The shooting of Renee Nicole Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent is not only significant due to its context, but because of where it happened.
The 37-year-old poet was shot in her vehicle in Minneapolis after Homeland Security (DHS) claimed she allegedly tried to run over an ICE officer, who US President Donald Trump said acted in “self-defence”.
That narrative has been strongly rejected by both Minnesota state governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey, with the latter telling ICE officers to “get the f*** out” of the US city.
Minneapolis shooting as it happened
It is an escalation of tensions in a city that has long been at odds with the Trump administration, tension which was deepened when 2,000 ICE agents were deployed to Minneapolis in recent weeks.
Here is all you need to know.
Why is ICE in Minneapolis?
Thousands of ICE agents started to be deployed to the city, the largest in the state of Minnesota, on 5 January to conduct what Homeland Security called the “largest DHS operation ever”.
The aim, according to the government department, was to arrest “fraudsters, murderers, rapists, and gang members”.
The rush of enforcement comes after a right-wing online influencer alleged a number of childcare facilities run by Somali residents in Minnesota had committed welfare fraud.
The FBI launched investigations into the allegations, with Homeland Security Investigations knocking on the doors of Somali businesses since last week.
In response, the Trump administration said it would freeze all federal child care payments to the state. Minnesota receives $185m in child care funds from the government every year.
ICE is the federal US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency responsible for homeland security investigations and removal operations against people the US decides are in the country illegally.
Its operations have ramped up significantly as part of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
Sky News has previously witnessed people being taken off the streets by officers and bundled into vehicles, including in Washington DC.
The Minnesota Department of Children, Youth and Families investigated the allegations and said all the facilities were operating normally and children were found at all but one that closed in 2022
Minnesota has the largest Somali population in the US, according to Sky News’ US partner network, NBC. The community has been subject to widespread criticism from Mr Trump, who has called them “garbage”.
Secretary of homeland security, Kristi Noem, insisted after Wednesday’s shooting that ICE operations will continue in Minneapolis, while the FBI has launched an investigation.
What we know about Renee Nicole Good
Ms Good, 37, was a mother of three who grew up in Colorado. Her youngest child is believed to be six years old.
She was shot after people began blocking ICE agents while they were conducting an immigration-related operation in the city, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said.
Police described Ms Good as a “middle-aged white woman” who did not appear to be the target of any law enforcement investigation or activity, while the Minneapolis City Council added that the mother was out “caring for her neighbours” when she was killed.
A woman identified by the Minnesota Star Tribune as Ms Good’s mother, Donna Ganger, told the paper her daughter was not part of ICE-related protests.
She went on to describe Ms Good as “one of the kindest people I’ve ever known”.
“She was extremely compassionate,” she told the Tribune. “She’s taken care of people all her life. She was loving, forgiving and affectionate. She was an amazing human being.”
Anti-ICE protests are becoming a more frequent sight in the US since Mr Trump significantly increased the scope and power of agents, including their ability to stop and search individuals.
Last year, demonstrations broke out in various cities across the country, including Los Angeles, after a string of ICE raids.
Why is Minnesota significant?
Minnesota was one of a list of sanctuary jurisdictions that Mr Trump targeted at the beginning of his second term in the White House.
A sanctuary jurisdiction is a state or city that limits cooperation with ICE, often by restricting local law enforcement from sharing information about immigrants’ status or honouring federal requests for detention.
Local police also do not question residents’ immigration status or enforce immigration law.
In August last year, the Department of Justice (DOJ) published a list of states, cities and counties identified as having these policies, claiming that by design they are “putting American citizens at risk”.
It followed Mr Trump’s signing of an executive order stating that sanctuary jurisdictions could have federal grants and contracts suspended or terminated as a consequence.
The scene of the shooting is about one mile from where George Floyd was murdered in 2020 by a city police officer, sparking worldwide anti-racism protests.
Read more:
This could be a moment of reckoning for America
Protests were also organised in the aftermath of Ms Good’s shooting, including in other US cities, including New Orleans, Miami, Seattle and New York City.
Minneapolis Public Schools also announced that classes were cancelled for the rest of the week, “due to safety concerns”.
How about Tim Walz?
In addition to being a democratic state, Minnesota is led by governor Tim Walz, who was Kamala Harris’s candidate for vice president in the 2024 election.
Along with mayor Jacob Frey, who is also a democrat, the pair have disputed the federal government’s account of the shooting and blamed Mr Trump for what they called an unnecessary provocation by deploying federal law enforcement.
Tension between Mr Trump and Mr Walz is nothing new, with the US president having criticised the governor’s handling of the riots that followed the death of George Floyd, as well as the pair exchanging insults while on the campaign trail.
