Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Thursday that the ICE officer who shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis was following his training for how to respond when someone turns a vehicle into a weapon.
“This law enforcement officer followed his training,” Ms. Noem said at a press conference.
She said Renee Good, the 37-year-old single mother who was killed, was endangering the U.S. immigration and Customs Enforcement officer’s life by driving at him.
“This vehicle was used to hit this officer. It was used as a weapon,” she said. “This officer took action to protect himself and protect his fellow law enforcement officers.”
Minneapolis’s mayor has called Ms. Noem’s version of events “garbage.”
Videos from multiple angles of the shooting have been posted to social media and reaction has been deeply divided, though generally tracking with whether people support ICE’s enforcement activities or not.
The videos show a maroon SUV blocking part of the snowy road that federal officers were trying to drive through. The federal officers were in a pickup truck that had emergency flashing lights in the truck’s grill and visible along the side.
The videos show two officers getting out of the truck and approaching the driver’s door of the SUV, ordering the woman out. Another officer comes from a different direction to stand in front of the vehicle with what appears to be a cellphone, videoing the interaction.
As one officer reaches to open the door, the SUV backs up, then lurches forward, with one tire seeming to slip slightly on the snow. The officer in front draws his handgun as the SUV heads toward him. The front corner of the vehicle appears to make contact with that officer, who opened fire. Three gunshot sounds can be heard.
Ms. Noem said the ICE officers had been facing harassment earlier in the morning, ahead of the shooting.
She said there have been more than 100 incidents where people have used vehicles to ram immigration officers and agents during law enforcement operations.
