Woman shot by ICE in Minneapolis | Democrats fear impunity for federal agent

(Minneapolis) The Democratic mayor of Minneapolis said he feared Friday that the federal immigration agent who killed a woman two days earlier would benefit from impunity, after this event which provoked strong emotion and demonstrations calling for the departure of these police officers.

The councilor of this large city in the north of the United States, already shaken by the death of George Floyd in 2020, was concerned about a lack of impartiality in the investigation carried out by the federal authorities, who have insisted since Wednesday that the police officer acted in self-defense.

In snow-covered streets, demonstrators dispute this official version and attack ICE, the federal immigration police at the center of the large-scale expulsion policy of Donald Trump’s government.

“ICE must get out of Minnesota, we don’t need them here,” Eleanor, a Minneapolis resident who did not wish to give her last name, told AFP on Friday morning, with many residents describing a climate of fear created by these federal police operations.

“It’s cold, but it’s important to be there,” said Julie, a demonstrator wrapped in her hat who holds an “ICE, out” sign in front of a federal building in the city guarded by agents in military uniforms.

“We want the world to know that there are a lot of us” protesting, adds Karen alongside her.

Investigation

Local authorities, led by Democrats, were excluded from the investigation into the circumstances of the death, carried out exclusively by federal authorities, and in particular the FBI.

Since Wednesday, government officials have said the ICE officer who fatally shot Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old American woman, acted to protect her life and those of her colleagues as the victim attempted to run them over with a car.

“The fact that Pam Bondi’s Department of Justice and this government have already reached a conclusion on this matter is very worrying,” Mayor Jacob Frey said at a press conference Friday.

“We know that they have already completed a large part of the investigation,” he added.

This Democrat assured that an investigative service of the state of Minnesota had “always carried out these investigations”, therefore wondering “why not include them in the process”.

He and other local elected officials relentlessly challenge the federal authorities’ version, relying on videos that seem to deny the fact that the agent who shot Renee Nicole Good was going to be overthrown.

Hundreds of people gathered Thursday evening at the scene of the shooting, where a memorial was improvised on the snow with candles and dozens of bouquets of flowers.

It was less than two kilometers from there that African-American George Floyd was killed by a white police officer in 2020, triggering weeks of anti-racist protests, sometimes violent, across the country.

Portland

More than five years later, the death of Renee Nicole Good also caused protests in several cities.

According to the American media The Trace, specializing in gun violence, this mother is the fourth person killed by federal immigration agents since the launch of the Trump administration’s large-scale expulsion policy, and seven others were injured.

In a separate incident, two people were injured Thursday in Portland, Oregon, by federal border police shooting during a car stop.

The Department of Homeland Security said the two occupants were linked to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and attempted to “run over the police,” who responded, offering an official account close to that provided in Minneapolis.

Oregon’s Democratic governor, Tina Kotek, called for a full investigation into the event.