ICE agent fatally shot

By Emmy Martin, Liz Sawyer, Sofia Barnett and Louis Krauss
The Minnesota Star Tribune

Minneapolis — A federal immigration agent shot and killed a 37-year-old woman Tuesday morning during an enforcement operation in south Minneapolis, prompting protests, sharp rebukes from city leaders and calls for an independent investigation.

The Department of Homeland Security said Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were making arrests in the area when “rioters began blocking ICE officers and one of these violent rioters weaponized her vehicle.” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that an ICE agent, “fearing for his life,” fired “defensive shots,” striking the woman, who later died.

The victim was identified by her mother as Twin Cities resident Renee Nicole Good. The agency did not immediately identify the agent.

Multiple neighbors and bystanders said Good appeared to be trying to leave the scene when agents fired into her vehicle. Aiden Perzana, who lives nearby on Portland Avenue, said Good’s car, a purple Honda Pilot SUV, was perpendicular to the road with unmarked federal vehicles positioned on one side of it.

ICE agent fatally shot

He said agents approached the vehicle and ordered the driver out before she reversed briefly and then accelerated forward. Video of the encounter shows one agent attempting to open the driver’s door and reaching a hand through the open window. As she began to drive forward, another agent in front of the vehicle then fired at least two shots at close range into the car.

“She was trying to get away,” said Emily Heller, a neighbor who observed the encounter.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Cmdr. Gregory Bovino was at the scene alongside armed federal agents, many wearing bulletproof vests, helmets and face masks. His appearance came a day after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem arrived in Minneapolis, as federal immigration authorities signaled an expanded enforcement presence in the Twin Cities.

Perzana rejected DHS’ characterization of the shooting, insisting that the motorist was not attempting to ram anyone as she fled.

“They’re whitewashing it; that’s absolutely not what happened,” he said. “Somebody was trying to pull her out of her car. She was just trying to get away. There’s no way she was aiming for anybody. It’s just absurd.”

Lynette Reini-Grandell, who lives about half a block away, said she was filming ICE activity when she heard what sounded like three gunshots — “pop, pop, pop” — and saw the Honda Pilot lurch forward and strike a parked car.

ICE agent fatally shot

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said during a news conference that MPD officers responded to Portland Avenue between 33rd and 34th streets and found Good suffering from a gunshot wound to the head. Officers attempted lifesaving measures, including CPR, before she was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.

Witness Venus de Mars confirmed that law enforcement officers conducted CPR. “And then the ambulances came and they loaded her onto a stretcher,” she said.

O’Hara said MPD secured the scene and began preserving evidence before turning the investigation over to the FBI and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), which will jointly investigate the use of deadly force.

The shooting drew a heavy law enforcement response and escalating tension. Minneapolis police officers flooded the area and formed lines as crowds gathered, shouting at federal agents and blowing whistles. Federal immigration agents deployed chemical spray at activists multiple times, leaving several people coughing and rinsing their eyes with water and milk.

Protesters remained at the scene long after ICE agents left, chanting and yelling at law enforcement officers as they set up metal barriers around the scene. Law enforcement closed off several blocks of Portland Avenue as hundreds gathered at the scene of the shooting throughout the early afternoon. Dozens of local police watched from the street, and a crew of state troopers in fluorescent green showed up shortly before 1:30 p.m.

As local and state police left the shooting scene in a convoy of vehicles after 2 p.m., hundreds of protesters followed, some hurling snowballs and kicking at the vans carrying officers. Others tried to stop them from doing so. The protesters then marched north along Portland Avenue, against traffic, shouting for ICE to leave the city.

President Donald Trump weighed in on the shooting in a post on Truth Social, where he claimed Good “viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense.”

City and state leaders quickly condemned the federal operation. At a City Hall news conference, Frey said the shooting was “devastating” and delivered a blunt message to federal agents: “ICE, get the fuck out of Minneapolis.”

Frey also pushed back on any claim the shooting was self-defense.

ICE agent fatally shot

“This was an agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying, getting killed,” he said, calling the self-defense narrative “garbage … that is not true.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, speaking at a news conference in Brownsville, Texas, said the incident showed the “assaults” ICE officers face and characterized it as an act of “domestic terrorism.”

Gov. Tim Walz said he has issued a warning order to prepare the Minnesota National Guard to be deployed if necessary.

“To Donald Trump and Kristi Noem, you’ve done enough,” he said during a news conference. “There’s nothing more important than Minnesotans’ safety.”

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty called for a local investigation, saying it was the only way to ensure transparency. The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office said in a post on X that it supports a “full and transparent investigation.”

U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer said on Fox News he is “not going to jump to conclusions” before a law enforcement investigation but that “there is a ICE officer standing directly in front of the car when it starts to accelerate.”

Federal immigration agents are bound by the same constitutional limits on use of force as local police. Under the Fourth Amendment, courts evaluate use of force by all law enforcement — federal, state or local — using an “objective reasonableness” standard that asks whether a reasonable officer would have believed the force was necessary given the circumstances, including whether there was an immediate threat.

ICE agent fatally shot

Deadly force is generally justified only when an officer reasonably believes there is an imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm.

Mylan Masson, a retired Minneapolis police officer who previously directed police training programs in Minnesota, said that in most law enforcement agencies, an officer who fires a weapon would be removed from duty, disarmed and placed under administrative review while an outside agency investigates the incident to avoid conflicts of interest.

While ICE did not immediately respond to the Minnesota Star Tribune’s request for information about next steps for the agent who shot Good, the BCA said its agents “are involved in the investigation regarding the use-of-force incident that occurred earlier today in Minneapolis involving an ICE officer.”

The agency added the investigation will be conducted jointly with the FBI.

Elliot Hughes, Paul Walsh, Jeff Day and Walker Orenstein of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.