Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, has doubled down on her claim that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent who shot and killed a 37-year-old woman in Minneapolis was acting in self-defense and responding to an “act of domestic terrorism”.
Noem also said that she was “not opposed” to sending additional federal agents to Minneapolis.
Speaking at a news conference in New York City on Thursday morning, Noem claimed that the victim, Renee Nicole Good, had been following and harassing the ICE agents as they conducted enforcement operations in the area. Noem reiterated the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) assertion that Good used her vehicle “as a weapon” and had tried to run over the officer.
Those claims have been widely disputed by both local and state leaders in Minnesota as well as by eyewitnesses. Video footage of the shooting also shows that Good’s vehicle appeared to be turning away from the officer as he opened fire.
Jacob Frey, the Minneapolis Democratic mayor, slammed the DHS’s account of the incident as a “garbage narrative” on Wednesday.
“They’re already trying to spin this as an action of self-defense,” Frey said. “Having seen the video myself, I want to tell everybody directly: that is bullshit.”
On Thursday, the Minnesota bureau of criminal apprehension (BCA) announced that it was “reluctantly” withdrawing from the investigation into the shooting. The BCA superintendent said in a statement that federal officials had informed them the investigation would be “led solely by the FBI” and that “BCA would no longer have access to the case materials, scene evidence or investigative interviews necessary to complete a thorough and independent investigation”.
Asked about the BCA’s statement at the news conference on Thursday, Noem said that the agency had “not been cut out” and that the BCA “doesn’t have any jurisdiction in this investigation”.
Wednesday’s shooting in Minneapolis came as DHS has deployed more immigration enforcement agents in Minnesota over the last several days, in part tied to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents in the state. At the news conference on Thursday, Noem said that she was “not opposed” to sending additional federal agents to Minneapolis “if necessary to keep people safe”.
Following the shooting, Democratic leaders across Minnesota called for ICE agents to leave the state and have urged residents to “remain calm” and to protest peacefully.
Protests against the shooting and ICE were held in cities across the US on Wednesday night. Additional anti-ICE demonstrations were planned in cities around the country on Thursday, including major hubs such as New York City and Chicago.
At Thursday’s news conference, Noem was also asked about New York City’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, who, in a statement on Wednesday night, described the shooting as “the latest horror in a year full of cruelty”.
“As ICE attacks our neighbors across America, it is an attack on us all,” Mamdani said. “New York stands with immigrants today, and every day that follows.”
Noem said that she hopes Mamdani will “work with us” on immigration enforcement.
She added: “I know he and the president had a productive conversation. Our communication at the Department of Homeland Security had not been productive with the mayor’s office or with the NYPD, but we want to continue those conversations so we can work together.”
