US: Killing of unarmed woman by ICE agent triggers national backlash
Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old US citizen and mother of three, was killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer during a federal operation in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Wednesday.
Videos filmed by bystanders and shared on social media show an officer approaching Good’s vehicle, demanding that she open the door and grabbing the handle. As the car began to move forward, a second ICE agent standing in front of the vehicle dashed to the side of the vehicle, drew his weapon, and fired at least two shots at close range through the side window. The vehicle then went out of control and crashed into nearby vehicles.
Hundreds of people packed the streets of Minneapolis on Thursday to mourn and protest against the killing of Good.
The Trump administration stated that the officer believed there was an imminent threat and therefore acted in self-defence, a claim many eyewitnesses and bystanders dispute.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) chief Kristi Noem called the incident "domestic terrorism" while Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey dismissed the claims of self-defence by DHS as "bullshit" on Wednesday,
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US Vice President JD Vance accused the victim of being a left-wing radical whose death was “a tragedy of her own making”.
Good had recently moved to the city and was a poet who had studied creative writing at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, and was awarded a prize by the Academy of American Poets.
The BBC reported that city leaders said she was a legal observer of ICE activities, while the AP reported that she had dropped off her six-year-old child at school before she was killed.
Her mother, Donna Ganger, told the Minnesota Star Tribune that Renee was one of the kindest people she had ever known.
“She was extremely compassionate. She’s taken care of people all her life … She was loving, forgiving and affectionate,” Ganger said.
The killing marks a potential tipping point in the national debate over the increased presence of ICE agents across the country, who have been accused of harassing both citizens and non-citizens alike.
The Trump administration has cracked down on illegal immigration as a cornerstone of its domestic policy, and ICE agents are the face of that policy, tasked with trying to track down unlawful residents and often going after those protesting against government policy.
US authorities said up to 2,000 officers were in Minneapolis for immigration sweeps.
Thousands of ICE agents were deployed to the city on 5 January to conduct what the DHS called the "largest DHS operation ever".
It says the purpose of the immigration operation was to target "fraudsters, murderers, rapists, and gang members". It seemed to be primarily aimed at Somalis in Minnesota after a right-wing online influencer alleged a number of childcare facilities run by Somali residents in Minnesota had committed welfare fraud.
Good's killing has deeply polarised Americans along the political spectrum, with supporters of the Trump administration making the case that the video shows a clear threat to the officer, whereas others see the video as evidence that there is no argument for self-defence to be made on the part of the ICE agent.
The killing has reignited a contentious debate and drawn even starker lines between those who think ICE has a legitimate justification for its heavy presence in US cities and those who think it is simply government overreach.
Vance on the offensive
During a White House press briefing on Thursday, Vance said Good was “part of a broader left-wing network to attack, to dox, to assault, and to make it impossible for our ICE officers to do their job”.
“She was trying to ram this guy with her car. He shot back. He defended himself. He's already been seriously wounded in law enforcement operations before, and everybody who's been repeating the lie, that this is some innocent woman who was out for a drive in Minneapolis when a law enforcement officer shot at her.”
He also condemned reporting by US media on the incident as “an absolute disgrace”, singling out CNN in particular and accusing reporters of “lying”.
Vance denounced any critiques that the incident was an attack on an innocent civilian, but instead said it was “an attack on law and order” and “an attack on the American people” that puts law enforcement officers at risk.
Vance also told a packed room of reporters that they should be ashamed of themselves - telling them they should instead be reporting on how “left wing radicals have been working tirelessly, sometimes using domestic terror techniques to try to make it impossible for the President of the United States to do what the American people elected him to do, which is enforce our immigration laws”.
Vance had previously described the victim as "a deranged leftist" on social media.
Vance’s accusations build on rhetoric by President Donald Trump and senior members of his administration that Good was trying to kill ICE agents.
"I want to see nobody get shot,” Trump said in an interview with The New York Times published on Thursday. “I want to see nobody screaming and trying to run over policemen either."
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