An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot a woman who had been using her vehicle to block ICE agents from getting through a Minneapolis street Wednesday, fueling a debate over President Trump’s ongoing efforts at mass deportations and the violent resistance against them.
Mr. Trump said he had viewed video and said the woman “willfully and viciously ran over the officer, who opened fire in defense of himself.” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the woman attempted to “ram” her officers and labeled it an “act of domestic terrorism.”
The Minneapolis mayor rejected those claims, saying his own viewing suggested the officer’s life was never in danger. He called the Department of Homeland Security’s depiction of events a “garbage narrative.” He blamed ICE for the woman’s death.
“Get the f—- out of Minneapolis. We do not want you here,” Mayor Jacob Frey said at a combative press conference hours after the shooting.
The Minnesota Star Tribune identified the 37-year-old woman as Renee Nicole Good, citing the woman’s mother. Donna Granger denied that her daughter was “part of anything like that,” meaning anti-ICE protests.
Immigration rights activists said the woman was acting as a “legal observer” of ICE activities in Minneapolis, where Mr. Trump has ordered a surge of enforcement after reports that the Somali immigrant community has been engaged in massive fraud of government programs.
SEE ALSO: Trump says woman fatally shot by ICE in Minneapolis ‘violently’ ran over officer
Both sides of the immigration debate saw the shooting as inevitable, though for different reasons.
Immigration rights activists said an overzealous ICE has been crossing too many lines as it seeks to carry out the deportation orders.
“There is no evidence that has been presented to justify this killing. Secretary Kristi Noem is a stone-cold liar and has zero credibility,” said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, New York Democrat. “The masked ICE agent who pulled the trigger should be criminally investigated to the full extent of the law for acting with depraved indifference to human life.”
Homeland Security says pro-sanctuary-city politicians have emboldened average citizens to become violently confrontational in interactions with ICE, sparking a sharp rise in assaults on officers, who increasingly fear for their safety.
“The situation is being studied in its entirety but the reason these incidents are happening is because the radical left is threatening, assaulting and targeting our law enforcement agents on a daily basis,” Mr. Trump said on social media.
Several videos that emerged on social media show a maroon SUV blocking the road for federal officers who are trying to drive through in a pickup truck with its emergency lights flashing.
SEE ALSO: Feds punish Minnesota hotel that canceled ICE room reservations
The videos show two officers exiting the truck, approaching the driver’s door of the SUV and ordering the woman to exit. Another officer comes from a different direction to stand in front of the vehicle.
As one officer reaches to open the door, the SUV backs up and then zooms forward. One tire seems to slip slightly on the snow. The officer in front draws his handgun as the SUV heads toward him, and the front corner of the vehicle appears to make contact with that officer, who opens fire. Three gunshot sounds can be heard on the videos.
Ms. Noem said driving at an agent turns the vehicle into a deadly weapon, and the use of force is justified against those wielding a deadly weapon.
“I do believe this officer used his training in this situation,” she said.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said his officers responded and found the woman with a gunshot wound to the head. She was rushed to a hospital, where she was declared dead.
He was less emphatic than the mayor about reaching conclusions, though he said it was troubling for law enforcement to fire into the vehicle of someone who wasn’t armed.
Mr. Frey said the city moved quickly to remove ICE personnel from the area in an effort to prevent further confrontations with the crowd that had quickly gathered at the scene.
He accused ICE officers of baiting the victim. While blaming the federal agents, he begged his city’s residents to cool it. Otherwise, he said, they play into broader Trump plans to sow chaos in cities and then use that to justify “a military occupation.”
“Do not take the bait,” he urged city residents. “Do not give them what they want.”
Homeland Security said it was politicians such as Mr. Frey and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz who are spurring the confrontations with their overheated anti-ICE rhetoric, with comparisons to Nazis and frequent use of words such as “kidnapping” to describe immigration arrests.
“This is the direct consequence of constant attacks and demonization of our officers by sanctuary politicians who fuel and encourage rampant assaults on our law enforcement,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said.
She said ICE officers are facing a 1,300% increase in assaults and an 8,000% increase in death threats.
Migrants targeted by ICE for arrest and deportation have often resisted arrest, but the Trump administration has seen a new phenomenon of bystanders and protesters attempting to interfere with the agency’s operations.
That has sparked violent clashes that have sometimes turned into riots. Homeland Security has responded aggressively, to the point that several federal judges have issued orders reining in the government’s riot control tactics.
ICE defenders say they are encountering unprecedented resistance as they seek to carry out their lawful, though often ignored, duties to arrest and deport those in the country without permission.
Department officials said attempts to use vehicles to ram officers have emerged as a particular threat to officers.
“People need to stop using their vehicles as weapons,” Ms. Noem said Wednesday. “I’m asking the Department of Justice to prosecute it as domestic terrorism.”
The clashes have often occurred under the noses of local authorities, who have at times refused to intervene.
Chief O’Hara said his officers on Wednesday responded to reports that shots were fired.
Witnesses told local media that ICE officers refused to let others on the scene, including a doctor, aid the victim.
Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Democrat who represents Minneapolis and is a Somali refugee, called the shooting “unconscionable and reprehensible.”
“This is not law enforcement. It is state violence. It is simply indefensible, and ICE must be held accountable,” she said.
The confrontation took place at the corner of East 33rd Street and Portland Avenue, about a mile away from the corner where George Floyd died in police custody in 2020.
Ms. Noem said the officer struck by the vehicle was taken to the hospital, where he was treated and released.
She said he was an “experienced” officer.
Mr. Trump, after viewing the video, said, “It is hard to believe he is alive.”
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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