Somber Minneapolis demonstrators protest fatal shooting of woman by ICE officer : NPR

TO MARTÍNEZ, HOST:

Two incidents this week have drawn attention to shootings by federal immigration authorities.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

One was in Portland, Oregon. We have very limited information so far. The Department of Homeland Security says officers shot two people during a traffic stop and both people took off. DHS released a statement placing all blame on those shot. This is also what the Secretary of Homeland Security did after a shooting in Minneapolis that was caught on video. Minneapolis residents want immigration agents to leave their city after an ICE agent fatally shot Renée Good, 37, on Wednesday.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (chanting) ICE out now. ICE is out now.

MARTÍNEZ: NPR’s Meg Anderson is in Minneapolis. Meg, you were at the protest we just heard about last night. So what’s the atmosphere like there?

MEG ANDERSON, BYLINE: Yeah. You know, the weather has been gloomy here and quite peaceful but defiant. Last night, in March, the weather was terrible, freezing rain was falling. Many sidewalks were covered in a layer of ice. And there were still hundreds of people there. Community members chanted, holding signs with messages such as “ICE melts under resistance.” I saw one in Spanish that said: we shout for those who cannot. Most of the protesters I spoke with said Wednesday’s shooting made them more angry than afraid. People like Caitlyn English(ph). She lives in the Twin Cities.

CAITLYN ENGLISH: It’s been sad, but it’s also uplifting because we understand what’s right and what’s wrong. Seeing the community come together for this cause and inspiring other places to be inspired. It’s incredible.

ANDERSON: And, you know, she told me that she stood on the same street five years ago protesting the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer and that she felt the same way then.

MARTÍNEZ: Okay. Now, what can you tell us about the shooting itself?

ANDERSON: Well, there have been two major developments over the past day. The first is that NPR confirmed the identity of the ICE agent who killed Good as Jonathan Ross. Department of Homeland Security officials said he was an experienced officer and not a recent recruit. The second development is that the FBI has taken over the investigation and state authorities say they no longer have access to evidence from the shooting. This means that the federal government is the only entity to investigate a shooting committed by a federal government agent. Yesterday, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz questioned whether this investigation would be fair.

MARTÍNEZ: Do you know if federal officials said much about the victim, Renée Good?

ANDERSON: Yeah. A witness told NPR that, you know, they thought she was a legal observer, and federal authorities used that to label her an extremist. Here’s how Vice President JD Vance described it.

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JD VANCE: This woman is part of a larger left-wing network that attacks, doxes, assaults and prevents our ICE agents from doing their jobs.

ANDERSON: But, you know, that’s just not how her family and friends talked about her.

MARTÍNEZ: Oh, so tell us how they described it.

ANDERSON: Well, a reporter from the Minnesota Star Tribune spoke with Good’s mother. She described her as the kindest person she had ever known and said she was not involved in any anti-government activity. Good was a mother of three children. The youngest is around 6 years old. We know she had a home repair business with her wife in Kansas City. We also found what appears to be his Pinterest page. And, you know, this page, to put it simply, is filled with things from a normal human life – ideas for recipes and haircuts, plans for a garden, and advice on parenting, like how to ease a child’s anxiety and fun things to do with them in the summer.

MARTÍNEZ: Very good. It’s Meg Anderson from NPR. Meg, thank you.

ANDERSON: You’re welcome.

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