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Officials in Minneapolis on Friday accused federal authorities of “hiding the facts” over the killing of a US citizen by an officer with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, and demanded the inclusion of state investigators in the FBI inquiry.
Jacob Frey, the Minnesota city’s Democratic mayor, criticized the Trump administration’s response to the shooting, speaking at a press conference two days after the death of Renee Nicole Good in her car in a confrontation with federal officers amid protests and community scrutiny during an immigration crackdown.
Donald Trump, JD Vance and Kristi Noem, the secretary at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the parent agency of ICE, all swiftly accused Good of engaging in “domestic terrorism”, without providing evidence and before the official investigation was fully underway.
The shooting and the remarks from Washington DC had prompted furious responses from Frey and the Minnesota governor, Tim Walz, and other local figures, including at least one prominent Republican.
“This is not a time to hide from the facts,” Frey said on Friday, referring to the FBI’s seizure of full control of the investigation, and exclusion of officials from the Minnesota bureau of criminal apprehension, adding: “If you’ve got nothing to hide from, then don’t hide from it.”
“They’re calling the victim a domestic terrorist. They’re calling the actions of the agent involved as some form of defensive posture. We know that they’ve already determined much of the investigation.”
He added: “And even if they haven’t, there is the appearance that there is some conclusion drawn from the very beginning. If not hide from the facts, why not embrace them? Our ask is to embrace the truth. Our ask is to include the bureau of criminal apprehension in this process, because we in Minneapolis want a fair investigation.”
Frey spoke as residents of Minnesota were asked by Walz to observe a “day of unity” on Friday, including a moment of silence for Good, following a second night of peaceful protests in Minneapolis and elsewhere against the harsh anti-immigration push from the Trump administration.
City crews on Friday morning were clearing impromptu barriers left by demonstrators and reopened streets near the scene of the shooting, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported, but a large gathering in the city on Thursday night in petrifying cold temperatures passed calmly, other than some minor scuffles.
Well wishers continued to place tributes. The vivid reds, yellows and greens of bunches of flowers popped against the layers of snow and ice on the ground, as did rainbow flags placed to mark Good’s relationship with her wife, also brightly-colored balloons and a simple wooden cross placed next to a tree.
Vigils and demonstrations took place in several other cities, too, including New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Portland, Oregon.
“Minnesotans have met this moment. Thousands of people have peacefully made their voices heard. Minnesota: thank you. We saw powerful peace. We have every reason to believe that peace will hold,” Walz said in a statement.
Walz said he had directed the state’s national guard troops to be ready “should they be needed” to “keep the peace, ensure public safety, and allow for peaceful demonstrations”.
The situation in the city had become very tense on Wednesday and Thursday as locals feared a repeat of the backlash against the authorities that spilled out of control in parts in 2020 after a police officer murdered George Floyd about a mile from where Good was killed, on the south side of Minneapolis.
The political fallout from Good’s death, during a large-scale immigration enforcement action in Minneapolis by ICE and other federal agencies, continued on Friday. It came as the New York Times reported that 100 more federal agents were being sent to Minneapolis. And authorities in Portland, Oregon, another city subjected to an immigration crackdown by the Trump administration, dealt with the shooting of two people by border patrol agents, identified by the homeland security department as Tren de Agua gang members, again without the provision to the public of verifying evidence.
The FBI is investigating both incidents, but caused outrage in Minneapolis on Thursday after it took over the investigation and cut Minnesota’s access to evidence.
Vance asserted at a White House briefing that the agent who shot Good enjoyed “absolute immunity” from prosecution. He was later named as Jonathan Ross, a 10-year law enforcement veteran.
Frey countered that assessment on Friday.
“That’s not true in any law school in America, whether it’s Yale or Villanova or anywhere else, that’s not true if you break the law, if you do things that are outside the area of what your job responsibilities require,” Frey said.
He said he stood by his earlier comments that Good’s killing was “a reckless abuse of power”, and that ICE should “get the fuck out” of Minneapolis.
“I said the narrative the administration was pushing in the immediacy following this shooting was garbage and false and BS [bullshit]. It was. I stand by every one of those,” he said.
“And this notion of inflammatory comments. Come on, guys, I dropped an F bomb. They killed somebody. Which one of those is more inflammatory? I’m going with the killing of somebody.”
Keith Ellison, the Minnesota attorney general, conceded it might be difficult to bring state charges against Ross without federal cooperation.
“In order for there to be real confidence in this investigation, ideally, it will be turned over to the state,” he told NPR.
“But if that doesn’t happen, at least it should be joint, and the state should be a full partner.”
Former federal prosecutor in Minnesota, Tom Heffelfinger, a Republican appointee, called the FBI takeover “disgusting”, in a local radio interview, the outlet Axios reported.
“This decision ultimately guarantees there cannot be a fair and complete investigation of this shooting,” Heffelfinger said, according to the reports.
Individual US states “can and do prosecute federal officials” if they commit illegal actions that aren’t authorized by federal law, Bryna Godar, a staff attorney at the University of Wisconsin Law School, said in an interview with Axios.
Walz also criticized the exclusion of state authorities on Thursday.
“Now that Minnesota has been taken out of the investigation, it feels very, very difficult that we will get a fair outcome,” Walz said.
“I say that only because people in positions of power have already passed judgment, from the president to the vice-president to Kristi Noem have stood and told you things that are verifiably false, verifiably inaccurate,” he said at a press conference.
The Trump administration has attempted to portray Good, a mother of three who reportedly had just dropped off her son at school, as brainwashed “by leftist ideology”, and insisted the officer who fired the fatal shots was acting in self-defense as Good’s car lurched towards him. The administration said she was trying to run down the officer, critics say she was trying to drive away from the officers.
Video of the incident cast doubt on the White House assertion, appearing to show that the wheels of Good’s SUV were turning away from Ross as she drove forward and he could have stepped out of the way quickly, but appeared to pause to fire his weapon and was brushed by the car but remained standing.
