There’s a tug-of-war going on right now in the U.S., centered in Minneapolis, Minn., where Renee Good was fatally shot this week. The incident has increased tension over Immigration and Customs Enforcement deployments and political partisanship.
WWL’s Newell Normand, a Republican and former sheriff, spoke to WCCO News Talk’s Mark Freie this Friday about the shooting and its repercussions.
“I think that we’re going to keep seeing that tug-of-war continue over the next, you know, a few days, several days,” Freie told Normand.
Before we get deeper into their conversation, let’s address what we know so far. Renee Nicole Macklin Good was reportedly shot dead Wednesday by an ICE agent who has been identified as Jonathan Ross. There have been some reports questioning the preparedness of ICE recruits but, according to NBC News, Ross spent years working for the government and has served in the military before he joined the agency.
President Trump has said the ICE agent is lucky to be alive. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem described Good as a “domestic terrorist” and defended the agent’s actions, others argue that the 37-year-old mother of three was simply a citizen who was murdered by a federal agent. Others holding judgement but are concerned about whether an investigation into the incident will be transparent.
WCCO News Talk provided a detailed breakdown of some of the video footage circulating of the incident. It appears to show Good in the driver’s seat of a vehicle “parked nearly perpendicular” across a one-way residential street in Minneapolis, not far from where George Floyd was killed in 2020. Some reports indicate that Good’s partner was outside of the car, criticizing the ICE officers, around the time of the shooting. An expert cited by WCCO said that citizens would have a right to that behavior, as long as they were not impacting law enforcement operations.
“A gray four-door Titan truck comes to a stop facing the driver’s side of the Honda. Two officers climb out and approach the Honda,” said WCCO of how things progressed. “Both officers wear what appear to be wool hats and black masks covering their noses and mouths.”
Then, one of the officers is heard demanding “get out of the f***ing car,” before the Honda starts slowly rolling backwards. Then an officer tries to grab the door handle and puts his arm into the driver’s side window. Another officer is seen walking around the car to stand in front of it, apparently holding a phone and filming.
Policing experts cited by WCCO said those actions were perplexing.
“Why would he do that? Why would he put himself in a more dangerous position than he was already in?” asked Geoffrey P. Alpert, an expert on policing at the University of South Carolina, who called it “absurd” for an officer to use his body to block a 4,000-pound SUV.
“I can’t explain why he would stand there and place himself in front of the car,” said Darrel W. Stephens, former chief of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. “That’s a dangerous decision to make.”
The car then moves forward, its wheels turning right as Ross continues to stand in front of it. Ross eventually shot at Good multiple times, killing her. WCCO said it is unclear in the videos whether the vehicle touched him.
Additionally, WCCO reported that “most police departments long ago prohibited officers from shooting at moving vehicles except for very limited circumstances where there’s no other option to save lives, experts say.” The video does show the Honda careening down the street, hitting parked vehicles but missing pedestrians.
In the wake of the shooting, Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans said that his agency is not conducting a “use-of-force incident investigation,” into the incident. He said “full access to evidence, witnesses and information is necessary to meet the investigative standard that Minnesota law and the public demands; without it, we cannot do so.”
Evans also said that the BCA has offered to provide limited assistance to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office with the collection, cataloging and preservation of video or other evidence related to the incident and that it intends to provide that information to the Federal Bureau of Investigation as well. Although it is not conducting an investigation at this time, Evans said the BCA is open to conducting a full investigation if “the U.S. Attorney’s Office and FBI reconsider their approach and express a willingness to resume a joint investigation or to share all evidence and evidentiary reports held by FBI investigators.”
Normand pushed back on the BCA’s narrative and told Freie: “I could tell you in my 40 years in law enforcement, we never participated in a pure FBI-related investigation of a federal agency, especially when it came to a shooting. I have never seen where local law enforcement is intimately and intrinsically involved during the course of that investigation, other than just the transfer of evidence that they may have collected in the preliminary situation.”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz have also criticized ICE and the federal government for the incident. Even before the shooting, the Minneapolis Police Department was not working with ICE on its illegal immigration crackdown.
Last year, WBBM Newsradio reported on an ICE agent shooting and killing a man. The ICE officer in that incident was also injured. WBBM reported this week that Democrat Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said the shooting of Good “angers” him and “should compel you to peacefully stand up for justice.” He also called for Noem to be booted out of her job.
While Normand said that it was “careless” of the Trump administration to call Good a “domestic terrorist” he also said he thinks rhetoric from elected officials in Minnesota and others is contributing the tug-of-war in this case.
“It’s hard to walk back though, when you have elected officials that have already prejudged this matter and call it a murder you know and then complain about not being included in an investigation,” he said.
This weekend, a vigil was held for Good. Protestors were seen near a Minneapolis Hilton where ICE were rumored to be staying, playing music and making loud noise in an effort to prevent the agents from sleeping. Protests were also held around the country, with signs calling for an end to ICE operations.
“There’s a part of me that that doesn’t even really believe this is about the shoot any longer,” said Normand. “It is really is about the tactics and… strategies that are being deployed by immigration.”
“I think there’s gonna be an outcry still of sort of the tactics of federal agents,” Freie said. He mentioned other incidents at a school and a local Target store that have drawn criticism and that local schools were closed through Friday following Good’s death
Meanwhile, Freie said local officials are encouraging people to provide information about the Good shooting and to wait for further details to be revealed by investigators. Already, WCCO has reported on artificial intelligence-generated footage and other misinformation circulating about the case.
“The delta between where the story is now and where it’s ultimately going to end up… in my 40 years of law enforcement is going to be pretty wide,” Normand said.