President Donald Trump and senior administration officials this week publicly blamed a Minneapolis woman for her own death after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot her during a protest, even as multiple video analyses and witness accounts described in reporting contradict that narrative. Federal authorities later moved to exclude Minnesota investigators from the case, drawing criticism that the administration is preventing independent scrutiny of the killing.
Renee Nicole Good was fatally shot Wednesday morning during a protest against ICE in a residential area of Minneapolis. According to video footage described in the reporting, ICE agents approached Good’s van after it was parked in the street. As she attempted to drive away, an agent positioned near the front left side of the vehicle pulled out a gun and opened fire, shooting her in the face. Good’s van then collided with another vehicle farther down the road.
Additional footage cited in the reporting appears to show ICE agents preventing bystanders from giving Good medical assistance. A man who identified himself as a physician was also reportedly denied permission to treat her at the scene.
Hours after the shooting, Trump addressed the killing during a scheduled interview with reporters from The New York Times. He described the incident as a “vicious situation that took place,” then blamed Good rather than the agent who fired the shots.
“She behaved horribly. And then she ran him over,” Trump said, advancing an account that the reporting states is contradicted by video footage from multiple angles.
Trump repeated the claim moments later, saying, “She didn’t try to run him over. She ran him over.”
When interviewers told Trump that the footage did not show an ICE agent being run over, he responded, “I’ll play the tape for you right now,” and directed aides to bring him a laptop. After watching the video in slow motion, the reporters again said it did not support Trump’s description.
“Well, the way I look at it…it’s a terrible scene,” Trump replied, according to the account, without retracting his earlier claims.
Trump also posted twice about the shooting on Truth Social on Wednesday. In the first post, he wrote that Good had “violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense.”
“It is hard to believe he is alive, but is now recovering in the hospital,” Trump added. The reporting notes that the ICE agent suffered no apparent injuries and was seen walking around the scene after the shooting.
Later that evening, Trump posted again, writing, “When a vehicle is coming at you and is being used as a weapon, deadly force is justified,” citing comments from Fox News contributor Nicole Parker.
Other administration officials echoed the president’s assertions. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem described Good’s actions as a “domestic act of terrorism,” and claimed she tried “to kill law enforcement officers.” Vice President JD Vance similarly blamed Good in a post on X, writing, “Every congressional democrat and every democrat who’s running for president should be asked a simple question: Do you think this officer was wrong in defending his life against a deranged leftist who tried to run him over?”
Those claims have been challenged by video analyses and witness testimony cited in the reporting. An examination by The New York Times found that the ICE agent who shot Good “crosses toward the left of the vehicle and grabs his gun.”
“He opens fire on the motorist and continues shooting as she drives past,” the analysis states. It adds, “The moment the agent fires, he is standing to the left of the SUV and the wheels are pointing to the right away from the agent. This appears to conflict with allegations that the SUV was ramming or about to ram the officer.”
In a separate analysis, the Times concluded that Good’s vehicle “appears to be turning away from a federal officer as he opened fire.” The Washington Post similarly found that the agent fired “at least two of three shots from the side of the vehicle as it veered past him.”
A witness identified only as Betsy told ABC News that Good did not appear to be attempting to harm anyone. “It appeared to me that she was endeavoring to kind of adjust her car so that it was facing more south,” Betsy said. “And then it was clear at one point that she started to accelerate, trying to move her vehicle out of the cluster of cars south on Portland Avenue.”
Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota said the administration’s descriptions of the incident were contradicted by the footage. “We’ve all seen the video… you can see, no ICE agent falls to the ground, no one is run over,” Omar said on CNN. “So, to rewrite something that is still so visibly available, that people can see, just shows how disturbingly delusional our president has become.”
As questions mounted, Minnesota officials said Thursday that the Trump administration barred the state from participating in the investigation. Drew Evans, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said federal officials informed his agency that it would be excluded from the case after initially agreeing to a joint investigation.
The FBI told the BCA it would “no longer have access to the case materials, scene evidence or investigative interviews necessary to complete a thorough and independent investigation,” Evans said. “Without complete access to the evidence, witnesses and information collected, we cannot meet the investigative standards that Minnesota law and the public demands. As a result, the BCA has reluctantly withdrawn from the investigation.”
Noem defended the decision, saying state investigators “don’t have any jurisdiction in this investigation,” despite crimes such as murder typically falling under state authority unless a federal officer is killed.
Republicans in Congress also blocked an effort to obtain records related to the shooting. In the House Oversight Committee, Representative Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts moved to subpoena DHS and ICE for footage and documents connected to the killing, but the motion was rejected after every Republican member voted against it.
Vance continued attacking the media during a White House press conference on Thursday. “The reporting over this has been one of the biggest scandals I’ve ever seen in media,” he said. “I’ve never seen a case so misrepresented and misreported. We have a guy who was defending himself, who is now being treated as some sort of federal assassin by so many of the people in this room.”
He went on to describe Good as “a woman who aimed her car at a law enforcement officer and pressed on the accelerator,” and claimed she had been influenced by ideology. “There is a part of me that feels very sad for this woman,” Vance said. “And not just because she lost her life, but because I think she is a victim of left-wing ideology. What young mother shows up and decides they’re going to throw their car in front of ICE officers who are enforcing law? You’ve got to be a little brainwashed to get to that point.”
Vance also warned of potential prosecutions for those he accused of supporting violence against law enforcement. “If you are funding violence against our law enforcement officers… my guess is that’s not the sort of thing that earns capital punishment, but it should sure as hell earn you a few years in prison,” he said.
The killing has sparked outrage in Minneapolis. Mayor Jacob Frey responded to the shooting by saying, “I have a message to ICE: Get the fuck out of Minneapolis.”
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