DHS: 1 Suspect Dead in Minneapolis ICE Shooting

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a Minneapolis driver on Wednesday during the Trump administration's latest immigration crackdown on a major American city — a shooting that federal officials said was an act of self-defense.

The woman was shot in front of a family member during a traffic stop in a residential neighborhood south of downtown Minneapolis. 

She was identified by her mother as Twin Cities resident Renee Nicole Good, The Minnesota Star Tribune reported. 

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot the woman in her vehicle, Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement, calling it an act of "domestic terrorism."

"An ICE officer, fearing for his life, the lives of his fellow law enforcement and the safety of the public, fired defensive shots. He used his training and saved his own life and that of his fellow officers," the DHS statement read. 

The ⁠woman appeared to ‍be ‍blocking the ⁠roadway with her car, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara said during a press conference. At ​some point, O'Hara told reporters, the ‍vehicle was approached by an ⁠ICE officer and began to drive off, making contact with an agent, video showed.

Then at least ⁠two ​shots ⁠were fired.

President Donald Trump ripped into what he called "Radical Left" violence in a Truth Social post on the incident.  

Trump said he viewed video of the incident and called it "a horrible thing to watch," while accusing activists of escalating attacks on immigration agents and law enforcement officers across the country.

"I have just viewed the clip of the event which took place in Minneapolis, Minnesota," Trump wrote, adding that "the woman screaming was, obviously, a professional agitator."

Videos taken by bystanders with different vantage points and posted to social media show an officer approaching an SUV, demanding the driver open the door and grabbing the handle.

The SUV begins to pull forward and a different ICE officer standing in front of the vehicle pulls his weapon and immediately fires at least two shots into the SUV at close range, jumping back as the vehicle moves toward him.

The SUV then sped into two cars parked on a curb nearby before crashing to a stop. Witnesses screamed obscenities, expressing shock at what they’d seen.

O'Hara said the deceased suspect was a 37-year-old white woman. He said she had been shot in the head.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, during a visit to Texas, described the incident as an “act of domestic terrorism” carried out against ICE officers by a woman who “attempted to run them over and rammed them with her vehicle. An officer of ours acted quickly and defensively, shot, to protect himself and the people around him.”

However, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said DHS' explanation for the shooting was a "garbage narrative."

“They are already trying to spin this as an action of self-defense. Having seen the video myself, I wanna tell everybody directly, that is bulls***," Frey told reporters.

The ICE officers who were hurt are expected to make full recoveries, DHS said in the statement. 

There were calls on social media to prosecute the officer who shot the driver. But Daniel Borgertpoepping, a spokesperson for the Hennepin County Attorney's Office, said such decisions wouldn't be made until an investigation is finished.

“We have jurisdiction to bring charges, as do the feds. It’s a little bit of a complicated interplay but the bottom line is yes, we have jurisdiction to bring criminal charges,” Borgertpoepping said.

The shooting marks a dramatic escalation of the latest in a series of immigration enforcement operations in major American cities under the Trump administration.

The Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul have been on edge since DHS announced Tuesday that it had launched the operation, with 2,000 agents and officers expected to participate in the crackdown tied in part to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents.

A large throng of protesters gathered at the scene after Wednesday's shooting, where they vented their anger at the local and federal officers who were there, including Gregory Bovino, a senior U.S. Customs and Border Patrol official who has been the face of crackdowns in Los Angeles, Chicago and elsewhere.

The area where the shooting occurred is just a few blocks from some of the oldest immigrant markets and a mile from where George Floyd was killed while resisting arrest by police in 2020.

Newsmax contributed to this report.