A United States immigration officer has fatally shot a woman in her car in Minneapolis during an immigration raid. The shooting has spurred protests in the Minnesota city.
Local authorities and President Donald Trump’s administration have given different accounts of what happened during the incident.
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Here is more about the victim and a closer look at what happened on Wednesday.
What happened during the Minneapolis ICE shooting?
A federal officer with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) shot and killed a woman in her car.
Shortly after 9:30am (15:30 GMT), Minneapolis police responded to reports of gunshots, according to Mayor Jacob Frey.
Local officials said the woman was acting as a legal observer during protests against US President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Legal observers are usually volunteers who attend protests to monitor interactions between law enforcement and demonstrators, documenting any confrontations or potential legal violations.
Local news reports from across the US in February said immigration activists formed volunteer groups who observe their neighbourhoods to spot undercover ICE agents and vehicles and release social media warnings about these deployments to their neighbours.
“We have a variety of community responders on the ground watching ICE agents, helping families with rent, food, watching our neighbourhoods, making sure that we can keep our neighbourhoods safe and make sure that immigration enforcement isn’t splitting our families apart,” Minneapolis City Council member Jason Chavez told local media.
Videos of Wednesday’s incident show a masked ICE agent shoot three times towards an SUV. The car is then seen hurtling out of control and crashing into other parked cars.
Multiple angles of the videos filmed by various onlookers went viral on the internet. The onlookers sound terrified, shouting, “Shame!” at the agent and asking him to stop.
In some images and videos, the woman’s bloodied body is seen slumped in the SUV in the aftermath.
According to Frey, the victim was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center, where she died of her injuries.
The incident took place during protests against the ICE immigration crackdown in south Minneapolis.
Who was Renee Nicole Good, the woman named as the victim?
The Minneapolis City Council, the city’s primary legislative body, identified the victim as 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good.
In a joint statement, Council President Elliot Payne and council members wrote: “Renee was a resident of our city who was out caring for her neighbors this morning and her life was taken today at the hands of the federal government. Anyone who kills someone in our city deserves to be arrested, investigated, and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
The statement demanded that ICE leave Minneapolis.
Good’s mother, Donna Ganger, told the Minnesota Star Tribune newspaper that Good died a few blocks away from her home. “She was probably terrified,” Ganger said.
Ganger denied that her daughter was part of the protests against ICE.
“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.”
The Star Tribune also quoted Good’s father-in-law, who said she had a six-year-old child with his son, Timmy Ray Macklin Jr. Macklin died in 2023 at the age of 36.
The newspaper reported that Good also had two other children.
She studied creative writing at Old Dominion University, a public university in Norfolk, Virginia. A brief English Department bio, which referred to her as Renee Macklin, described her as a Colorado Springs, Colorado, native who hosted a podcast with her husband, Tim Macklin, and said that when she wasn’t focused on writing, she enjoyed movie marathons and making “messy art”.
What has Trump said about the shooting?
In a post on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday, Trump said: “The woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense.”
He added that the reason “these incidents” are happening is because “the Radical Left is threatening, assaulting, and targeting our Law Enforcement Officers and ICE Agents on a daily basis.”
It is unclear from the footage whether Good tried to run over the agent. The footage shows her car reverse and then move forward. When the car moves forward, an agent is seen jumping ahead. However, it is not clear whether this was because of her car or what he was trying to do.
What have other Trump administration officials said?
Kristi Noem, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), said during a news conference that “any loss of life is a tragedy” but Good “had been stalking and impeding [ICE’s] work all throughout the day”.
“She then proceeded to weaponise her vehicle,” Noem said.
The DHS runs ICE, and last summer, it launched a major recruitment drive to hire 10,000 more ICE agents on top of the existing force of about 6,000.
On X, the DHS wrote that the ICE agent fired “defensive shots” at Good after she had tried to run over the agent.
“An ICE officer, fearing for his life, the lives of his fellow law enforcement and the safety of the public, fired defensive shots,” it posted, calling the incident “an act of domestic terrorism”.
“I want every ICE officer to know that their president, vice president, and the entire administration stands behind them,” Vice President JD Vance wrote on X.
“To the radicals assaulting them, doxxing them, and threatening them: congratulations, we’re going to work even harder to enforce the law.”
How have local authorities responded?
Authorities in Minnesota have disputed the Republican Trump administration’s accounts of the shooting.
Democratic Governor Tim Walz reposted the DHS X post on Wednesday, saying: “I’ve seen the video. Don’t believe this propaganda machine. The state will ensure there is a full, fair, and expeditious investigation to ensure accountability and justice.”
Frey released a statement rebuking the actions of ICE.
“ICE – Get the f*** out of Minneapolis,” Frey said during a news conference on Wednesday. “We do not want you here. Your stated purpose for being in this city is to create some kind of safety, but you are doing exactly the opposite.”
“People are being hurt, families are being ripped apart, long-term Minneapolis residents who have contributed greatly to our city, to our culture, to our economy are being terrorized, and now, someone is dead. That’s on you. It’s also on you to leave. It’s on you to make sure that further damage, further loss of life and injury is not done.”
What’s the Trump administration’s justification for ICE raids in Minneapolis?
On Tuesday, the Trump administration escalated its immigration operation in Minneapolis. In an X post, ICE announced it planned to deploy 2,000 additional agents to the northern Midwestern city.
“A 100% chance of ICE in the Twin Cities – our largest operation to date,” the post said.
The DHS launched Operation Metro Surge, which includes Minneapolis, in December. The Trump administration said the operation aims to root out criminals and undocumented immigrants.
Todd Lyons, the acting director of ICE, told local news media that ICE is “surging to Minneapolis to root out fraud, arrest perpetrators and remove criminal illegal aliens”.
The population of Minnesota is more than 5 million, and according to numbers from the Migration Policy Institute from 2023, the number of undocumented immigrants in the state is 100,000.
Republicans have made disparaging remarks particularly targeting the state’s Somali population.
Last month, the Trump administration froze childcare payments to the state in response to allegations by conservative YouTuber Nick Shirley, who claimed daycare centres operated by Somali Americans in the city of Minneapolis had committed up to $100m in fraud.
Where else has ICE led anti-immigration raids under Trump?
In September, ICE launched Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago, Illinois, to arrest undocumented immigrants in the city. It is ongoing.
Last month, ICE launched a raid in Columbus, Ohio, which also has a large Somali population. In late November, ICE agents were deployed in New Orleans, Louisiana. Similar raids were launched in Charlotte, North Carolina that same month.
