A federal officer with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has fatally shot a woman in a residential neighbourhood in Minneapolis amid protests over President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in the area.
Details of the killing in the largest city in the state of Minnesota were still emerging on Wednesday, but video of the incident showed a dark-coloured SUV blocking traffic before being surrounded by law enforcement agents. The vehicle then briefly backs up and then drives forward, as one officer opens fire.
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Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin quickly accused the woman of targeting the agents, alleging she had “weaponised” her vehicle.
“An ICE officer, fearing for his life, the lives of his fellow law enforcement and the safety of the public, fired defensive shots,” McLaughlin wrote in a post on the social media platform X. She called the incident an “act of domestic terrorism”.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, however, was among those who swiftly pushed back on the characterisation.
Frey, a Democrat, said the ICE agent had “recklessly” shot the woman, and he added that immigration agents are “causing chaos in our city”.
“They’re ripping families apart. They’re sowing chaos on our streets and in this case, quite literally killing people,” the mayor said at a news conference.
“They are already trying to spin this as an action of self-defence. Having seen the video myself, I want to tell everybody directly: That is bulls***.”
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz also decried the shooting as “totally predictable” and “totally avoidable”. He urged anyone participating in protests to remain peaceful, adding he had put the state’s National Guard on alert.
“I feel your anger,” he told Minnesotans at a separate news conference.
The shooting victim was later identified to the Minneapolis Star Tribune as 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good.
“She was extremely compassionate. She’s taken care of people all her life. She was loving, forgiving and affectionate. She was an amazing human being,” her mother, Donna Ganger, told the newspaper.
Dramatic escalation
Authorities, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), are investigating the shooting. After the gunfire, Good’s SUV could be seen with a bullet hole through its windshield and blood splattered across the headrest.
Venus de Mars, 65, a nearby resident, described watching paramedics perform CPR on a woman collapsed next to a snowbank near the crashed car. Shortly after, they loaded her into an ambulance and drove away without their sirens on.
“There’s been lots of ICE activity, but nothing like this,” de Mars said. “I’m so angry. I’m so angry, and I feel helpless.”
Minnesota Public Radio quoted a witness, Emily Heller, as saying the incident unfolded near her home. Heller told the public radio station she heard ICE agents tell the driver, “Get out of here.”
“She was trying to turn around, and the ICE agent was in front of her car, and he pulled out a gun and put it right in – like, his midriff was on her bumper – and he reached across the hood of the car and shot her in the face like three, four times,” Heller said.
The incident marks a dramatic escalation, as the Trump administration carries out a series of immigration enforcement operations in major US cities across the US.
The midwestern metropolis composed of Minneapolis and St Paul – known as the Twin Cities – have been on edge since DHS announced on Tuesday it had deployed 2,000 officers to participate in the crackdown there.
Since November, President Trump has repeatedly condemned the fraud scandal that has gripped Minnesota. He has used the scandal to denounce both the state’s Democratic leadership and the large Somali American community there.
At a December cabinet meeting, Trump called Somali residents “garbage” and said, “ I don’t want them in our country.”
Shortly thereafter, reports emerged that ICE was planning to surge its forces to the area.
A protester at the scene following the deadly shooting [Stephen Maturen/Getty Images]
Shooting condemned
Following Wednesday’s shooting, protesters quickly gathered at the scene. They shouted, “Shame! Shame! Shame,” and “ICE out of Minnesota!”
Some were met by heavily armed federal agents wearing gas masks who fired chemical munitions at the demonstrators.
The area where the shooting occurred is a modest neighbourhood south of downtown Minneapolis, just a few blocks from some of the oldest immigrant markets in the area.
The site is also 1.6km (one mile) from where George Floyd was killed by police in 2020. Courts found officer Derek Chauvin guilty of his murder, and video of his death led to nationwide protests against police brutality.
Those protests were some of the largest of Trump’s first term as president.
During his second term, Trump has faced scrutiny over his mass deportation efforts, which have seen federal law enforcement flooded to communities across the country.
The administration has launched a recruitment campaign to quickly grow ICE’s ranks, but agents have repeatedly faced scrutiny over their conduct and training.
A tax bill passed last year by the Republican-dominated Congress allocates $75bn for ICE’s personnel, enforcement and detention budget over the next four years. The funding makes ICE the most resourced law enforcement agency in the country, with its budget far surpassing the military budgets of most countries in the world.
Since Trump’s second term began, the Trace news site has documented at least 28 instances where federal agents opened fire or brandished a gun during an immigration enforcement operation.
At least four people have been killed, prior to Wednesday’s shooting, and five people have been wounded.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump claimed, without evidence, that the woman killed on Wednesday was a “professional agitator”. He broadly blamed the situation on the “radical left”, an amorphous label he regularly applies to critics of his policies.
Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, who represents Minneapolis, was among those decrying the immigration operation and its deadly consequence. She denounced the Trump administration for spreading falsehoods.
“You’re lying. There was no attempt to run the officer over and no ICE agents appear to be hurt,” she wrote on X, where she also posted a widely circulated video of the shooting.
“Get out of our city,” she added.
Law enforcement officers at the scene in Minneapolis [Stephen Maturen/Getty Images]
