Minneapolis, Jan 8: Federal officials and local leaders clashed Wednesday over their differing characterisations of a fatal shooting by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis.
While President Donald Trump’s administration described the killing of a 37-year-old mother as an act of self-defence amid his latest immigration crackdown, Minneapolis officials have disputed that narrative.
How it unfolded
The woman was shot in her car in a residential neighbourhood south of downtown Minneapolis, about a mile (1.6 kilometres) from where police killed George Floyd in 2020. Videos taken by bystanders and posted to social media show an officer approaching an SUV stopped in the middle of the road, demanding the driver open the door and grabbing the handle.
The Honda Pilot begins to pull forward, and a different ICE officer standing in front of the vehicle pulls his weapon and immediately fires at least two shots into the vehicle at close range, jumping back as the vehicle moves toward him.
It is not clear from the videos if the vehicle makes contact with the officer. The SUV then speeds into two cars parked on a curb nearby before crashing to a stop. Witnesses can be heard shouting in shock.
The victim was a wife and mom
Renee Nicole Macklin Good died of gunshot wounds to the head.
She described herself on social media as a “poet and writer and wife and mom” who was from Colorado. Calls and messages to her family were not immediately returned.
Public records show Macklin Good had recently lived in Kansas City, Missouri, where she and another woman with the same home address had started a business last year called B. Good Handywork.
In a video posted from the scene on social media, a woman, who describes Macklin Good as her wife, is seen sitting near the vehicle sobbing. She says the couple had only recently arrived in Minnesota and that they had a 6-year-old child.
Her killing quickly drew hundreds of angry protesters. It is at least the fifth death to result from the aggressive US immigration crackdown the Trump administration launched last year.
Noem says the officer followed training
The ICE officer has not been publicly identified. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem described him only as an experienced officer and said he had been injured in June after being dragged by the vehicle of an anti-ICE protester.
She said the officer was hit by the vehicle during Wednesday’s shooting and taken to the hospital. He has since been discharged.
“Our officer followed his training, did exactly what he’s been taught to do in that situation, and took actions to defend himself and defend his fellow law enforcement officers,” Noem said.
Noem said that officers were trying to push a vehicle out of the snow when a group of protestors descended on them. The officers had just completed an operation and were trying to return to headquarters, she said.
The woman was blocking the officers with her vehicle, and refused to heed commands from law enforcement, Noem said.
“She then weaponised her vehicle, and she attempted to run a law enforcement officer over with it,” Noem said. “This appears as an attempt to kill or to cause bodily harm to agents, an act of domestic terrorism.”
Local leaders dispute the narrative
Police Chief Brian O’Hara gave no indication that the driver was trying to harm anyone when he described the shooting to reporters.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called Noem’s description of the events “garbage,” saying he had watched videos of the shooting that show it wasn’t self-defence and was avoidable. Frey criticised the federal deployment of more than 2,000 officers to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.
“They’re ripping families apart. They’re sowing chaos on our streets, and in this case, quite literally killing people,” Frey said. (AP)
