President Donald Trump doubled down on his administration’s characterization of Wednesday’s fatal ICE shooting of a Minneapolis woman who appeared to be driving away from federal agents.
“The woman screaming was, obviously, a professional agitator, and the woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. The president falsely claimed that the woman identified as 37-year-old Renee Good “violently, willfully, and viciously ran over” the ICE officer who fatally shot her in the face. Trump added that the ICE agent seemed to have “shot her in self-defense.”
Despite the claims of self-defense, video footage of the shooting appears to show that the ICE agent involved may not have been in clear danger to justify such a shooting. The incident also took place just blocks away from where George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer, which has re-traumatized the community.
Amber Sherman, a longtime organizer and political strategist who spoke with organizers on the ground in Minneapolis, told theGrio, “That was a very traumatizing time for a lot of people, and they’re reliving a lot of that trauma right now as they’re witnessing the police respond in this very violent way to push this immigration agenda.”
Sherman continued, “It’s really hard and very challenging for them because a lot of them were traumatized when George Floyd was killed because of it being televised. And so I think it’s them reliving that same type of trauma, but also at a much larger scale, because there’s thousands of officers there, and they’re having to respond way quicker than they normally would. And so I think that that’s also an added layer.”
U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a Democrat who represents Minneapolis, denounced Wednesday’s shooting as “unconscionable and reprehensible.”
Omar said the unidentified victim was a “legal observer” of the Trump administration’s escalated immigration operation in the city, which has primarily been targeting Somali immigrants.
“My heart breaks for the victim’s family, who will have to forever live with the pain caused by the Trump Administration’s reckless and deadly actions. …Instead of protecting our communities, they are unleashing violence–terrorizing neighborhoods and now killing a civilian,” she added.
Responding to the Trump administration’s claim that the shooting was self-defense, Omar wrote on X, “You’re lying. There was no attempt to run the officer over and no ICE agents appear to be hurt.”
Jolanda Jones, a criminal defense attorney and Texas State Representative, told theGrio that she was not surprised by the Trump administration’s quickness to defend the shooting.
“Whenever there’s anything with excessive force, or anything like that, they’re going to say you did something and it was self-defense,” she explained.
“That’s just what they do…That’s what crooked law enforcement, arrogant law enforcement does,” Jones said. “If I were the lawyer representing the woman who was murdered today by the US government, by Trump’s government, I’d sue [Trump] too. I’d sue ICE. I’d sue the officer who did it. I’d sue everyone.”
Sherman said of Trump’s defense of the ICE shooting, “That’s the fascist playbook. That’s how they’re used to responding. They don’t care about laws. They don’t care about what the Constitution says. They don’t care about what’s fair or just.”
The organizer, who has worked across the South advocating for civil rights and racial justice, continued, “They care about being in power, wielding white supremacy, being racist, and having ultimate control until they feel like they’re in a dictatorship, and they’re able to rule the country how they want.”
Sherman said that while defending the defenseless is not surprising to her, she does believe the Trump administration is feeling the pressure.
“It’s becoming harder and harder for them to keep responding in this way when there is so much video evidence against what they’re actually saying,” she explained.
Sherman urged the Minneapolis community to continue taking to the streets despite the trauma they are feeling at the moment.
“Continue to show up when responding to these different ICE calls. They should not take what happened today as a reason to step back, but actually double down and show up more. Because I think that also renews something in people,” she said.
