An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a Minneapolis motorist on Wednesday during the Trump administration’s latest immigration crackdown in a major U.S. city — a shooting that federal officials claimed was an act of self-defense but that the city’s mayor described as “reckless” and unnecessary.
Videos taken by bystanders with different vantage points and posted to social media show an officer approaching an SUV stopped across the middle of the road, demanding the driver open the door and grabbing the handle. The SUV begins to pull forward and a different ICE officer standing in front of the vehicle pulls his weapon and immediately fires at least two shots into the SUV at close range, jumping back as the vehicle moves toward him. It was not clear from the videos if the vehicle made contact with the officer. The SUV then sped into two cars parked on a curb nearby before crashing to a stop.
The shooting marks a dramatic escalation of a series of immigration enforcement operations in major U.S. cities under the Trump administration. The killing was at least the fifth linked to immigration crackdowns in a handful of states since 2024.
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The child of the woman killed has lost both biological parents
Court records show that Renee Nicole Macklin Good had previously been married to a man named Timmy Ray Macklin, who died in 2023 at age 36.
The man’s father, Timmy Ray Macklin Sr., told the Minnesota Star Tribune that his son and Macklin Good had a child together who is now 6 years old.
“There’s nobody else in his life,” Macklin Sr. told the paper.
Donna Ganger, the deceased woman’s mother, told the newspaper that the family was notified of the death late Wednesday morning.
“That’s so stupid” that she was killed, Ganger told the newspaper. “She was probably terrified.”
Asked about protesters challenging ICE officers, Ganger said her daughter was “not part of anything like that at all.”
Woman killed by ICE described herself as a poet and mother
A hospital record obtained by The Associated Press identified the woman as 37-year-old Renae Macklin-Good, though business records spelled her name as Renee Nicole Macklin Good.
In social media accounts, Macklin Good said she was a “Poet and writer and wife and mom” originally from Colorado but “experiencing Minnesota.” A profile picture shows her smiling and holding a young child against her cheek.
In a video from the scene of the shooting posted to social media, a distraught woman is seen sitting near the vehicle crying, describing Macklin Good as her spouse and saying that they had a 6-year-old child.
“That’s my wife, I don’t know what to do!” wailed the woman, who wasn’t identified.
Noem didn’t name the ICE officer who shot the woman, but said he was ‘experienced’
“He’s been in situations like this before, and he certainly has been out there and followed his training today,” said Noem at the evening news conference in Minneapolis.
Noem appeared to reference the same officer when she said that, back in June, he’d been rammed and dragged by an “anti-ICE” motorist.
Noem says the immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis will continue
“We are still out on the street doing our work to get dangerous criminals off of the streets of Minneapolis,” the Homeland Security secretary said at the news conference.
Noem also said she spoke with Walz earlier Wednesday and that they didn’t see eye to eye on the shooting.
Noem says any death is a ‘tragedy’ but that the ICE shooting was justified
“Our officer followed his training, did exactly what he’s been taught to do in that situation,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said at a news conference in Minneapolis Wednesday evening.
Noem alleged that the woman who was killed was trying to block officers with her vehicle, had been harassing them through the day and “attempted to run a law enforcement officer over” before she was shot.
“We’ll let the FBI continue the investigation to get it resolved,” she said, adding that the officer was hit by the vehicle, taken to a hospital and released.
Noem added that immigration enforcement has made over 1,500 arrests in Minnesota in recent weeks.
Pastors attend community gathering after ICE shooting to show solidarity and advocate for nonviolence
The Rev. Ingrid Rasmussen, a pastor of nearby Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, said she and other clergy, wearing their stoles and collars, are there “to be in community with a neighborhood that’s hurting and a city that feels under siege.”
Rasmussen, who had opened her church to the community during the protests and rioting after the killing of George Floyd, said she hoped violence wouldn’t happen again, but blamed federal law enforcement activities like Wednesday’s shooting for inciting it.
“We are all gathered around our own grief,” she said.
Hundreds gather at the site of the shooting
As the sun set over Minneapolis, the crowd stood at the intersection where the motorist was killed just before a vigil was set to start.
Most were quiet. Some held profanity-laced signs against ICE, waving Mexican flags or sporting keffiyeh scarves.
A few blocks north, cars and improvised barricades blocked the main avenue.
Witness describes scene of the shooting
Lynette Reini-Grandell, 65, had already heard that ICE agents were in her neighborhood when she saw the chaotic scene, one car askew in a lane and ICE vehicles backed up behind it.
She said she tried to figure out what was going on when several gunshots rang out and the car that was askew crashed to a stop.
“She was driving away and they killed her,” said Reini-Grandell of the motorist.
Reini-Grandell said she started recording ICE officers approach the woman’s vehicle and kept a close watch as law enforcement told bystanders to stand back.
“I didn’t want to get shot or chemical sprayed,” she said. “I was much calmer when it was happening than I am now.”
City says 37-year-old shooting victim died at hospital
In a statement, the city of Minneapolis says police officers “responded to the reports of shots fired and found a woman with life-threatening gunshot wounds to the head.
“Minneapolis firefighters then removed the 37-year-old victim from the vehicle and immediately began lifesaving measures until paramedics could respond. She was transported to Hennepin County Medical Center, where she later died.”
Minnesota official says state will investigate the shooting with federal authorities
That’s according to Commissioner Bob Jacobson of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.
“Keep in mind that this is an investigation that is also in its infancy. So any speculation about what has happened would be just that,” Jacobson told reporters.
The shooting happened in the district of Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, who called it “state violence,” not law enforcement.
What federal policy says about shooting at vehicles
The Department of Justice says in its Justice Manual that firearms should not be used simply to disable a moving vehicle.
The policy allows deadly force only in limited circumstances, such as when someone in the vehicle is threatening another person with deadly force, or when the vehicle itself is being used in a way that poses an imminent risk and no reasonable alternative exists, including moving out of the vehicle’s path.
Police training experts have told The Associated Press that officers are generally taught not to step in front of moving vehicles to try to block them.
Training also emphasizes weighing the totality of the situation, including whether the person involved poses an immediate danger and whether the underlying allegation involves violence.
Many department policies specifically bar firing at vehicles just to stop a fleeing suspect.
Some policing experts say the rules need flexibility, pointing to cases in which people have used vehicles as weapons, including attacks in recent years where cars were driven into crowds.
The debate has been sharpened by high-profile cases, including a 2023 shooting in Ohio in which an officer fired through a windshield in a grocery store parking lot while investigating a shoplifting allegation, killing the pregnant motorist. The officer was later charged and acquitted.
Why many police agencies limit shooting at moving vehicles
For decades, police departments across the U.S. have limited when officers are allowed to fire at moving vehicles, citing the danger to bystanders and the risk that a driver who is shot will lose control.
The New York Police Department was among the first major agencies to adopt those limits. The department barred officers from firing at or from moving vehicles after a 1972 shooting killed a 10-year-old passenger in a stolen car and sparked protests.
Researchers in the late 1970s and early 1980s later found that the policy, along with other use-of-force restrictions, helped reduce bystanders being struck by police gunfire and led to fewer deaths in police shootings.
Over the years, many law enforcement agencies followed New York’s lead. Policing organizations such as the Police Executive Research Forum and the International Association of Chiefs of Police have recommended similar limits, warning that shooting at vehicles creates serious risks from stray gunfire or from a vehicle crashing if the driver is hit.
Minneapolis Police chief gives no indication that the driver was trying to harm anyone
Chief Brian O’Hara briefly described the shooting to reporters. Unlike federal officials, O’Hara didn’t say the driver was trying to harm anyone. He said she had been shot in the head.
“This woman was in her vehicle and was blocking the roadway on Portland Avenue. … At some point a federal law enforcement officer approached her on foot and the vehicle began to drive off,” the chief said.
“At least two shots were fired. The vehicle then crashed on the side of the roadway.”
Walz calls on protesters to remain peaceful
The governor said he’s prepared to deploy the National Guard if necessary. He also said that like many, he is outraged about the killing, which he described as “predictable” and “avoidable.” But he called for calm.
“They want a show. We can’t give it to them. We cannot,” the governor said during a news conference.
“If you protest and express your First Amendment rights, please do so peacefully, as you always do. We can’t give them what they want.”
Trump says the ICE officer who fatally shot the motorist appears to have been acting in self-defense
The president, in a social media post, said he’d viewed video footage of the incident and criticized the woman who was shot as acting “very disorderly, obstructing and resisting” and “then violently, willfully, and viciously” running over the ICE officer.
The president also described another woman seen screaming in the footage of the incident he viewed as “obviously, a professional agitator.”
“Based on the attached clip, it is hard to believe he is alive, but is now recovering in the hospital,” Trump said of the ICE officer.
“The situation is being studied, in its entirety, but the reason these incidents are happening is because the Radical Left is threatening, assaulting, and targeting our Law Enforcement Officers and ICE Agents on a daily basis. They are just trying to do the job of MAKING AMERICA SAFE.”
A vigil is planned for the woman killed
An immigrant rights group says on Facebook that it will hold a vigil for the woman who was shot.
“We witnessed an atrocious attack on our community today,” read the post from the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee. “Community members were taken from us and an observer was shot dead. ICE OUT OF MINNESOTA NOW.”
Why is the Minneapolis area the target of what immigration enforcement describes as its largest operation?
Minnesota initially grabbed President Donald Trump’s and Republicans’ attention over a series of fraud cases where many of the defendants had roots in Somalia. Prosecutors say that billions of dollars were stolen from federally funded health care benefits and a COVID-19 program in recent years.
Minnesota has the largest Somali population in the U.S., a group Trump called “garbage” in December and said he didn’t want them in the country.
The president has also criticized Democratic Gov. Walz for failing to catch the alleged crimes.
Late last month, a right-wing influencer posted a video claiming that day care centers in Minneapolis run by Somali residents had taken over $100 million in fraud. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and FBI Director Kash Patel then posted on social media about increased operations in the city partly targeting, as Patel put it, “large-scale fraud schemes.”
On Tuesday, DHS said it planned to deploy 2,000 federal agents and officers to the Minneapolis area.
Chicago experienced a similar incident during immigration crackdown
In October, a Chicago woman was shot five times by a Border Patrol agent in a similar incident involving a vehicle, though she survived.
Almost immediately, Homeland Security officials issued a statement labeling Marimar Martinez, a 30-year-old teaching assistant at a Montessori school, as a “domestic terrorist” who had “ambushed” and “rammed” agents with her vehicle.
She was charged in federal court with assaulting a federal officer, a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison. But federal prosecutors were later forced to dismiss the case against Martinez before trial after security camera video and bodycam footage emerged that her defense lawyers said undermined the official narrative.
The videos showed a Border Patrol agent steering his vehicle into Martinez’s truck, rather than the other way around, her attorney said.
Gov. Tim Walz calls Homeland Security’s claims in the Minnesota shooting ‘propaganda’
“I’ve seen the video. Don’t believe this propaganda machine,” Walz wrote on X, responding to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s post alleging that a woman had “weaponized her vehicle” before she was shot and killed by an ICE officer.
The state will ensure there is a full, fair, and expeditious investigation to ensure accountability and justice,” wrote the governor.
County attorney’s office says investigation must play out before any decision made on charges
Daniel Borgertpoepping, a spokesperson for the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, says that “We have jurisdiction to bring charges, as do the feds.
“It’s a little bit of a complicated interplay but the bottom line is yes, we have jurisdiction to bring criminal charges.”
Homeland Security secretary describes the incident as an ‘act of domestic terrorism’
Secretary Kristi Noem, during a visit to Texas, says it was carried out against ICE officers by a woman who “attempted to run them over and rammed them with her vehicle. An officer of ours acted quickly and defensively, shot, to protect himself and the people around him.”
But Mayor Frey blasted that characterization as well as the federal deployment in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.
“They are not here to cause safety in this city. What they are doing is not to provide safety in America. What they are doing is causing chaos and distrust,” Frey said.
Shooting occurred in modest neighborhood not far from where George Floyd was killed
The location is just a few blocks from some of the oldest immigrant markets in the area and a mile from where George Floyd was killed by police in 2020.
During a news conference in Texas on Wednesday, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed that the agency had deployed more than 2,000 officers to the Twin Cities and already made “hundreds and hundreds” of arrests.
Frey demands ICE leave Minneapolis
The mayor says in a social media post that immigration agents are “causing chaos in our city.”
“We are demanding ICE leave the city and state immediately. We stand rock solid with our immigrant and refugee communities,” Frey said.
A large throng of protesters gather at the scene after the shooting
The crowd vented its anger at the local and federal officers who were there, including Gregory Bovino, a senior U.S. Customs and Border Patrol official who has been the face of crackdowns in Los Angeles, Chicago and elsewhere.
In a scene that harkened back to the Los Angeles and Chicago immigration crackdowns, bystanders heckled the officers and blew whistles that have become ubiquitous during the operations.
“Shame! Shame! Shame!” and “ICE out of Minnesota!” they loudly chanted from behind the police tape.
Department of Homeland Security says an ICE officer shot the woman in a residential neighborhood
That’s according to a statement from department spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin.
The shooting marks a dramatic escalation of the latest in a series of immigration enforcement operations in major American cities under the Trump administration. It’s at least the fifth person killed in a handful of states since 2024.
The twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul have been on edge since DHS announced Tuesday that it had launched the operation, with more than 2,000 agents and officers expected to participate in the crackdown tied in part to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents.
Minneapolis mayor blasts federal immigration enforcement
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said Wednesday that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who shot and killed a motorist acted recklessly. Fry rejected federal officials’ claims that the officer had acted in self-defense.
During a news conference hours after the ICE officer shot the woman, an angry Frey blasted the federal immigration crackdown on the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.
“They are not here to cause safety in this city. What they are doing is not to provide safety in America. What they are doing is causing chaos and distrust,” Frey said. “They’re ripping families apart. They’re sowing chaos on our streets and in this case quite literally killing people.”
“They are already trying to spin this as an action of self-defense,” the mayor said.
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