After a death in Minneapolis | Two people injured by immigration officers in Portland

Two days, three victims. Border police officers shot and wounded two people on Thursday in Portland, United States, after a woman was shot dead by an immigration enforcement agent (ICE) the day before in Minneapolis, where furious protests broke out.

Tensions continued to rise in Minneapolis on Thursday. In the morning, several people were arrested after a clash between police officers and civilians in front of a federal building. By evening, at least 1,000 protesters gathered in the south of the city, chanting slogans like “ICE, out.”

According to documents consulted by the New York Timesthe Trump administration ordered 100 additional federal agents to be sent there. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, meanwhile, activated the state’s National Guard preemptively, but troops have not yet been deployed.

United States Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, who has become the face of immigration enforcement in the United States, was present at a demonstration in Minneapolis in the morning, after landing in the city the same day.

Videos of the death of Renee Nicole Good, shot dead by an ICE agent on Wednesday in Minneapolis, were filmed by witnesses at the scene and made the rounds on social networks, provoking protests the same day bringing together thousands of people in the city, which is the scene of a major immigration crackdown ordered by the Trump administration since Tuesday.

In the footage, ICE agents can be seen stopping the driver of an SUV parked in the middle of a street, and one of them ordering her to get out of the vehicle.

We then see the SUV back up about a meter and move forward slightly. It was then that an officer, standing in front of the vehicle, shot the driver, to the horrified cries of witnesses.

Federal authorities later said the vehicle was about to hit the officer, who allegedly fired to protect himself. However, an analysis of videos of the scene carried out by the New York Times concluded that the vehicle was attempting to move away from the officer, not towards him.

According to the Minnesota Star Tribune, the ICE agent who allegedly shot Renee Nicole Good is believed to be Jonathan Ross. The 43-year-old man has reportedly worked in the immigration police for more than ten years.

Two other victims

As for the Portland shooting, the shooting broke out in the afternoon in the parking lot of a clinic in the southeast of the city. One of the two victims, who formed a married couple, was reportedly hit in the chest, and the other in the leg. Their state of health was unknown Thursday evening.

According to a statement from the federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the officers involved shot the two people after they attempted to “run over the officers” in a car.

A description almost identical to the contested version of events in Minneapolis offered by federal authorities on Wednesday.

Portland Mayor Keith Wilson condemned the shootings and called on federal agents to leave the city until the investigation is resolved. “Portland is not a ‘training ground’ for militarized agents,” he said.

“Propaganda”

The victim of the Minneapolis tragedy, Renee Nicole Good, was a 37-year-old mother. She lived in Minneapolis and had a 6-year-old son. “She was loving, understanding and affectionate. She was an exceptional human being,” her mother, Donna Ganger, told Minnesota Star Tribune.

The day after the tragedy, the American vice-president, JD Vance, affirmed that the shooting of the police officer was justified and described the deceased as a “victim of far-left ideology”.

“I can believe that her death is a tragedy while recognizing that it is a tragedy for which she herself is responsible,” he said, calling the officer’s action “self-defense.” An interpretation that echoes that previously offered by President Donald Trump and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.

This version of events is contradicted, however, by videos filmed by witnesses to the scene and published on social networks, which show an ICE agent shooting at the victim’s vehicle at point-blank range while he appears to be trying to drive away from the scene.

Based on these images, local Democratic elected officials described the Trump administration’s comments as “propaganda” and “bullshit.” Minneapolis Mayor Jason Frey on Wednesday called on ICE to “get the hell out” of the city.

A closed-door investigation

The FBI will take full responsibility for the investigation into the death of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis. Minnesota agents were expected to participate, but the state ultimately withdrew from the case after being denied access to evidence by federal officials.

A decision which suggests a desire by the Trump administration to “have control” over this explosive affair, according to Julien Tourreille, researcher in strategic and diplomatic studies at the Observatory on the United States of the Raoul-Dandurand Chair.

It is normal that the FBI is responsible for the investigation, since the event involves federal agents. However, an unusual fact is that the Trump administration refused cooperation from local police forces.

Usually, a cooperation committee bringing together the different police forces would be set up, first to ensure “a sound investigation”, but also to “promote public confidence”, explains the researcher.

But Kash Patel, director of the FBI and loyal ally of Donald Trump, is not afraid to break the norms.

“He will not hesitate to politicize an investigation to try to hurt his adversaries. But has his deference to Trump already contaminated the ranks of the FBI who are closer to the ground, like the investigators? It’s difficult to measure at the moment,” adds Julien Tourreille.

A vague sequence of events

Very little information related to the Portland shooting was available Thursday evening. An employee of the medical clinic near the scene reported to local media The Oregonian that a person rushed into his office in the afternoon to warn him that a shooting had taken place in the parking lot.

A man who was in the clinic told The Oregonian having seen federal agents following a Toyota truck in the parking lot of the building and trying to corner it.

An officer knocked on the window, and the driver then backed up and forward at least twice, hitting a car behind him, before turning around and fleeing, said the man who only gave his first name. It is unclear whether the car struck by the truck belonged to the federal agents.

Officers fired about five shots at the truck as it drove away, the witness said.

Portland police said they received two calls in connection with the event: one from the medical clinic and another from the northeast part of the city, where they located a man and a woman with gunshot wounds. The victims were then hospitalized.

With The New York TimesAssociated Press, ABC News, The Oregonian