Renee Macklin Good shot and killed by ICE agent, eyewitnesses say she posed ‘no threat’
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This story includes live updates from the day of the fatal shooting of Renee Macklin Good on Wednesday, Jan. 7. Here is a full recap of the day’s events. For the latest news on ICE in Minnesota, visit our collection of stories here.
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed a woman Wednesday morning in south Minneapolis. ICE says the woman, later identified as Renee Good, was shot in her car. Mayor Jacob Frey and Gov. Tim Walz are disputing ICE’s version of events.
9 p.m. | Minneapolis Public Schools cancels classes Thursday, Friday out of ‘caution’
Minneapolis Public Schools leaders are canceling classes Thursday and Friday “due to safety concerns” following the killing of a woman Wednesday by an ICE agent. The district said it was acting “out of an abundance of caution.”
“All MPS-sponsored programs, activities, athletics and Community Education classes, including adult education, will be canceled. The district will not move to e-learning because that is only allowable for severe weather,” the district said in a message posted on it website.
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7:28 p.m. | Mourners gather at vigils across the state
Across the state people gathered at vigils to mourn Renee Good. Reporters in Duluth, Mankato and Rochester shared what they heard.
In Duluth, an event was organized by the Twin Ports Rapid Response team.
“We’re hoping that everybody tries to keep their cool and yet be loud and denounce this,” said Michelle Naar-Obed. “This is murder. This is killing in our streets. These are domestic terrorists. They need to be stopped. They need to be held accountable.”
Corinne Freedman Ellis, a lead pastor at Peace United Church of Christ in Duluth, said that they’re stronger than the violence. “We need to be responding to violence with peace because that’s what we’re called to do as people of faith,” she said.
— Dan Kraker, Duluth
Around a hundred protesters gathered for a vigil in Mankato. David Mesta, one of the speakers at the vigil, thanked the crowd for the solidarity.
“So many amazing people showed up in solidarity for our immigrant communities and for the death of a community member,” he said. “All [Good] tried to do was document what was going on with ICE … and ICE decided to take their life for no reason,” he said.
Demonstrators called for the Mankato City Council to draw a clearer stance in not supporting federal immigration agents after people learned of an ICE presence in the city last month.
— Hannah Yang, Mankato
Jane Braley said she came out to a local vigil in Rochester because she is “disgusted” by the actions of the federal government on immigration enforcement.
“It’s terrible that somebody has to die over this, but I just hope that they see the truth in these videos and what comes out of our law enforcement investigating this,” she said. “It’s just a very sad moment.”
Colleen Spillers said that even though the shooting happened in Minneapolis, she wanted to show up in Rochester to show unity.
“What happens to one of us, happens to all of us. And so here we are,” she said. “I felt like I needed to be in a space with other people, to be a part of some sort of healing.”
— Molly Castle Work, Rochester
7 p.m. | Eyewitness says woman shot by ICE was ‘no threat’ to agents
A neighborhood resident and witness to Wednesday morning’s fatal shooting of a woman by an ICE agent in south Minneapolis told MPR News that the woman “posed absolutely no threat to any of these agents,” contradicting the narrative shared by federal officials.
The woman, who asked to be identified only by her first name, Betsy, said she had just returned home from walking her dog when she heard horns and whistles nearby on Portland Avenue. She walked over to see what was happening.
“What I saw when I came around the corner was a maroon SUV and a cluster of vehicles in the street, including what appeared to me to be federal officers kind of out and surrounding the vehicle, as well as a number of neighborhood witnesses on the sidewalk,” she said.
As she walked closer, Betsy said she saw “what appeared to me to be a federal agent. He was a man wearing a black bulletproof vest, and he was kind of yelling at the driver of the maroon SUV. She appeared to me to be trying to move her vehicle south on Portland Avenue to kind of get out of the way of the activity that was happening, and the officer was on the driver’s side of the car, like near the driver’s window.
“He was yelling at her, and as she started to accelerate her vehicle to kind of go south on Portland, he reached his arm into the driver’s side of the car and fired multiple shots.”
The woman’s vehicle then crashed into parked vehicles near where Betsy was standing. Betsy said neighbors wanted to provide aid to the woman but were told to back up by federal officers.
She said she did not see those agents try to help the injured woman.
Betsy said she knows and cares about her neighbors, and they make her feel safe. She said she’s now feeling grief, and feeling unsafe “because of the immigration enforcement officers and that, like, brash disregard they’re showing for any sort of human life or dignity.”
“It was such a betrayal, and the woman who was driving the car,” she added. “I just can’t be more clear that she posed absolutely no threat at all. From what I could tell it looked like she was attempting to leave.”
— Jon Collins, MPR News
6 p.m. | Noem says ICE agent justified in killing woman
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told reporters late Wednesday that an ICE agent who shot and killed a driver in south Minneapolis was defending himself and other officers who feared they would be run down.
Noem said the woman, later identified as 37-year-old Renee Good, was among a “mob of agitators” that were harassing and impeding agents during the day in Minneapolis.
State and local officials, including Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Gov. Tim Walz, pushed back forcefully on the federal narrative that officers were justified in using deadly force.
Noem said the FBI would investigate what happened. She said the agent was an experienced officer who followed his training.
She said she talked Wednesday with Walz, someone she’s known from their time in Congress and while she was governor of South Dakota. “We discussed what happened here today,” she said. “We have two very different viewpoints on what happened.”
4:35 p.m. | Minneapolis confirms name of woman shot by ICE agent
The city of Minneapolis said it had confirmed that 37-year-old Renee Good was the woman shot and killed Wednesday morning by an ICE agent in south Minneapolis.
4:26 p.m. | Border Patrol agents show up at Minneapolis Roosevelt High School
An official from Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis told MPR News that armed U.S. Border Patrol officers came onto school property during dismissal Wednesday and began tackling people; they handcuffed two staff members and released chemical weapons on bystanders.
“The guy, I'm telling him like, ‘Please step off the school grounds,’ and this dude comes up and bumps into me and then tells me that I pushed him, and he's trying to push me, and he knocked me down,” said a school official, who spoke to MPR News on condition of anonymity.
“They don't care. They're just animals,” the official added. “I've never seen people behave like this.”
The school leader said armed officers with apparent Border Patrol insignia on their uniforms arrived at the school in several SUV vehicles during dismissal on Wednesday afternoon. They broke out the window of a vehicle.
“There's a car that got hit. I don't know how it got hit. They broke out the window,” the school official said. “Then different Neighborhood Watch, people, everybody, people, the staff in the school came out. And then they started coming on the property of the school and pushing people and tackling people and shooting pepper spray and pepper balls. And they handcuffed two of our employees.”
Video shared with MPR News shows armed, masked officers with apparent Border Patrol insignia on their uniforms dragging a person on a sidewalk outside of the high school and tussling with another person as bystanders blow whistles and shout.
The school official said some high school students were involved in altercations with officers. Many sheltered at a nearby library.
The school is located about 3 miles from where an ICE officer fatally shot a woman earlier Wednesday.
— Elizabeth Shockman, MPR News
3:25 p.m. | Eyewitness: ICE agents gave conflicting orders before shooting woman
An eyewitness told MPR News that ICE agents gave conflicting orders to a driver in south Minneapolis on Wednesday, with one agent ordering her to drive away from the scene where an ICE vehicle was stuck in a snowbank while another yelled for her to get out of her car as he reached for the door handle.
The scene ended with an agent shooting into the car, killing the woman.
Caitlin Callenson said she was walking down Portland Avenue with her partner when she saw who she assumed were Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
“They tried to zoom their car out of the snowbank but were just stuck,” she said.
She said other ICE vehicles showed up, leading neighbors to believe it might be an ICE enforcement action. People showed up, and some began blowing whistles.
“People in our neighborhood have been terrorized by ICE for six weeks. We want our neighbors safe, and so when we see a group of ICE vehicles, people in the community are showing up and saying, ‘This is not OK,’” she said.
Callenson said one person — the woman who was shot a short time later — drove her vehicle perpendicular to the lanes of traffic on Portland Avenue, south of the ICE vehicles. By that point, Callenson said, the vehicle stuck in snow had been freed.
“Some of them were leaving, and they just went around her, but ICE gave her orders to leave, while at the same time, another ICE person said, ‘Get out of the car,’ and he reached for her door handle. And then there was an ICE agent in front of her vehicle. So it was difficult for her to leave, as she'd been ordered to do,” Callenson said.
“She turned her steering wheel toward the right. The person was grabbing her door handle, the ICE officer who was in front of her vehicle shot once from the front and twice from the side, hitting her maybe three feet away at the max. Because she was shot, and she was already trying to leave, her foot was on the accelerator, and she crashed into a telephone pole.”
After the shooting, Callenson said a neighbor identifying himself as a doctor asked if he could render aid to the woman who shot but was told by ICE agents to stand back. She said emergency responders’ vehicles couldn’t get past ICE vehicles, so firefighters and other first responders had to walk to the injured woman.
Callenson said she saw the ICE agent who fired the gunshots walk away to the north and get in an ICE vehicle.
Callenson and others took videos of the shooting that are now circulating widely online.
“You can see, like, what happened in that video was not self-defense,” she said.
— Jon Collins, MPR News
3 p.m | Walz issues ‘heads-up’ order to prep Minnesota National Guard, asks for protests to be peaceful
Gov. Tim Walz said Wednesday that he issued a “warning order to prepare the Minnesota National Guard,” a move he called a heads-up for possible mobilization after an ICE agent shot and killed a woman in south Minneapolis Wednesday.
ICE says the woman was shot in her car after attempting to run over agents. Mayor Jacob Frey and Gov. Tim Walz are disputing ICE’s version of events.
Walz told reporters that he and others had been warning that the heightened ICE operations in the Twin Cities were a danger to public safety. “Today, that recklessness cost someone their life,” he said, adding that it was "predictable and avoidable.”
He also pleaded for people to protest peacefully and not force a confrontation. “They want a show,” he said of the Trump administration. “We can’t give it to them.”
He added: “To Americans, I ask you this, please stand with Minneapolis.”
1:48 p.m. | Walz also challenges ICE’s claim of self-defense in shooting
Gov. Tim Walz is expected to speak to reporters. On social media, though, he challenged ICE’s version of events and the agency’s claim of self-defense in the shooting and killing of a woman Wednesday in south Minneapolis.
In a social media post, the governor wrote, “I’ve seen the video. Don’t believe this propaganda machine. The state will ensure there is a full, fair, and expeditious investigation to ensure accountability and justice.”
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension confirmed it is also investigating the shooting.
12:49 p.m. | Frey calls ICE shooting in self-defense a ‘garbage narrative’
Briefing reporters Wednesday, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey disputed ICE’s assertion that an agent acted in self-defense in shooting and killing a woman who an ICE spokesperson said attempted to run over agents with her car.
Frey said he’d seen video of the confrontation and said ICE was “already trying to spin this as an act of self-defense. That is bullshit. This was an agent recklessly using power … that resulted in someone dying, getting killed.”
“The narrative that this was done in self-defense is a garbage narrative.”
He did not name the woman but said she was 37 years old.
“We’ve dreaded this moment since the early stages of this ICE presence in Minneapolis,” he added.
Brian O’Hara, the city police chief, said there was “nothing to indicate that this woman was the target of any law enforcement investigation,” adding that she was “in her car and it appears then blocking the street because of the presence of federal law enforcement.”
12:23 | Frey demands ICE leave Minneapolis
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey is expected to speak shortly. In a statement, he said “the presence of federal immigration enforcement agents is causing chaos in our city and making our community less safe. We are demanding that ICE leave the city and state immediately.”
12:14 p.m.
The State Emergency Operation Center has been activated. For reference, this is the multi-agency team that crops up during major incidents. You’ll remember it from the post-George Floyd murder.
— Brian Bakst, MPR News
11:50 a.m. | ICE says agent, ‘fearing for his life’, kills protester
Federal authorities say an ICE agent, “fearing for his life” killed a woman during a confrontation Wednesday in south Minneapolis.
City officials are expected to speak at 12:15 p.m.
The ICE statement says, in part:
“Today, ICE officers in Minneapolis were conducting targeted operations when rioters began blocking ICE officers and one of these violent rioters weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them—an act of domestic terrorism.
“An ICE officer, fearing for his life, the lives of his fellow law enforcement and the safety of the public, fired defensive shots.
“He used his training and saved his own life and that of his fellow officers.
“The alleged perpetrator was hit and is deceased. Thankfully, the ICE officers who were hurt are expected to make full recoveries.”
11:22 a.m.
Wednesday’s shooting happened a day after the Department of Homeland Security announced that “the largest DHS operation ever is happening right now in Minnesota.”
The agency said it was deploying 2,000 law enforcement officers to the Twin Cities — an escalation of an immigration crackdown that started more than a month earlier.
MPR News contacted both DHS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Tuesday to confirm the number of agents being deployed to Minnesota. DHS responded with a statement from Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, saying, “While for the safety of our officers we do not get into law enforcement footprint, DHS has surged law enforcement and has already made more than 1,000 arrests of murderers, rapists, pedophiles and gang members.”
Amid the reported surge of federal agents, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was in the Twin Cities on Tuesday.
Gov. Tim Walz on Tuesday had sharply criticized the federal enforcement effort, raising concerns about both the scale of the operation and the lack of coordination with state officials.
11:13 a.m.
Minneapolis council member Robin Wonsley posted on social media she is on the ground with other council members. The City of Minneapolis X account shared that Mayor Jacob Frey is “demanding ICE to leave the city and state immediately.”
11:08 a.m. | Witness describes shooting
A witness to Wednesday’s shooting in south Minneapolis told MPR News that she saw a federal agent shoot a woman several times.
Emily Heller lives near 33rd and Portland and said she woke up to a commotion outside her home. She said she saw a car blocking traffic on Portland Avenue that appeared to be part of a protest against federal law enforcement operations.
Heller said she heard ICE agents telling the driver, a woman, to “get out of here.”
“She was trying to turn around, and the ICE agent was in front of her car, and he pulled out a gun and put it right in — like, his midriff was on her bumper — and he reached across the hood of the car and shot her in the face like three, four times,” Heller said.
Heller said it appeared the woman then accelerated and traveled about 100 feet before striking a utility pole and some other vehicles. She could be seen slumped over inside her car.
— Ben Hovland, MPR News
10:59 a.m.
Gov. Tim Walz said his public safety team is aware of an ICE-related shooting and will share information as they learn more.
“In the meantime, I ask folks to remain calm,” Walz said in the post.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey also confirmed the shooting involved an ICE agent.
“The presence of federal immigration enforcement agents is causing chaos in our city,” Frey said in the post. “We’re demanding ICE to leave the city immediately. We stand rock solid with our immigrant and refugee communities.”
10:45 a.m.
Witnesses reported a person was shot in south Minneapolis on Wednesday morning, amid a large presence of federal law enforcement officers.
It was not immediately clear who may have been shot, or who may have fired the gunshots.
A witness told an MPR News journalist at the scene near East 34th Street and Portland Avenue that they saw CPR being performed on someone who was injured. That person was taken away in an ambulance.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commander Gregory Bovino was at the scene, among other federal agents.
