Conflicting messages from feds and local officials
The Department of Homeland Security alleges the woman was “attempting to run over our law enforcement officers” when the officer shot her. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claimed it was an “act of domestic terrorism” and argued that the vehicle was a “deadly weapon.”
But the Minnesota governor and Minneapolis mayor are disputing the government’s claims, with the mayor saying that, according to videos, the victim, Renee Good, wasn’t driving her car toward the agent or using her car as a weapon.
“This was an agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying — getting killed,” Mayor Jacob Frey said.
Shooting victim survived by wife, 6-year-old child, Walz says
Renee Good is survived by her wife and 6-year-old child, according to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who said during the press briefing that he offers his “deepest sympathies” to her family “on an unimaginable tragedy.”
Walz: ‘Very difficult that we will get a fair outcome’
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said it feels “very difficult that we will get a fair outcome” in the FBI’s probe into the deadly shooting.
“We have learned that the Trump administration has now denied the state that ability to participate in the investigation. And I just want to make this as clear as possible to everyone: Minnesota must be part of this investigation,” he said during a press briefing on Thursday.
Walz said that a “thorough investigation by non-partisan professionals” is the only way to determine what happened.
University mourns shooting victim
Renee Good was a 2020 graduate from Old Dominion University in Virginia, according to the school’s president, Brian Hemphill, who said it is “with great sadness that Old Dominion University mourns the loss of one of our own.”
She graduated from the College of Arts and Letters with a degree in English, according to Hemphill.
“May Renee’s life be a reminder of what unites us: freedom, love, and peace,” he said in a statement. “My hope is for compassion, healing, and reflection at a time that is becoming one of the darkest and most uncertain periods in our nation’s history.
Noem says ICE officer who shot and killed woman is ‘experienced’
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the ICE officer involved in the deadly shooting is “experienced,” though did not go into further detail during a press briefing in New York on Thursday.
“I’m not going to get specific to this officer, but he’s an experienced officer that has served a number of years, and we recognize that he acted according to his training,” she said.
She doubled down on her assertion that the officer was responding to an “act of domestic terrorism.”
Minnesota says it’s been pushed out from taking part in shooting probe with FBI
State officials said the FBI is now solely leading the investigation into the deadly ICE shooting after they were denied access to the case materials.
According to Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) Superintendent Drew Evans, in the wake of the shooting, the state and FBI were conducting a joint investigation, but that later that day, he said in a statement, “the FBI informed the BCA that the U.S. Attorney’s Office had reversed course: the investigation would now be led solely by the FBI, and the BCA would no longer have access to the case materials, scene evidence or investigative interviews necessary to complete a thorough and independent investigation.”
Without that access, Evans said the BCA “cannot meet the investigative standards that Minnesota law and the public demands” and has “reluctantly withdrawn from the investigation.”
“We expect the FBI to conduct a thorough and complete investigation and that the full investigative file will be shared with the appropriate prosecutorial authorities at both the state and federal levels,” he said.
