Protest erupts as US Immigration Official kills American woman in Minneapolis

An American woman has been shot and killed by a US immigration officer in Minneapolis, triggering widespread protests and condemnation from local leaders who rejected claims from the White House that she was a domestic terrorist.

Local media identified the victim as 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good. The shooting happened on Wednesday after officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) surrounded her vehicle on a city street. According to reports, the officers said her car was blocking their path.

Witnesses said Good was shot at close range as she appeared to be trying to drive away from the agents who had gathered around her Honda SUV. Video footage circulating online shows a masked ICE officer firing three shots into the vehicle. Moments later, the SUV sped off uncontrollably and crashed into parked cars nearby.

People at the scene could be heard shouting angrily at the federal officers as the incident unfolded. The shooting has since led to large protests in Minneapolis, with community members demanding accountability and justice.

City officials and local leaders strongly criticised the White House’s description of Good as a domestic terrorist, insisting there was no evidence to support such a claim. They called the killing unacceptable and renewed calls for greater oversight of federal law enforcement operations in local communities.

Her bloodied body is then seen slumped in the crashed vehicle.

President Donald Trump’s administration moved quickly to claim Good had been trying to kill the agents, an assertion Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called “bullshit” and urged ICE to get out of his city.

Thousands of protesters took to the frigid streets of Minneapolis after the shooting, holding signs reading “ICE out of MPLS,” a common abbreviation for the city.

ICE’s federal agents have been at the forefront of the Trump administration’s immigrant deportation drive, despite the objections of local officials.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) launched an aggressive recruitment campaign last summer to add 10,000 additional ICE agents to the existing 6,000-strong contingent.

That sparked criticism that new officers in the field were insufficiently trained.

DHS chief Kristi Noem said “any loss of life is a tragedy” but called the incident “domestic terrorism” and said Good “had been stalking and impeding (ICE’s) work all throughout the day.”

“She then proceeded to weaponize her vehicle,” she said.

Wednesday’s incident came during protest action against immigration enforcement in the southern part of Minneapolis, located in the midwestern state of Minnesota.

The Department of Homeland Security, which runs ICE, said on X the victim had tried to run over its officer who fired “defensive shots.”

Grisly scene

Minnesota’s Governor Tim Walz called the federal government’s response to the incident “propaganda” and vowed his state would “ensure there is a full, fair, and expeditious investigation.”

Witness Brandon Hewitt heard “three shots.”

“I got a bunch of video of them carrying the body to the ambulance,” he told MS NOW.

Another witness interviewed by local station FOX9 described a grisly scene.

“The surviving passenger got out of the car covered in blood,” the witness said.

He recounted seeing a man who identified himself as a doctor attempting to reach Good but being refused access by officers.

Anti-ICE protests

There have been passionate protests against immigration operations of the Trump administration, which has vowed to arrest and deport what it says are “millions” of undocumented migrants.

The DHS called the violence a “direct consequence of constant attacks and demonization of our officers.”

The officer who opened fire, who was released from the hospital following the incident, was rammed and dragged along a road by an anti-ICE protester in June, Noem said.

The victim’s mother, Donna Ganger, told the Minnesota Star Tribune newspaper that her daughter “was probably terrified.”

Good was “not part of anything like” challenging ICE officers, Ganger added.

Trump has made preventing unlawful immigration and expelling undocumented migrants priorities during his second term, and has tightened conditions for entering the United States and obtaining visas.

ICE — which critics accuse of transforming into a paramilitary force under Trump — has been tasked with deporting an unprecedented number of undocumented migrants.

US authorities said up to 2,000 officers were in Minneapolis for immigration sweeps.

A US immigration enforcement officer shot dead an undocumented immigrant in Chicago in September after federal authorities alleged the man tried to resist detention by driving his car into the official.

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