Eye witness accounts of ICE shooting in Minneapolis: “I just can’t let this narrative that it was self-defense go any further”
Eye witnesses have disputed official accounts of Wednesday’s shooting in Minneapolis, which saw a woman killed by a federal agent.
An eye witness to the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis woman by an agent for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) says the killing was “absolutely not” carried out in self-defense, while another has insisted the victim offered “no threat” to federal agents.
The incident, which was captured on video, occurred during an ICE immigration raid in the Minnesota city on Wednesday. The woman involved has been identified as 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good.
“One of kindest people I’ve ever known”
Speaking to the Minnesota Star Tribune, Good’s mother, Donna Ganger, said: “Renee was one of the kindest people I’ve ever known. She was extremely compassionate. She’s taken care of people all her life. She was loving, forgiving and affectionate. She was an amazing human being."
Footage shared by Minnesota Reformer shows one officer seemingly trying to open the driver’s-side door of a car apparently occupied by Good, before another agent appears to aim several gun shots through the door’s open window. The vehicle then drives off, before crashing into a line of cars parked further down the street.
In a statement, the U.S.’s Department of Homeland Security has claimed that ICE agents were defending themselves against a “violent” rioter who “weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them”.
In a post on social media, U.S. president Donald Trump agreed that the victim was “obviously, a professional agitator”. The Republican continued: “The woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense.”
Speaking to CNN, however, eye witness Emily Heller strongly disputed the authorities’ version of events.
“Absolutely not what it was”
“I knew that this would be twisted and it would be ‘self-defense’, and it’s absolutely not what happened,” Heller told CNN’s Erin Burnett. “My life is forever changed from having witnessed this and I just can’t let this narrative that it was self-defense go any further.
“Because it’s absolutely not what it was. My neighborhood, my neighbors, we’re all going to be pretty traumatized from this for a long time.”
“Shot her in the face like three, four times”
In an interview with the local media outlet MPR News, Heller said: “[Good] was trying to turn around, and the ICE agent was in front of her car, and he pulled out a gun and put it right in - like, his midriff was on her bumper - and he reached across the hood of the car and shot her in the face like three, four times.”
Another eye witness, identified only by her first name, Betsy, told MPR News that Good “posed absolutely no threat to any of these agents”.
Betsy said: “She appeared to me to be trying to move her vehicle south on Portland Avenue to kind of get out of the way of the activity that was happening, and the officer was on the driver’s side of the car, like near the driver’s window.
“He was yelling at her, and as she started to accelerate her vehicle to kind of go south on Portland, he reached his arm into the driver’s side of the car and fired multiple shots.”
Protests sparked across U.S.
Minneapolis was also the scene of the 2020 killing of George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin, a murder that sparked a wave of protests across the U.S. and abroad. Demonstrations have also erupted in the wake of Wednesday’s shooting, with protests taking place in cities throughout America.
In a speech, Minnesota’s Democratic governor, Tim Walz, called on Americans to “please stand with Minneapolis.”
Walz also took to social media to urge people not to believe the Trump administration’s “propaganda machine”. “I’ve seen the video,” the governor wrote, adding: “The state will ensure there is a full, fair, and expeditious investigation to ensure accountability and justice.”
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