An officer with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) fatally shot a woman in Minneapolis on Wednesday during its latest raid on the major American city as part of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
Videos circulating online show the 37-year-old blocking a road as officers approached her vehicle and ordered her to open the door and step out. When the woman drove forward, another ICE officer who was standing in front of the vehicle drew his weapon and fired at close range into the SUV.
The woman’s car then sped into two parked cars a few metres further, crashing to a stop. It was not clear from the videos if the vehicle made contact with the officer.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called the incident an “act of domestic terrorism,” and claimed the woman had tried to run over the officer with her vehicle.
US President Donald Trump mirrored this stance and defended ICE’s work, calling the woman a “professional agitator”.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey disputed the federal government’s claims, and instead accused ICE of sowing chaos in the city and called for the agency to leave Minneapolis.
“They are already trying to spin this as an action of self-defense. Having seen the video of myself, I want to tell everybody directly. That is bullshit,” he said at a press conference.
“What they are doing is not to provide safety in America. What they are doing is causing chaos and distrust. They’re ripping families apart,” Frey added.
In a separate televised interview with CNN, Frey added that it was clear to him the woman did not appear to intend to run anyone over, but instead was trying to flee, an action that he said did not authorise the use of lethal force.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who was the former running mate of Kamala Harris, also criticised the incident, referring to it as a part of a “propaganda machine”.
The Minnesota City Council identified the woman as the 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good by, who was the mother to a 6-year old child, and said she was “out caring for her neighbours this morning and her life was taken today at the hands of the federal government”.
The killing of the woman comes just days after the Trump administration deployed roughly 2,000 federal agents and officers to the Minneapolis area in what it described as the “largest immigration operation ever”.
Hundreds gathered in Minneapolis on Wednesday to hold a vigil for the woman, as well as to protest the ICE raid and Trump’s immigration crackdown.