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Vice President JD Vance was criticized after he claimed without evidence that Renee Nicole Good — the woman fatally shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on Wednesday — was a “deranged leftist.”
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin claimed Good “weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them.” But Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey pushed back against this narrative considering witnesses described seeing Good in the vehicle trying to flee officers when she was shot.
Good’s killing has sparked massive protests in Minneapolis in light of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s claim that ICE agents were attempting to remove an ICE vehicle that had gotten stuck in the snow, alleging that “a mob of agitators that were harassing them all day began blocking them in.”
In a post on X, Vance defended ICE and attempted to smear Good’s image, writing:
“Every congressional democrat and every democrat who’s running for president should be asked a simple question: Do you think this officer was wrong in defending his life against a deranged leftist who tried to run him over?”
“These people are going to try to arrest our law enforcement for doing their jobs. The least the media could do is ask them about it.”
You can see Vance’s post below.
Vance mischaraterized the events that led to the shooting to say nothing of Good herself.
In one clip circulating on social media, a gray pickup truck pulls up to a burgundy SUV that is stopped at an angle across the roadway, as someone off-camera shouts, “Get the f**k out of our neighborhood.” Agents exit the truck, and one approaches the SUV, pulling on the driver’s door handle and ordering the driver to get out. The SUV then reverses.
As the vehicle moves forward again, another agent is positioned near its front. The footage appears to show the agent drawing a firearm, stepping backward as the SUV advances forward and then turns right to pass him, with him firing into the vehicle at point blank range as it drives away.
Testimony from Good’s loved ones has also challenged claims that she was an activist, let alone a “domestic terrorist.”
Her ex-husband described Good as a creative person, not someone engaged in political activism. He said she had never taken part in a protest during the years he knew her and had no criminal history beyond a parking ticket. Good’s mother Donna Ganger told reporters that her daughter was “not part of anything like that at all,” referring to protests against ICE.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump claimed the woman killed was “very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense.”
Naturally, Trump pinned the blame on his political opposition, saying “the reason these incidents are happening is because the Radical Left is threatening, assaulting, and targeting our Law Enforcement Officers and ICE Agents on a daily basis.”
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said it had been working jointly with the FBI on the case, but that the federal agency later “reversed course,” cutting off the BCA’s access to case materials, physical evidence from the scene, and investigative interviews needed to conduct an independent review.
