Minnesota's state investigations agency said Thursday that the U.S. attorney's office has prevented it from taking part in the investigation into an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer's fatal shooting of a Minneapolis woman.
The Wednesday shooting of 37-year-old mother of three Renee Nicole Macklin Good by an unidentified ICE agent in a residential neighborhood drew immediate condemnation from city and state officials who blamed President Donald Trump's immigration enforcement surge for sowing chaos in the city's streets.
"The investigation would now be led solely by the FBI, and the BCA would no longer have access to the case materials, scene evidence or investigative interviews necessary to complete a thorough and independent investigation," Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans said in a statement.
It had been decided that the BCA would investigate Good's shooting death along with the FBI, but the U.S. attorney's office changed that, according to Evans.
"Without complete access to the evidence, witnesses and information collected, we cannot meet the investigative standards that Minnesota law and the public demands. As a result, the BCA has reluctantly withdrawn from the investigation. The BCA Force Investigations Unit was designed to ensure consistency, accountability and public confidence, none of which can be achieved without full cooperation and jurisdictional clarity,” he wrote.
Keith Ellison, the state's Democratic attorney general, told CNN the FBI's decision was "deeply disturbing" and said state authorities could investigate with or without the cooperation of the federal government. He added that the evidence he has seen, including some that has not yet been made public, indicates that state charges are a possibility.
The announcement came as protestors and law enforcement clashed Thursday morning outside a Minneapolis immigration court, with the governor urging restraint and schools canceling classes as a precaution.
Asked about the development, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Minnesota authorities "don't have any jurisdiction in this investigation."
The unidentified agent was among 2,000 federal officers that the Trump administration had announced it was deploying to the Minneapolis area in what the Department of Homeland Security described as the "largest DHS operation ever."
DHS officials, including Noem, defended the shooting as self-defense and accused the woman of trying to ram agents in an act of "domestic terrorism." Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat, called that assertion "garbage" based on bystander videos taken of the incident that appeared to contradict the government's account.
Videos showed two masked officers approaching Good's car, which was stopped at a perpendicular angle on a Minneapolis street. As one officer ordered Good out of the car and grabbed at her door handle, the car briefly reversed and then began driving forward, turning to the right in an apparent attempt to leave the scene.
A third officer, positioned in front of her car on the left, drew his gun and fired three times while jumping back, with the last shots aimed through the driver's window after the car's bumper appeared to have cleared his body.
The video did not appear to show contact and the officer stayed on his feet, though Noem said he was taken to a hospital and released. Trump, a Republican, claimed on social media the woman "ran over the ICE Officer."
The competing narratives highlighted the political polarization in the U.S., where Trump's supporters enthusiastically endorse his version of events and opponents contend his assertions are often provably false.
Democratic Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who urged the federal government to withdraw its officers, said he had put the state's National Guard on alert. Noem said agents won't be going anywhere.
Beyond Minneapolis, citizens also took to the streets or were expected to do so in New York City, Seattle, Detroit, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Antonio, New Orleans and Chicago.
Protests were also scheduled in smaller cities later this week in Arizona, North Carolina and New Hampshire.
The Minneapolis City Council said Good was "out caring for her neighbors this morning and her life was taken today at the hands of the federal government."
She had a 15-year-old daughter and two sons aged 12 and 6, according to the Washington Post.
Good had recently moved to Minnesota. She was a U.S. citizen born in Colorado and appears to never have been charged with anything involving law enforcement beyond a traffic ticket.
In social media accounts, Good described herself as a "poet and writer and wife and mom." She said she was currently "experiencing Minneapolis," displaying a pride flag emoji on her Instagram account. A profile picture posted to Pinterest shows her smiling and holding a young child against her cheek, along with posts about tattoos, hairstyles and home decorating.
Outraged by Good's death, Democratic leaders in Congress pledged to conduct strong oversight of what happened in Minneapolis, but stopped short Thursday of immediate calls to defund ICE or impeach Noem.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries called the killing of Good an "abomination, a disgrace."
"We all are outraged by what took place in Minneapolis, and we will respond decisively," said Jeffries of New York. "Blood is clearly on the hands of those individuals within the administration that have been pushing an extreme policy," he said.
"We support the removal of violent felons in this country who are here illegally – but that's not what this administration has been doing," he added.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said he watched the video and "you felt like your stomach was being punched."
Schumer said senators are discussing next steps as they consider funding in the annual Homeland Security bill, and he demanded a "full investigation."
