A US immigration agent killed a 37-year-old woman on Wednesday in the city of Minneapolis, but the details of what led to the incident have left a wide gulf between federal and local government officials.
Trump administration officials claimed the woman, identified as Renee Nicole Good, was a “violent rioter” who tried to outrun Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents when an agent fired a “defensive shot” at her car.
But city and state leaders, and Democrats nationally, dispute that narrative.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey admitted that “it was an agent who used the power without hesitation that resulted in a person’s death”, telling the ICE agents: “Get out of our city.”
Several videos posted on social media by onlookers show the moment of the shooting, which happened around 10:25 local time.
From different vantage points, a maroon SUV can be seen blocking a residential street in Minneapolis. A crowd of people, who appeared to be protesting, lined the sidewalk area.
Several law enforcement vehicles can be seen nearby. Immigration agents pulled up to a car parked on the street, got out of the truck and ordered the woman behind the wheel to get out of the SUV. One of the agents pulled the door open on the driver’s side.
Another agent is located near the front of the vehicle. It was unclear where the officer was standing based on the videos immediately reviewed by the BBC. That agent opened fire as the maroon SUV tried to drive away.
Three pops are heard, and the car appears to lose control and crash into a white car parked on a nearby street.
The shooting comes amid a major crackdown on immigration in Minneapolis by the Trump administration.
US homeland security secretary Kristi Noem said the dead woman’s actions constituted “domestic terrorism” – and that ICE operations in the city would continue.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said an ICE officer was “brutally” run over. “Hard to believe he is alive, but now recovering in hospital,” he wrote.
The president also blamed the “Radical Left” for “threatening, attacking, and targeting our Law Enforcement Officers and ICE Agents on a daily basis”.
Speaking to the press later in the day, Noem called the loss of life “preventable”.
But he has repeatedly claimed that the ICE agent fired in self-defense and that Good used his car as a “lethal weapon” against the agents. Details are pending an FBI investigation he said, adding that the same agent who was injured Wednesday was also hit by a vehicle in the line of duty in June.
The Minneapolis City Council, however, said Good was “taking care of his neighbors” when he was shot and killed.
Getty ImagesMinnesota State Governor Tim Walz also pushed for federal accounts of the incident.
“Don’t believe this propaganda machine,” Walz wrote in response to a Department of Homeland Security post about the shooting. “The state will ensure that there is a thorough, fair, and speedy investigation to ensure accountability and justice.”
Leading Democrats, such as former Vice President Kamala Harris and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, also released statements Wednesday night. Harris called the Trump administration’s version of events “gaslighting”.
Protests broke out in many parts of the city as angry Minneapolis residents condemned the shooting and called for ICE to leave. According to local media reports, the main gathering took place near the scene of the shooting.
A makeshift vigil, featuring flowers and candles, was set up in the snow there, while protesters chanted slogans and gave speeches.
A group of protesters formed a line blocking the entrance to a federal courthouse with ICE officers standing inside, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. The group of about 50 people chanted Good’s name and dispersed after breaking a glass window.
Protests also took place in cities outside of Minneapolis, with gatherings expected in New Orleans, Miami, Seattle and New York City.
Why is ICE in Minneapolis?
The Trump administration has deployed an additional 2,000 federal agents to the Minneapolis area in recent weeks in response to allegations of welfare fraud in the state, sources told the BBC’s US partner, CBS News.
Frey said at Wednesday’s press conference that ICE is not making the city safer. “They are destroying families, they are spreading chaos in our streets,” he said.
The deployment, which began Sunday, is one of the largest concentrations of Department of Homeland Security personnel in a US city in recent years.
It follows an immigration enforcement campaign launched by ICE in late 2025 to target individuals in Minneapolis who have been issued deportation orders, including members of the city’s Somali community.
That community has been frequently criticized by Trump, calling them “garbage”.
“I don’t want them in our country. I’ll be honest with you,” said the president. “Their country is bad for a reason. Their country stinks.”
Trump later doubled down on his comments after a YouTube video by a conservative online content creator accused day care centers run by Somali immigrants of fraud.
“Take them back from the source,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in December. He also withheld federal child care funding in the state of Minnesota in response.
The Trump administration has also sent ICE agents to other cities, all part of a widespread crackdown on alleged illegal immigration to the US.