taking part, and Noem said they have already made more than 1,500 arrests.
It provoked an immediate response in the city where police killed George Floyd in 2020, with hundreds of people turning up to the scene to vent their outrage at the ICE officers and the school district later canceling classes for the rest of the week as a precaution.
Good’s death — at least the fifth tied to an immigration crackdown under Trump — has resonated far beyond Minneapolis, as anti-immigration enforcement protests took place or were expected Thursday in New York City, Seattle, Detroit, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Antonio, New Orleans and Chicago. Protests were also scheduled for later this week in Arizona, North Carolina, and New Hampshire.
Who will investigate?
On Thursday, the Minnesota agency that investigates officer-involved shootings said it was informed that the FBI and U.S. Justice Department would not work with the department, effectively ending any role for the state to determine if crimes were committed. Noem said the state has no jurisdiction.
“Without complete access to the evidence, witnesses and information collected, we cannot meet the investigative standards that Minnesota law and the public demands,” Drew Evans, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension’s superintendent, said in a statement.
Walz publicly demanded that the state be allowed to take part, repeatedly emphasizing that it would be “very, very difficult for Minnesotans” to accept that an investigation that excludes the state could be fair.
Noem, he said, was “judge, jury and basically executioner” during her public comments defending the officer’s actions.
“People in positions of power have already passed judgment, from the president to the vice president to Kristi Noem — have stood and told you things that are verifiably false, verifiably inaccurate,” said the governor, who repeated his calls for protesters to remain calm.
Mary Moriarty, the prosecutor in Hennepin County, which includes Minneapolis, said her office is exploring whether a state investigation can proceed.
“We want to make sure that there is a check on this administration to ensure that this investigation is done for justice, not for the sake of a cover-up,” Frey, the mayor, told The Associated Press.
Deadly encounter seen from multiple angles
Several bystanders captured footage of Good’s killing, which happened in a residential neighborhood south of downtown.
The videos show an officer approaching an SUV stopped across the middle of the road, demanding the driver open the door and grabbing the handle. The Honda Pilot begins to pull forward, and a different ICE officer standing in front of it pulls his weapon and immediately fires at least two shots at close range, jumping back as the vehicle moves toward him.
It isn’t clear from the videos if the vehicle makes contact with the officer, and there is no indication of whether the woman had interactions with ICE agents earlier. After the shooting the SUV speeds into two cars parked on a curb before crashing to a stop.
In another recording made afterward, an unidentified woman who identifies Good as her spouse is seen crying near the vehicle. She says she and Good recently arrived in Minnesota and that they had a child.
The mayor said he’s working with community leaders to try to keep Minneapolis calm and ensure that residents keep their protests peaceful.
“The top thing that this Trump administration is looking for is an excuse to come in with militarized force, to further occupy our streets, to cause more chaos, to have this kind of civil war on the streets of America in a Democratically run city,” Frey told the AP. “We cannot give them what they want.”
Officer identified in court documents
Noem hasn’t publicly named the officer who shot Good. But a Homeland Security spokesperson said her description of his injuries last summer refers to an incident in Bloomington, Minnesota, in which court documents identify him as Jonathan Ross.
Ross got his arm stuck in the window of a vehicle of a driver who was fleeing arrest on an immigration violation, and was dragged roughly 100 yards (91 meters) before he was knocked free, records show.
He fired his Taser, but the prongs didn’t incapacitate the driver, according to prosecutors. Ross was transported to a hospital, where he received more than 50 stitches.
The driver claimed he didn’t know that Ross was a federal agent. A jury, however, found him guilty of assaulting a federal officer with a dangerous or deadly weapon.
DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the officer involved in the shooting had worked more than 10 years as a deportation officer and had been selected for ICE’s special response team, which includes a 30-hour tryout and additional training. She said those skills include breaching techniques, perimeter control, advanced firearms training and hostage rescue.
McLaughlin declined to confirm the identity of the officer as Ross. The AP wasn’t immediately able to locate a phone number or address for Ross, and ICE no longer has a union that might comment on his behalf.
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Associated Press reporters Steve Karnowski, Giovanna Dell’Orto and Mark Vancleave in Minneapolis, Ed White in Detroit, Valerie Gonzalez in Brownsville, Texas, Graham Lee Brewer in Norman, Oklahoma, Michael Biesecker In Washington, Jim Mustian in New York and Ryan Foley in Iowa City, Iowa contributed.
