Updated at 6:24 p.m. on Wednesday, January 7, 2026.
The Minneapolis City Council identified the 37-year-old woman shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer on Wednesday as Renee Nicole Good.
"Renee was a resident of our city who was out caring for her neighbors this morning and her life was taken today at the hands of the federal government," the city council said in a statement. NPR member station MPR News has reached out to a family member of the woman.
A post on an Instagram account that appears to belong to Good states she was a “poet and writer and wife and mom and s***** guitar strummer from Colorado; experiencing Minneapolis, MN,” according to the Minnesota Star Tribune.
The shooting occurred on a residential street in south Minneapolis — less than a mile from where George Floyd was killed by police in 2020. ICE agents were conducting targeted immigration enforcement operations at the time, according to Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin.
“Renee was brutally killed in her vehicle by an ICE agent, leaving behind a child. Her killing is inexcusable and the direct result of an agency that, under Donald Trump, has become an unrestrained paramilitary force: increasingly aggressive, hostile, unaccountable and detached from basic standards of public safety,” Colorado Democratic Party Chair Shad Murib said in a statement. “No federal agency should be allowed to operate above the law, and no federal agent should be able to patrol our streets with masks and zero accountability for introducing violence and heartbreak to our neighborhoods.”
Federal and local officials dispute the circumstances that led to the shooting.
NPR has reviewed multiple videos of the shooting taken from different vantage points and posted to social media. The footage shows multiple officers near an SUV stopped in the middle of the road. One officer demands the driver exit the vehicle and grabs the car handle. The SUV reverses, then begins to drive forward, which is when a different officer near the front of the car pulls his weapon and fires into the vehicle. Three gunshots are heard as the firing officer backs away from the SUV. Moments later, the vehicle crashes.
The incident has further inflamed tensions between the Trump administration and Minneapolis, which has been the target of a large-scale immigration crackdown. Local officials said they expect protests to follow and urged residents to remain peaceful.
At a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said he was prepared to mobilize the state National Guard if necessary.
"They want a show. We can't give it to them," he said. "We can't give them what they want."
Federal and local officials clash over the shooting
In a statement, DHS spokesperson McLaughlin asserted that the motorist "weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them." She added that the ICE officer who pulled the trigger was "fearing for his life, the lives of his fellow law enforcement and the safety of the public."
An eyewitness told MPR News that ICE agents gave conflicting orders to a driver in south Minneapolis on Wednesday, with one agent ordering her to drive away from the scene where an ICE vehicle was stuck in a snowbank while another yelled for her to get out of her car as he reached for the door handle.
The scene ended with an agent shooting into the car, killing the woman.
Caitlin Callenson said she was walking down Portland Avenue with her partner when she saw what she assumed were Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
“They tried to zoom their car out of the snowbank but were just stuck,” she said.
She said other ICE vehicles showed up, leading neighbors to believe it might be an ICE enforcement action. People showed up, and some began blowing whistles.
“People in our neighborhood have been terrorized by ICE for six weeks. We want our neighbors safe, and so when we see a group of ICE vehicles, people in the community are showing up and saying, ‘This is not OK,’” she said.
Upon reviewing a video of the incident, President Trump said he also believes the shooting was an act of self-defense.
"The woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
But local leaders have raised concerns about the Trump administration's account of the shooting.
At a fiery press conference, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey accused ICE of "trying to spin this as an action of self-defense. Having seen the video myself, I want to tell everybody that is bull***. "
"This was an agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying, getting killed," he added.
The mayor called on ICE agents to leave the city, asserting that federal immigration authorities were ripping families apart and sowing chaos on Minneapolis streets.
Gov. Walz wrote on X that he has seen video of the shooting and told the public: "Don't believe this propaganda machine."
"The state will ensure there is a full, fair, and expeditious investigation to ensure accountability and justice," he added.
Minneapolis police chief says he's 'very concerned' about use of deadly force
At a press conference, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara said local police arrived at the scene to find a woman with a gunshot wound to the head. They performed life-saving measures at the scene, including CPR. The woman was transported to Hennepin County Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead, he added.
Preliminary information, according to O'Hara, indicated that the woman was in her vehicle and blocking the road on Portland Avenue between 33rd and 34th St.
"At some point, a federal law enforcement approached her on foot, and the vehicle began to drive off. At least two shots were fired," he said, adding that the car then crashed on the side of the roadway.
Minneapolis police chief Brian O'Hara speaks with officers at the scene where a federal agent shot and killed an observer in Minneapolis on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. (Ben Hovland/MPR)
People protest as law enforcement officers attend to the scene of the shooting involving federal law enforcement agents on Wednesday in Minneapolis. (Tom Baker | AP)
O'Hara said he was "very concerned" with the tactics used by federal immigration agents. He noted that the use of deadly force is justified at times, but that most law enforcement agencies in the U.S. are trained to minimize the risks and the need for deadly force.
"In any professional law enforcement agency in the country, I think they would tell you it's obviously very concerning whenever there's a shooting into a vehicle of someone who's not armed," he said.
The shooting is being investigated by the FBI and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. They will investigate the use of deadly force.
NPR’s Juliana Kim reported this story. Jon Collins of MPR News contributed reporting.
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