A US citizen has been shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Minneapolis, sparking outrage and renewing scrutiny of the Trump administration's aggressive deportation operations. The victim, 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, died less than a mile from where George Floyd was murdered in 2020.
A Fatal Encounter Caught on Camera
The incident occurred on Wednesday morning when a group of local protesters gathered around a site where ICE agents were attempting to detain migrants. The agents were part of a surge of roughly 2,000 deportation officers sent to Minneapolis, widely seen as targeting the city's Somali community.
Multiple videos captured the disturbing sequence of events. Good, driving an SUV covered in bumper stickers, had blocked traffic on a residential road, seemingly to impede ICE vehicles. An agent approached her vehicle, shouting, "Get out of the car. Get out of the fucking car." The agent, whose feet were clear of the SUV, reached inside where Good was seated.
As she began to drive away, the officer fired three shots, the last from behind the vehicle as it pulled away. The SUV then crashed into a parked car. "You did a murder, for what?" a protester yelled at the agents. Good, described by Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar as a "legal observer," was declared dead at the scene.
A Pattern of Violence and a Campaign of Demonisation
This is not an isolated case. In September, ICE agents in Chicago shot and killed Silverio Villegas González, a Mexican-born father, at close range. In a non-fatal shooting in October, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agent shot US citizen Marimar Martinez five times during a similar operation. A report by the Trace found immigration officers opened fire in 14 known incidents since July.
Federal authorities have moved quickly to blame the victim in Minneapolis. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem appeared on Fox News, labelling the incident "an act of domestic terrorism" and falsely claiming officers were stuck in snow and that Good attempted to run them over. Video evidence directly contradicts this account.
In a heartbreaking clip from after the shooting, a woman sitting on the ground outside the crashed SUV screams, "They killed my wife. I don't know what to do." Later she adds, "We stopped to film and they shot her." The masked agent who fired the fatal shots has not been publicly identified.
Resistance and the 'Other Truth' of America
The Trump administration's mass deportation push has been characterised by critics as a form of ethnic cleansing, targeting people based on race and ripping them from their communities. The shooting in Minneapolis is seen as a violent message that resistance will be met with lethal force.
However, as the original commentary argues, there is another truth. Everywhere ICE operates, it faces ridicule, resistance, and contempt from ordinary Americans. Protesters regularly confront agents, sometimes successfully halting deportations. In footage shared after Wednesday's shooting, protesters in Minneapolis surrounded ICE agents, with one taunting, "Are you going to shoot someone else and kill them?"
While much about Renee Nicole Good's life remains unknown—her mother believes she wasn't part of the protest, though video suggests otherwise—her death has made her a martyr for those opposing what they see as state-sanctioned brutality. Her killing underscores a nation at a crossroads: one path defined by authoritarian violence, the other by a persistent, courageous defence of neighbours and community.
