Vice President JD Vance vehemently defended the ICE agent who fatally shot Renee Good during an immigration operation in Minneapolis, Minnesota, telling White House reporters on Thursday, “It’s a tragedy of the making of the far left.”
“The president stands with ICE. I stand with ICE. We stand with all of our law enforcement officers,” said Vance during the impromptu press briefing, attended by theGrio.
The vice president accused Good, a 37-year-old mother of three and poet who was serving as a legal observer during a Wednesday ICE operation, of trying to “ram” the ICE agent with her vehicle.
“He shot back. He defended himself,” said Vance, who also shared that the agent, identified by news reports as Jonathan Ross, was previously “dragged” by a car in a separate incident last year, in which he “nearly had his life ended.”
“So you think maybe he’s a little bit sensitive about somebody ramming him with an automobile,” he added.
Despite Vice President Vance’s assertions about the fatal shooting, which has re-traumatized the Minneapolis community that also witnessed the murder of George Floyd in 2020, residents and community leaders in the area say the Trump-Vance Administration’s “narrative” is not based on truth or backed up by video evidence.
“What we’re witnessing is the construction of narrative at play,” said Lulete Mola, who is president and co-founder of Black Collective Foundation of Minnesota. “Not based on evidence, not based on the truth, but based on political benefits.”
Her nonprofit focused on empowering Black communities across the state through philanthropy and “Black-led change.” The organization was founded during the 2020 uprisings sparked by Floyd’s murder at the hands of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.
Mola, an U.S. citizen who immigrated from Ethiopia, told theGrio, “It feels like the residents of Minnesota, especially as of late, have been pawns for political power.”
Wednesday’s tragedy was the result of the Trump administration’s surged deployment of 2,000 federal law enforcement agents to Minneapolis with the goal of enforcing its hardline immigration enforcement. Before Good’s fatal shooting, residents were on the streets protesting their presence and demanding that they leave. In recent weeks, agents have been described as terrorizing residents, particularly Black and Brown immigrants under the guise of cracking down on fraud following dozens of cases involving some Somali immigrants.
“We are experiencing people being kidnapped, whether they are citizens or not. If you look like you’re an immigrant, that is good enough for federal agents to stop you and ask you, or even force you into a car and take you somewhere,” said Mola.
Elected officials and residents in the area categorically reject the Trump administration’s characterization of Good’s ICE-involved death. They also condemned the Trump administration’s decision to block Minnesota officials from conducting a joint investigation of the shooting, which is standard practice.
“The Trump administration’s false narrative about this week’s shooting, and the demonization of the victim, are only part of a bigger lie,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey wrote in a New York Times column. “It wants the American public to believe that ICE’s heavily militarized crackdown across this country is an effort to keep cities like Minneapolis safe. It is not. It is about vilifying not just immigrants, but all who welcome them and their contributions to our communities.”
Frey, who also led the city during Floyd’s high-profile murder, continued, “By defending the lie about this clearly avoidable shooting in Minneapolis and refusing to allow Minnesota officials to investigate the crime, the administration is sending a message to the entire country: If you show up for your immigrant neighbors, or even are simply present when those neighbors are taken, your rights will not be protected by the law and your life will be at risk.”
In addition to the Trump administration’s rush to defend the shooting, despite an active investigation with no official conclusion, President Donald Trump notably and falsely claimed that Good “violently, willfully, and viciously ran over” Ross.
“I saw a person trying to drive away from a federal agent attempting to open her car door. There is video evidence of what happened. That’s what I’ve seen, that’s what a lot of people have seen,” Mola told theGrio.
The community organizer and leader said the Trump-Vance administration’s narrative is harmful and is “literally costing lives.”
“Whether that was the assassination of [Minnesota] Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband last year right here, or what happened yesterday,” she explained. “I think we need to take that very seriously. I think we need to be committed to the truth, whether we we agree, or we are Democrat, Republican, Independent.”
Mola added, “The truth does not have a party. The truth is the truth. Either it is or it isn’t, and…[Good’s death] was a clear violation of a U.S. citizen’s right to peacefully observe what federal agents were doing in public.”
When asked what would justice look like for the residents of Minneapolis given Good’s fatal shooting is now being investigated by an administration that has already picked a side, Mola shared, “The ultimate justice would be for Renee’s courageous actions to be honored in that ICE leaves Minnesota.”
