Another video rewrites the history of abuse by the authorities towards citizens. Also in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a city that thought it had learned something five years ago, after the death of George Floyd, killed by the police, and which instead finds itself once again at the center of a death “that shouldn’t have happened”.
The reconstruction: who was Renee Nicole Good
An agent of the federal anti-immigration force shot and killed a woman, the wife of an activist, during a raid. Renee Nicole Good and was 37 years old. His mother Donna Ganger made this known. It was white. A poet and mother of three, she grew up in Colorado and was married to a comedian named Timothy Macklin who died in 2023. She then moved to Minneapolis with a new, unnamed partner. She was fatally wounded with three gunshots to the head for ignoring ICE’s orders to get out of the car she was driving, putting the car in reverse and trying to leave. ICE says Renee deliberately pointed her SUV at officers, a claim disputed by Mayor Jacb Frey. Good was rescued by the Minneapolis firefighters called to the scene who immediately removed her from the vehicle and performed the first life-saving measures while waiting for the ambulance. Transported to Hennepin County Medical Center, the woman died in hospital.
The other version
According to the Minister of Internal Security Kristi Noem, the woman killed by Ice in Minneapolis was “stalking” the agents involved in immigration control operations. The officer who killed her, Noem added, was taken to hospital and then released. Noem said the officer who fired the shot “put his training into practice to save his own life and the lives of his colleagues.” The minister added that the same officer had already been involved in a separate incident, in June, during which he had been rammed and dragged. At the same press conference, Noem announced that she will ask the Justice Department to prosecute the use of vehicles to block immigration enforcement operations as domestic terrorism. The minister defended the Ice agent’s use of firearms and argued that police can shoot at someone who threatens officers with deadly vehicles, including cars.
For Kamala Harris, the Minneapolis video disproves the Trump administration
For former vice president and presidential candidate Kamala Harris, the video of the fatal shooting in which a woman was killed by an Ice agent debunks the Trump administration. In a statement on social media, Harris defined the version of events given by the administration as pure ‘gaslighting’, the psychological manipulation in which someone tries to make people doubt the reality of the facts, denying the evidence or overturning responsibility. “Today in Minneapolis, Ice agents shot and killed a woman in a shocking incident. Many of us have seen the terrible and painful video, which makes it clear that the Trump administration’s explanation for this shooting is pure gaslighting. A full and impartial investigation at the state level is absolutely necessary,” Harris wrote on her social media profiles.
The video that dismantles the Ice reconstruction
Whoever is filming the scene continues to curse desperately. At the moment it is the only image posted online, which went viral in a few minutes, sufficient to dismantle the ICE version released by the Secretary of Internal Security Kristi Noem, who spoke of “legitimate defense” and “act of domestic terrorism”. Even the president of the United States, Donald Trump, has relaunched ICE’s defensive line. On the social network Truth defined the killed woman as a “turbulent” person who “put up resistance” and “violently, voluntarily and brutally hit the officer, who appears to have shot in self-defense”. “Looking at the images it is hard to believe that he is still alive,” he added.
America, two visions of the same history
In reality, the images do not show any attempt by the victim to hit the officer. But even when faced with images, America cannot see only one side of the story. On conservative forums, the Maga base defends Ice, while on much of social media people wonder whether federal agents feel above the law. “They are killing Americans,” they write. “They’re the new cowboys,” adds another.
The mayor’s appeal for calm
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey was also there five years ago when he urged the community to keep their nerve. This time he appears even more upset: «I saw the video – he said during the press conference – and the self-defense version is bullshit. The agent shot recklessly, I ask ICE to leave the city immediately.” However, he appealed for calm. “I understand people’s anger,” he said, “but I ask the residents of the neighborhood to unite in the name of hope, love and the search for justice.”
The governor accuses Trump of propaganda
Democratic governor Tim Waltz, dealing with the scandal of subsidies for Somali refugees, accused the Trump administration of exploiting the incident to make propaganda. Meanwhile, hundreds of people gathered at the intersection of 34th Street, which is less than two kilometers from where, in 2020, a police officer killed Floyd during an arrest. A human cordon occupied the entire intersection. Between the people and the police patrolling the area, only the yellow stripe placed by the officers to isolate the intersection.
Protests also in New York. Mandani: “We with the immigrants”. Dems call for investigation
Protests in the streets, including in New York, where around 400 people gathered outside the ICE office in Manhattan. Hundreds of people brave the cold, and not only that, in the streets. Protesters hold signs reading ‘Away with Ice from Mpls’, the acronym commonly used to identify Minnesota’s main city.
“This morning an ICE agent killed a woman in Minneapolis: just the latest horror in a year full of cruelty.” This is Zohran Mamdani’s comment, on X, on the tragic episode that is sparking new controversies on the federal body.
“While ICE attacks our neighbors across America, it attacks all of us”, adds the mayor of the Big Apple, assuring that “New York stands alongside immigrants today and in every day to come”.
Meanwhile, amateur videos that the two opposing sides bring in support of the thesis of the federal agent’s legitimate defense or murder are spreading on social media. Democratic leaders in the House and Senate are calling for an investigation. “This murder must be thoroughly investigated, in full compliance with the law,” said House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries.
Schools closed
Minneapolis public schools will remain closed for the rest of the school week “for safety reasons.” “Out of an abundance of caution, there will be no lessons at school on Thursday 8 January and Friday 9 January due to safety problems linked to today’s accidents in the city,” reads the notice from the authorities. Other school-sponsored programs, activities, sports and community education classes will also be canceled. «School will resume on Monday 12 January».