A woman was allegedly shot dead by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Minneapolis (Minnesota state), in the United States on Wednesday, January 7, resulting in widespread outrage. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey reacted strongly to it, even going so far as to saying, “To ICE, get the f*** outa Minneapolis”, while addressing the media.
According to the Associated Press, the victim shot and killed by the US ICE officer in Minneapolis was identified as Renee Nicole Macklin Good, a 37-year-old mother of three who had recently moved to Minnesota. NBC News reported that federal officials said the woman was shot dead during an inspection, which she did not appear to be the target of.
She was a US citizen born in Colorado and appears to have never been charged with anything involving law enforcement beyond a traffic ticket. Her ex-husband, who asked not to be named out of concern for the safety of their children, said Macklin Good had just dropped off her 6-year-old son at school on Wednesday and was driving home with her current partner when they encountered a group of ICE agents on a snowy street in Minneapolis, where they had moved last year from Kansas City, Missouri.
Following the incident, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin claimed the woman identified as Renee Nicole Goodman “weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them.”
However, a video taken by bystanders posted to social media shows an officer approaching her car, demanding she open the door and grabbing the handle. When she begins to pull forward, a different ICE officer standing in front of the vehicle pulls his weapon and immediately fires at least two shots into the vehicle at close range.
It is unclear what operation, the ICE was conducting at the time of the incident.
Minneapolis Mayor, Jacob Frey accused the DHS of spinning the narrative. “They are already trying to spin this as an act of self-defence,” he said, referring to ICE. The Mayor rubbished the claims, saying that he had watched the video of the woman being shot. Frey also asked the ICE agents to leave the state.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara expressed concern about the tactics used by ICE agents.
“I do not know the exact circumstances of the shooting, but I would tell you, in any professional law enforcement agency in the country … it’s obviously very concerning whenever there’s a shooting into a vehicle of someone who’s not armed,” he said, saying that at times it could be justified but that “most law enforcement agencies in the country have trained very intensely to try and minimize the risk” of using deadly force.
Trump administration officials painted Macklin Good as a domestic terrorist who had attempted to ram federal agents with her car. Her ex-husband said she was no activist and that he had never known her to participate in a protest of any kind.
He described her as a devoted Christian who took part in youth mission trips to Northern Ireland when she was younger. She loved to sing, participating in a chorus in high school and studying vocal performance in college.
She studied creative writing at Old Dominion University in Virginia and won a prize in 2020 for one of her works, according to a post on the school’s English department Facebook page. She also hosted a podcast with her second husband, who died in 2023.
Macklin Good had a daughter and a son from her first marriage, who are now ages 15 and 12. Her 6-year-old son was from her second marriage.
Addressing the media, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claimed that the ICE agent was “hit by the vehicle” driven by the woman who was shot. He went to the hospital and was released, she said. The Secretary claimed that the officer was previously attacked while on duty. The very same officer who was attacked today had previously been dragged by an anti-ICE rioter who had rammed him with a car and dragged him back in June.
(With inputs from Associated Press)
