Protests erupt in Minneapolis as officials dispute jurisdiction in fatal ICE shooting

Good’s killing, which federal officials including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Vice President JD Vance said was justified, is at least the fifth death attributed to the administration’s immigration crackdown, according to the Associated Press. Local officials, including Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Police Chief Brian O’Hara, said video evidence indicated the shooting was avoidable.

Dozens of protesters gathered Thursday outside a Minneapolis federal building being used as a base for the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operation, a day after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed Renee Good, 37, a U.S. citizen. Border Patrol officers responded with tear gas and pepper spray to push demonstrators back from the gate. Area schools were closed as a safety precaution.

Good’s killing is at least the fifth death to result from the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, according to the Associated Press. The administration deployed 2,000 officers and agents to Minnesota as part of the operation.

What bystander videos show

Good was shot in her Honda Pilot in a residential neighborhood south of downtown Minneapolis — about a mile from where police killed George Floyd in 2020. Bystander videos posted online show one ICE officer approaching the vehicle and demanding the driver open the door. A second officer, standing in front of the vehicle, fired at least two shots at close range as the vehicle began to move forward.

It is not clear from the videos whether the officer was struck by the SUV, which struck two parked cars before stopping. What occurred before the shooting is also not visible in available footage.

Good died of gunshot wounds to the head, according to the Associated Press.

Competing accounts from officials

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Thursday that a federal investigation would be conducted. She said the SUV was part of a group of protesters that had been harassing agents and “impeding operations” that morning and that agents had freed a vehicle stuck in snow before the confrontation.

“This vehicle was used to hit this officer,” Noem said. “It was used as a weapon, and the officer feels as though his life was in jeopardy.”

No video has emerged to corroborate Noem’s account. Vice President JD Vance said the shooting was justified and called Good’s death “a tragedy of her own making.”

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara gave no indication the driver was trying to harm anyone when he described the shooting to reporters Wednesday. Mayor Jacob Frey said he had watched videos showing the shooting was avoidable.

Jurisdictional dispute

Drew Evans, head of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said Thursday that federal authorities had denied the state agency access to evidence in the Good case, barring Minnesota investigators from working alongside the FBI.

Gov. Tim Walz demanded that state investigators be given a role in the inquiry. “And I say that only because people in positions of power have already passed judgment from the president to the vice president to Kristi Noem,” Walz said.

Noem denied the state was being shut out. “They don’t have any jurisdiction in this investigation,” she said.

The victim

Good was a U.S. citizen born in Colorado. Her ex-husband told the Associated Press she had just dropped off her 6-year-old son at school Wednesday morning and was driving home when she encountered ICE agents. Good and her current partner had moved to Minneapolis from Kansas City, Missouri, the previous year.

The officer

Federal officials have not named the officer. AP records identified him as Jonathan Ross, an Iraq War veteran who has been an ICE deportation officer since 2015. Noem said the officer had previously been dragged by a vehicle in June; a department spokesperson confirmed the reference involved a Bloomington, Minnesota, case. Court documents show Ross sustained cuts requiring 50 stitches after being dragged 100 yards when his arm became caught in a vehicle window as a driver fled arrest.

Second shooting, in Portland

Federal immigration agents also shot and wounded two people in a vehicle outside a hospital in Portland, Oregon, on Thursday. Portland Police Chief Bob Day said the FBI was leading that investigation and he had no details about events that led to the shooting.

The Department of Homeland Security said the vehicle’s passenger was “a Venezuelan illegal alien affiliated with the transnational Tren de Aragua prostitution ring” and that an agent fired in self-defense after the driver tried to run agents over when they identified themselves during a vehicle stop. There was no immediate independent corroboration of the DHS account or of any gang affiliation of the vehicle’s occupants.