The White House said Thursday that U.S. federal law enforcement is under an “organized attack,” a day after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot a Minnesota woman and protests erupted across the Minneapolis area.
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told reporters the administration believes the confrontation and the unrest reflect what she described as “a larger, sinister left-wing movement,” and she said federal officers are being targeted for enforcing immigration law, according to reporting distributed by AFP and carried by Yahoo News.
The protests were sparked by the Wednesday death of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, who was shot in the head during a tense encounter with masked federal agents as she sat behind the wheel of a Honda SUV in south Minneapolis, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune and the Associated Press.
Video described by the Star Tribune shows a masked agent tugging at Good’s driver-side door while another masked agent stands near the front of the vehicle and fires multiple shots into the SUV.
Seconds later, the vehicle rolls forward and crashes into other cars as bystanders scream, curse at the agents, and rush toward the wreck, according to video accounts described by national and local outlets.
Vice President JD Vance told a briefing Thursday that Good was part of what he called a “broader left-wing network” opposed to ICE and claimed the shooting was justified as self-defense, according to the AFP account published by Yahoo News.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called the incident “domestic terrorism” and said she was not opposed to deploying additional federal resources to Minneapolis, according to Time and other national coverage summarizing her remarks.
Local officials rejected the administration’s description of Good as an attacker and demanded transparency about the federal operation, with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey disputing claims that Good tried to kill agents, according to AFP coverage carried by multiple outlets.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told CNN that Good was not the target of immigration enforcement action and that local authorities understood the encounter began because her vehicle was suspected of blocking agents in the roadway.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said Minnesota must be involved in the investigation into Good’s death, warning that excluding state officials would allow federal authorities to police themselves, according to Time’s reporting on his comments.
Walz said Good leaves behind a spouse and a 6-year-old child, and news accounts reported that a fundraiser for her family quickly surged into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The Associated Press reported that Good was a U.S. citizen and that relatives said she was not politically active and had no connection to protests before the shooting.
Demonstrations grew throughout the day Wednesday and into the night, with large crowds gathering near the shooting location in south Minneapolis for vigils and marches that turned into broader protests against ICE, according to Yahoo News and local reporting.
On Thursday, protests shifted to the Fort Snelling area outside Minneapolis, where demonstrators rallied near the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building complex, a site that houses immigration-related operations and federal offices.
AFP reported that officers armed with pepperball guns and tear gas pushed back a crowd near the complex, and several people were detained as the crowd chanted anti-ICE slogans and surged toward law enforcement lines.
AOL’s coverage of the Fort Snelling protests described officers using chemical irritants and physically jostling with demonstrators as chants intensified and protesters accused federal agents of aggressive tactics and operating in masks.
Time reported that demonstrations linked to the shooting and the broader immigration crackdown spread to other cities, including protests outside federal buildings in Washington, D.C., New York, and Seattle, as activists called for an end to the administration’s deportation push.
The dispute comes amid heightened ICE activity in the Twin Cities that federal officials have promoted as part of a wider enforcement surge, a posture that has strained relations with Democratic leaders in Minnesota who have demanded more clarity about federal operations in local neighborhoods.
As federal officials insisted Thursday that officers are facing an “organized attack,” community members continued holding vigils for Good, with local reporting describing growing memorials of candles and flowers at the site where she was killed.
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