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Did you see what happened at E. 34th St. and Portland Ave. in Minneapolis Wednesday? Send us your observations, photos and videos at contact@sahanjournal.com. Thank you.
An ICE officer shot and killed a woman in south Minneapolis Wednesday morning while she was in a vehicle, drawing sharp condemnation from local lawmakers and attracting hundreds of protesters to the scene.
Mayor Jacob Frey said at a news conference later in the day that the woman was 37, and noted that ICE had claimed self-defense in shooting her.
“Having seen the video myself, I want to tell everyone directly. That is [expletive],” said Frey, who demanded that ICE leave Minnesota.
Authorities have not publicly identified the woman, but attendees at a vigil for her Wednesday night identified her as Renee Nicole Good.
Witness Caitlin Callenson shared a video with Sahan Journal that appears to show federal agents walking up to the door of a maroon SUV stopped in the middle of the street. In the video, a federal officer pulls on the SUV’s door handle, and when the car starts to pull away, a second federal officer fires shots into the vehicle. The vehicle moves forward briefly and crashes into a curb and another vehicle.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security confirmed the death on X, and said in its post that immigration officers were “conducting targeted operations” when the SUV’s driver allegedly tried to run over an officer, who feared for his life and fired his gun.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the FBI and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension are investigating the shooting.
The city of Minneapolis issued a statement at 10:26 a.m. Wednesday asking residents to stay away from the scene of the shooting at E. 34th Street and Portland Avenue. U.S. Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino was present at the scene.
Gov. Tim Walz urged Minnesotans to protest the shooting peacefully, and said he has put the National Guard on alert for possible activation to keep residents safe. He expressed anger over the shooting.
“We’ve been warning for weeks that the Trump administration’s sensationalized operations are a threat, that someone’s going to get hurt,” Walz said. “It’s governing by reality TV, and today that recklessness cost someone their life.”
Kristi Noem, secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, held a news conference at the Whipple Federal Building in Fort Snelling Wednesday evening, where she defended the shooting and said the immigration officer responsible was following his training.
Noem said the woman who was killed had been “impeding” officers’ work all day, and weaponized her car against them when she was shot.
“This appears as an attempt to kill or to cause bodily harm to agents, an act of domestic terrorism,” she said.
Eyewitness accounts
Tyrice Jones told Sahan Journal he heard gunshots followed by a crash outside his building at 34th street and Portland Avenue Wednesday morning.
Jones came outside and saw a woman in a maroon SUV bleeding from what he believed was a gunshot wound.
“They weren’t trying to do [expletive] for her. Nothing,” Jones said. “She was just there, lifeless.”
There were ICE agents around the car, Jones said, adding that a woman who appeared to know the victim was crying in front of an apartment building asking for a doctor.
Alex Weekes told Sahan Journal he woke up when he heard a car honking outside his house. Weekes looked out his window and saw a red SUV parked in the street blocking other vehicles from moving along the roadway. He said he saw federal agents step out of their vehicle and approach the SUV, and then heard gunshots.
“The [person] in the SUV tried driving away from them when they did that,” he said of the agents approaching the SUV. “There was one [federal agent] near the front corner of the car, and they shot [the driver] three times.
“I was just thinking, ‘Damn, did ICE just really shoot a [expletive] guy outside my house?’ I mean you never think that’s going to happen literally across the street.
Trevor Heitkamp lives a block away from the from the scene and said he witnessed the shooting. He left his house for a cigarette shortly before 9:45 a.m., heard a commotion, walked down the street and started recording.
A driver appeared to be trying to turn her vehicle around, Heitkamp told Sahan Journal. He said she was going no more than 5 miles an hour and was receiving direction from multiple federal agents. Heitkamp heard several people shout, “No,” and then heard multiple gunshots.
The vehicle rolled forward and crashed, and less than a minute later a passenger exited covered in blood, he said. The two people in the car appeared to be white women, he said.
A man who also witnessed the shooting shouted at ICE that he was a doctor and asked to perform first aid, Heitkamp said.
“The ICE agents told him to back up and stay on the sidewalk,” Heitkamp said.
He heard ICE agents call out, “No pulse.” About two minutes later, EMS crews arrived, administered CPR and carried the victim to an ambulance.
“It didn’t need to happen,” Heitkamp said. “And I don’t think the government has the right to kill its citizens for inconveniencing them.”
Liliana Zaragoza, an associate professor of law at the University of Minnesota was in the area at the time of the incident and shared her account with Sahan Journal: First responders were seen performing CPR on a person on the sidewalk. The person was undressed, and had blood in their hair and face. Minneapolis police officials were present at the scene who told Zaragoza it was a “crime scene.”
“That person looked lifeless from the moment I saw them,” Zaragoza said.
Venus de Mars, a musician who lives on the block, witnessed paramedics performing CPR on the shooting victim in a snowbank. De Mars said the victim appeared to be a white woman, who was removed from the scene in an ambulance.
“They didn’t rush her away, they didn’t have sirens or anything,” de Mars said. “I’m very worried that she didn’t make it.”
City Council Member Robin Wonsley, who represents a different area of south Minneapolis, posted on social media that she was on the scene with other council members.
“Residents witnessed federal agents shoot an observer. The resident was transported to a hospital,” she wrote. “I will keep you updated as information comes out.”
Sahan photojournalist Aaron Nesheim was at the scene as events unfolded. He reported seeing a car that had crashed, with a lone woman in the driver’s seat. The airbag was deployed and covered in blood.
Twenty to 30 ICE agents were on the scene around 9:50 a.m., and a crowd had started to gather.
The woman was slumped over the airbag. Minneapolis firefighters pulled her out of the car and moved her down the street to 34th Street and Portland Avenue, where they began performing CPR, according to Nesheim.
The crowd continued to grow as the woman was taken to the hospital. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara arrived and briefly spoke to Bovino.
Minneapolis police eventually brought in an armed tactical vehicle, apparently to help with crowd control.
The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office posted on social media it was not involved in the shooting, but dispatched deputies to the scene to assist other law enforcement as needed.
More than 100 protesters had gathered on Portland Avenue and E. 33rd Street by 10:30 a.m., and about 40 unmarked SUVs, and Hennepin County Sheriff’s and Minneapolis Police vehicles were parked in a wide perimeter around the scene, blocking off the area with yellow tape.
Protesters shouted at officers, blew whistles and banged on drums throughout the morning and early afternoon.
Most ICE and Border Patrol agents left the scene at around 11 a.m. The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) began collecting evidence from the victim’s Honda Pilot, which crashed into a lightpole and a parked car.
About 11 a.m., officers in camouflage sprayed a green gas on protesters, and began using pepper spray on the crowd.
Protesters remained at the scene as of 2 p.m. as officers took down yellow police tape and other barricades. A group of about 400 protesters began marching from the scene toward downtown Minneapolis shortly before 3 p.m.
City officials condemn shooting
City officials held a noon news conference at Minneapolis City Hall, where Frey and O’Hara were flanked by Council Members Elliott Payne, Jamal Osman and Jamie Whiting. Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt and Minneapolis Community Safety Commissioner Todd Barnette were also present.
Frey reiterated his call for ICE to “get the [expletive] out of Minneapolis.”
“Minneapolis residents that have contributed so greatly to our city, to our culture, to our economy are being terrorized and now somebody is dead,” Frey said. “That’s on you, and it’s also on you to leave.”
O’Hara said at the news conference that Minneapolis officers responded to the scene and found the woman with a gunshot wound to the head. The city’s 911 dashboard showed that more than 40 calls were made to emergency dispatch Wednesday from near the shooting location.
O’Hara told reporters that the woman was in her vehicle and blocking the roadway on Portland Avenue S. between 33rd and 34th Streets when a federal agent approached the vehicle on foot. The woman began to drive off as he approached, which led to at least two shots being fired and the woman crashing her car nearby.
After lifesaving measures were attempted by paramedics, O’Hara said, the woman was transported to Hennepin County Medical Center via ambulance, where she was pronounced dead. Two Minneapolis officers rode in the ambulance with the woman, he said.
Frey called the Department of Homeland Security’s claims of self defense “a garbage narrative that is not true,” and said the videos he’s seen of the shooting show the agents firing shots into the woman’s car after she began driving away. Frey said his office was in contact with federal authorities all morning, and demanded that ICE agents leave the scene.
“They themselves were creating the kind of dysfunction and chaos that they claim to be trying to help with,” Frey said. “The message that we delivered very clearly was to make them leave.”
Witt called for local involvement in the investigation.
“How that is going to roll out, we don’t know yet, but we are making sure that there is some kind of local entity, namely the BCA, that has a part in this investigation for the purposes of expedient transparency as to what happened,” Witt said.
The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office posted on social media it was not involved in the shooting, but dispatched deputies to the scene to assist other law enforcement as needed.
O’Hara said his department has designated a supervisor on duty 24/7 to field the dramatic increase in 911 calls reporting the presence of federal agents in Minnesota.
“We’re doing everything we can to ensure that [the calls] are appropriately prioritized, with the priority being placed upon the protection of life and safety of everyone in the community,” O’Hara said.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarity issued a written statement saying her office has been in touch with the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, Walz and law enforcement leaders throughout the day, and is “pushing hard for a local investigation, which is the only way to ensure full transparency and review by our office.
Sen. Tina Smith said on social media that the shooting victim was a U.S. citizen. “ICE should leave now for everyone’s safety,” she wrote.
Shooting comes on heels of increased enforcement
The shooting comes on the heels of a progressive escalation of federal action and staffing in Minnesota, and a visit Tuesday from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. An additional 2,000 ICE and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents were reportedly deployed to Minnesota this week, according to CBS News. Sahan Journal has not been able to verify the number.
Increased immigration crackdowns will likely continue across the country, boosted by ICE’s increased budget and staffing. There are 12,000 new ICE agents in 2026, the agency announced Monday, more than doubling its personnel from the start of 2025.
More than 150 people in Minnesota were arrested by immigration agents Monday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a news release.
The deployment is swelling the ranks of ICE in Minnesota, which began an effort dubbed Operation Metro Surge in December. The most recent surge in agents is expected to last 30 days and include U.S. Border Patrol agents, CBS reported.
