Minnesota, U.S. officials at odds over investigation into fatal shooting

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ALPHA NEWS via REUTERS

Renee Nicole Good speaks while sitting in the driver’s seat of a car, moments before she was shot by a U.S. Immigration officer, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Wednesday, in this screengrab from a video.

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BRIAN SNYDER / REUTERS

Demonstrators stand on a highway overpass displaying placards and signs in Minneapolis as immigration enforcement action continues today, days after the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in the city.

MINNEAPOLIS >> The White House today reposted on social media a video taken from the cellphone of the U.S. ‌Immigration officer who fatally shot a Minnesota woman in her car this week, adding to the documentation of an incident that has sparked days of nationwide protests.

In the new video, Renee Good, 37, appearing calm, is heard telling the officer, “That’s fine, dude, I’m not mad at you” — some of the last words she ever speaks — moments before he opens fire as Good drives the car forward into the street.

The 47-second clip was likely to further inflame tensions between state and local government leaders and members of President Donald Trump’s administration, who have offered starkly different accounts of Wednesday’s shooting in a Minneapolis residential neighborhood.

Minnesota authorities today said they were ‍opening their own criminal investigation, after some state law enforcement officials said the FBI was refusing to cooperate with state investigators.

The video, obtained by the website Alpha News and verified by Reuters, begins as the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, Jonathan Ross, exits his car and walks toward Good’s Honda SUV, which is partially blocking traffic, the front of the car pointing into the street. A black dog is briefly visible in the backseat of her car through an open rear window.

As Ross approaches and begins to circle around the SUV, Good reverses for a few feet before speaking to Ross nonchalantly through her open window. Ross then continues around ​behind the vehicle, where he films the SUV’s license plate and encounters Good’s wife, Becca Good, in the street.

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She tells him, “We don’t change our plates every morning, just ​so you know. It’ll be the same plate when you come talk to us later. That’s fine. U.S. citizen.”

Becca Good, who was filming the ICE agent with her own phone, then adds: “You want to come at us? I say go get yourself some lunch, big boy.”

At that point, another ICE agent approaches the Honda from the driver’s side, to the left of Renee Good, and orders her to get out of the car. She can be seen reversing briefly, then putting the car into forward gear and turning the steering wheel to her right, apparently ‍trying to drive away.

As the car moves forward, Ross, who at that point has returned to the front left of her car, shouts “Whoa!” Shots can be heard, and the car briefly disappears from the frame of ​the video as the officer’s hand holding the phone is jostled.

The video then shows the car careening down the street, while someone can ⁠be heard muttering, “F—-ing bitch.”

Vice President JD Vance, who has accused Good of deliberately using her car as a weapon, reposted the video, saying it showed the officer’s life was endangered.

Other videos show Good steering the car’s front wheels away from Ross as she drives forward, while he fires three shots while jumping backward from the front of the car. The final two shots appear to be aimed through the driver’s side window, after the car’s front bumper has already passed by the officer’s legs.

It is unclear whether Ross made any contact with the ⁠car, but videos show he stayed on his feet and walked calmly toward the car after the shooting.

Officials from the Trump administration have defended the shooting as self-defense and accused Good of an act of “domestic terrorism” — a narrative described by Democratic Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey as “garbage” based on the video footage.

Good was a mother of three, including a 6-year-old son. Becca Good issued a statement to Minnesota Public Radio today, saying the two had “stopped to support our neighbors.”

“We had whistles,” she wrote. “They had guns.”

“Renee lived by an overarching belief: there is kindness in the world and we need to do everything we can to find it where it resides and nurture it where it needs to grow,” she said. “Renee was a Christian who knew that all religions teach the same essential truth: we are here to love each other, care for each other, and keep each other safe and whole.”

A GoFundMe page created to benefit Renee Good’s wife and family had received over $1.5 million in donations today. A message on the page said that it was no longer accepting contributions ⁠and that the money would be placed in a trust for the family.

Mary Moriarty, the top prosecutor for Minneapolis’ Hennepin County, and the state’s Democratic attorney general, Keith Ellison, said they were ‍opening their own investigation of the shooting.

The state’s lead investigative agency, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said it would assist that inquiry. On Thursday, the BCA said the FBI was blocking access to evidence and witness interviews after first agreeing to cooperate in a joint probe with Minnesota authorities.

Earlier today, Frey accused the Trump administration of trying to predetermine findings by excluding state investigators.

U.S. officials, including Vance, have dismissed the notion that a federal officer could face state criminal charges. ‍But Moriarty said the decision was hers to make.

“To be sure, there are complex legal issues involved when a federal law enforcement officer is involved. But the law is clear: we ​do have jurisdiction to make this decision,” she said.

The announcement underscored how the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Democratic-run cities has frayed ‍the trust between local and federal officials.

In Portland, Ore., on Thursday afternoon, a U.S. Border Patrol agent shot and wounded a man and woman in their car after an attempted vehicle stop. As in Minnesota, the Department of Homeland Security said the driver “weaponized” the car in an effort to run over the agent, who fired in self-defense.

DHS today identified the wounded driver and passenger as Luis David Nico Moncada and Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras, describing both as suspected gang associates from Venezuela who were in the U.S. illegally. The agency said the woman had been involved in a prior shootout in Portland. No evidence of the allegations against the pair was provided.

Portland Mayor Keith Wilson, echoing Frey, said he could not be sure the government’s account was grounded in fact without an independent investigation.

The two shootings have drawn thousands of protesters in Minneapolis, Portland and other ​U.S. cities, with more demonstrations expected over the weekend.

In both cases, Democratic mayors and governors have called for withdrawing federal agents, arguing that their presence was sowing chaos and needlessly creating tensions on the streets.

See more:America in TurmoilNational news

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