ICE officer fatally shoots legal observer in Minneapolis; protests erupt as officials dispute self-defense claim
MINNEAPOLIS — A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old woman identified by the Minneapolis Star Tribune as a legal observer, during an immigration enforcement operation Wednesday, igniting street protests and sharp disagreement among federal, state and local officials over what happened.
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- DHS says the officer fired “defensive shots” after Good allegedly weaponized her vehicle; local leaders call that false.
- FBI opens investigation; Minnesota’s governor places the National Guard on alert.
- Protests spread in Minneapolis and beyond; agents deploy chemical munitions on demonstrators.
The shooting unfolded on a snow-lined street just south of downtown, about a mile from the intersection where George Floyd was murdered in 2020. Video shared online shows agents on foot surrounding a vehicle before gunfire. Afterward, Good’s SUV sat with a bullet hole through the windshield and blood spattered across the headrest.
Tricia McLaughlin, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, said on X that Good “weaponized” her vehicle and called the incident an “act of domestic terrorism.” She said the ICE officer, fearing for his life and public safety, fired “defensive shots.”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey forcefully rejected that account. “They are already trying to spin this as an action of self-defense,” he said at a news conference, calling the claim “bulls—” after reviewing video. Gov. Tim Walz called the shooting “totally predictable” and “totally avoidable,” urged peaceful demonstrations, and said he had put the National Guard on standby.
Rep. Ilhan Omar, whose district includes Minneapolis, said she was “beyond outraged” by what she called ICE’s “reckless, callous actions.” She accused the Trump administration of spreading false information and wrote on X: “You’re lying. There was no attempt to run the officer over and no ICE agents appear to be hurt.”
Eyewitness Emily Heller told Minnesota Public Radio that Good appeared to be trying to leave when an agent stood in front of her car and fired. “He pulled out a gun … and shot her in the face like three, four times,” Heller said. Another neighbor, Venus de Mars, described watching paramedics perform CPR before the woman was loaded into an ambulance that left without sirens.
Within minutes, crowds gathered, chanting “Shame!” and “ICE out of Minnesota!” Some demonstrators were met by heavily armed federal agents in gas masks who fired chemical munitions to push them back. Similar protests flared in other cities by nightfall.
On Truth Social, former President Donald Trump, without offering evidence, labeled the woman a “professional agitator” and blamed the “radical left.”
The Twin Cities have been a focal point of intensified immigration enforcement during Trump’s second term, with large-scale raids and frequent clashes between agents and protesters. The region is home to one of the nation’s largest Somali American communities, a population that has drawn repeated attacks in Trump’s rhetoric. At a December cabinet meeting, Trump called Somali residents “garbage” and said, “I don’t want them in our country,” as his administration withdrew millions in low-income childcare funding for the city.
The administration has also dramatically expanded ICE’s resources, allocating $75 billion for personnel, enforcement and detention over the next four years. Since Trump’s second term began, the Trace news site has documented at least 28 instances in which federal agents opened fire or brandished a gun during immigration operations. Prior to Wednesday, at least three people had been killed in such episodes, including two detainees shot by a sniper at an ICE field office in Dallas and a 38-year-old Mexican national allegedly shot by an ICE officer in Chicago in September.
Good’s family and friends described her as a devoted caretaker and “an amazing human being.” “She’s taken care of people all her life,” her mother, Donna Ganger, told the Star Tribune.
The FBI and local authorities are investigating. City leaders urged residents to keep protests peaceful as questions mount over the shooting and the federal response. By night’s end, the modest neighborhood where the shots rang out remained tense, the street scarred by chemical irritants and a windshield pierced by a single bullet hole.
Photo: A bullet hole is visible in the windshield of an SUV at the scene of the fatal shooting involving federal agents on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)
By Ali Musa
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
