Welcome to the NewsHour.
There were protests in Minnesota
today over ICE and the fatal
shooting of a 37-year-old woman,
Renee Nicole Goode, on Wednesday.
While at the White House, Vice
President JD Vance strongly defended
ICE, saying the officer was
defending himself and called Goode's
death a tragedy of her own making.
Local officials, including
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey,
are hammering ICE and its aggressive
presence in the community.
State officials also said that
federal investigators were
effectively shutting them out of the
shooting inquiry and blocking them
from accessing evidence.
Many in the communities were reeling
from the events of the past 48
hours. Special correspondent Fred
de Sam Lazaro has the story from
Minneapolis.
This morning protesters clashed with
federal agents in front of the
Whipple Federal Building outside
of Minneapolis, a city on
edge after an ICE agent fatally
shot U.S.
Citizen Renee Nicole Good yesterday.
The shooting, caught on camera by
bystanders, shows a chaotic
scene on the residential street,
ending with an agent firing three
shots into Good's SUV.
No, shame!
Shame!
Oh my f**king god!
What the f**k?
This was an attack on law and order.
At a press conference this
afternoon, Vice President J.D.
Vance reiterated the
administration's defense of the
agent's actions.
What I am certain of is that she
violated the law.
What I'm certain of is that that
officer had every reason to think
that he was under very serious
threat for injury or in
fact his life.
What I I'm certainly of is that she
accelerated in a way where she
ran into the guy.
I don't know what was in her
heart and what was her head, but I
know that she's violated the the law
and I know the officer was acting in
self-defense.
But state and local officials
sharply disagree about what the
video evidence shows.
They say Good was trying to get away
from ICE, not to run down the
officer.
Vance says, ultimately, the blame
falls on what he calls the far
left.
I can believe that her death is a
tragedy while also recognizing that
it's a tragedy of her own making and
a tragedy of the far left
who has marshaled an entire
movement, a lunatic fringe
against our law enforcement
officers.
The officer, who local media
identified as Jonathan Ross,
is described as having 10 years of
experience with the force and was
involved in a separate incident in
which he was dragged by a car and
deployed a taser, according to a
criminal complaint from June of last
year. You Do is an activist
with the Minnesota Immigrant Rights
Action Committee.
To hear Kristi Noem
and other federal leaders not
show any empathy, but to
start a smear campaign against Renee
and Minnesotans is abhorrent
and disgusting.
A vigil in a makeshift memorial
grew Wednesday evening near the
site of the shooting, honoring Good,
whose family and friends describe
her as a Christian who participated
in mission trips, a poet who
loved to sing, and a loving mother
of three.
At the memorial today, where
protesters have put up makeshifts
barricades, Somali immigrant
Deka Adan came to pay her
respects.
If you see a kid being bullied, you
stand up.
Them. You say something.
Renee did that.
She stood up.
She stood up for the rights for
people being captured in the
streets like herd of animals.
And she lost.
Her life because of that.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz urged
accountability for goods death.
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,
verifiability inaccurate.
It feels to me like we're at one of
those inflection points that
simply asking our
government to
give us accountability,
listen to local leaders, Ratchet
down the rhetoric.
Let people feel safe in their
person.
And let's let our kids
go to school without fear.
Minneapolis schools were closed
today in the wake of the shooting
and after immigration agents
clashed with people near one high
school yesterday afternoon.
For now, the city, no stranger to
civil unrest, anxiously awaits
what's to come while mourning
one of its own.
The place that Renee was killed
yesterday was six blocks
away from where George Floyd was
murdered.
The law enforcement response is the
same, to lie, to cover
up, and to spin a different story
on really what actually happened.
As of late this afternoon, a
GoFundMe campaign set up for
Rene Good has raised close
to $900,000.
And Fred, what more have you seen on
the streets and heard as you've
talked to people there?
Anywhere you go in this city, there
is palpable tension and a
sense of deja vu.
I'm standing near the site of
yesterday's incident, and it's not
far from where George Floyd was
murdered.
One person here, however, told me
that unlike George Floyd, which was
a one-off, this seems
unrelenting.
The federal enforcement surge began
several days ago, and is
targeting not just immigration
enforcement or immigration,
but rather also the
expanding fraud investigation
involving Minnesota state
programs, which the administration
has vowed to crack down on and
which targets specifically the
Somali immigrant community in this
country.
We know the mayor and other
Democrats are urging ICE to leave
this city. Based on your reporting,
what's expected of the immigration
enforcement effort in the days
ahead?
If anything...
Word is that they are going to
escalate.
The man in charge of Border Patrol,
Greg Corvino, has been sighted in
several locations in this city.
More officers are being dispatched
here, so there's no sense that
it's going to diminish in any way.
For their part, the protesters say
they do not plan to
let up in any of their activities
and their vigilance.
We take winter in our stride here in
Minnesota, but this one is one
that is not going to
be forgotten soon.
Fred de Sam Lazaro in Minneapolis
for us tonight.
Fred, our thanks to you.