An ICE agent shot and killed a 37-year-old U.S. citizen during protests in Minneapolis, and Mayor Jacob Frey didn’t mince words: “Get the f–k out of Minneapolis.”
Frey delivered the message at a press conference just moments after the fatal shooting, telling the federal agency in no uncertain terms that they’re not welcome.
“We do not want you here. Your stated reason for being in this city is to create some kind of safety, and you are doing exactly the opposite,” Frey said.
“People are being hurt. Families are being ripped apart. Long-term Minneapolis residents that have contributed so greatly to our city, to our culture, to our economy are being terrorized, and now somebody is dead, that’s on you, and it’s also on you to leave.”
WHAT’S GOING ON: The woman killed, Renee Nicole Good, was a U.S. citizen who, according to Minneapolis City Council member Jason Chavez, “was an observer” and was “watching out for our immigrant neighbors” at an anti-ICE protest.
Videos of the shooting show a red Honda Pilot idling in the roadway with the driver’s window rolled down. ICE agents approach, tell the driver to get out, and one begins pulling on the car door handle. The driver slowly backs up, turns, and accelerates forward—then two gunshots are heard.
BUT BUT BUT: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claims the woman was trying to run agents over with her car. DHS went even further, calling it “an act of domestic terrorism.” Eyewitnesses, however, say that’s not what happened—and the video doesn’t exactly support the secretary’s characterization either.
OF COURSE: Frey said this shooting was predictable given ICE’s track record. “We’ve dreaded this moment since the early stages of this ICE presence in Minneapolis,” he said. “What they are doing is not to provide safety in America—what they are doing is causing chaos and distrust.”
Other Minneapolis officials echoed the mayor’s call. “They’re an escalating factor. We need them out of our city,” City Council President Elliott Payne told the New York Times. Police Chief Brian O’Hara confirmed his department had been “seriously concerned about further escalation” and that the tragedy was something they’d predicted.
WHY IT MATTERS: This shooting happened just four blocks from where George Floyd was killed by a police officer in 2020—a moment that sparked nationwide protests against police brutality. Now protests in South Minneapolis are only growing in the hours since the shooting.
The FBI and Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension are investigating. But for Mayor Frey, the facts are already clear enough: “A 37-year-old woman is dead and she was shot by ICE.”