Protests have erupted across the country in the wake of the fatal shooting of 37-year-old queer mother Renee Nicole Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer on Wednesday morning in Minneapolis.

Thousands of people showed up for a community vigil on Wednesday night at the site of the shooting. Video posted to social media of the event shows a massive crowd listening to a speaker declare, “Because they want us to be afraid of each other, we have literally nothing to lose at this point… So stand in solidarity with us, don’t forget about us.”

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ICE tore her away from her wife. Now she’s suffering in an endless legal limbo.

A protest has also begun this morning outside the city’s Whipple Federal Building, which ICE has used as its regional headquarters. More protests are planned throughout the city today, including another at the site of the shooting, where faith leaders will reportedly speak out against ICE.

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Demonstrators in New York City also turned out to protest the killing on Wednesday in Manhattan’s Foley Square.

Angelo Pinto, co-founder of Until Freedom, reportedly spoke at the rally, shouting, “Are we outraged enough? No! We’re not. We must be more outraged than we already are. We haven’t begun to scratch the surface of how outraged we must be.”

Another Foley Square protest is scheduled for today.

Crowds also gathered in Miami, San Francisco, Boston, and Los Angeles, among other cities across the United States, on Wednesday. “Minneapolis is suffering today, and we mourn them,” said a nurse who spoke at the San Francisco rally.

“We’ve known for months — we’ve known since Donald Trump was elected — that this was going to happen,” organizer Holly Brown told a crowd of about 250 protestors in Portland, Oregon.

What happened?

Bystander video footage shows an ICE officer firing three shots at Good on Wednesday morning as she tried to drive her car away from agents, who were telling her to “get out of the f**king car” so they could apprehend her.

“They killed my wife. I don’t know what to do,” Good’s wife said through tears in footage taken soon after the shooting. “We stopped to videotape [ICE activity], and they shot her in the head.”

Good’s mother, Donna Ganger, told the Minnesota Star Tribune, “She was probably terrified,” adding that her daughter has never protested against ICE agents.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has claimed that the officer “fired defensive shots” at Good after she was “attempting to run over” him and other agents “in an attempt to kill them — an act of domestic terrorism.” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has called the DHS’ claim “bulls**t,” calling the agent’s actions “reckless” and telling ICE to “get the f**k out of Minneapolis.”

In a social media post, Trump claimed that Good was “a professional agitator” who “viciously ran over the ICE officer.” He blamed the shooting on the “Radical Left.” Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem praised the officer, adding, “This goes to show the assaults that our ICE officers and law enforcement are under every single day.”

An analysis of four different videos of the incident led the publication 404 Media to conclude that DHS is lying.

“The Honda was already turning to the right away from the officers when the one who allegedly feared for his life fired the shots. There were no other officers up the road where the car did fully level out, meaning no other fellow officers were at risk,” the publication wrote, adding that the DHS has previously published “misleading, wrong, or incendiary” statements that do “not reflect reality” and that have been called “not credible” by at least one federal judge.

“We’ve dreaded this moment since the early stages of this ICE presence in Minneapolis,” Mayor Frey said in a Wednesday press conference. “Having seen the video of myself, I want to tell everybody directly that [the DHS’s claim of self-defense] is bulls**t. This was an agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying, getting killed.”

“I have a message for ICE. To ICE, get the f**k out of Minneapolis,” Frey continued. “We do not want you here. Your stated reason for being in this city is to create some kind of safety, and you are doing exactly the opposite. People are being hurt. Families are being ripped apart. Long-term Minneapolis residents that have contributed so greatly to our city, to our culture, to our economy, are being terrorized, and now somebody is dead. That’s on you, and it’s also on you to leave.”

Frey urged residents not to respond in any way that would encourage the federal government to send a military crackdown in response.

During a press conference, Gov. Tim Walz (D) called the shooting “preventable” and “unnecessary.” 

“[The presidential] administration’s dangerous, sensationalized operations are a threat to our public safety,” Walz continued. “What we’re seeing is the consequences of governance designed to generate fear, headlines, and conflict. It’s governing by reality TV. And today that recklessness caused someone their life.”

Who was Renee Nicole Good?

Good’s mother called her “one of the kindest people I’ve ever known.

“She was extremely compassionate,” Ganger said. “She’s taken care of people all her life. She was loving, forgiving, and affectionate. She was an amazing human being.”

Her father, Tim Ganger, called her “a wonderful person.”

A GoFundMe set up for her family describes her as “pure sunshine, pure love.”

She described herself on social media as a “poet and writer and wife and mom,” the Associated Press reported. She had a 12-year-old and a 15-year-old from her first marriage and a 6-year-old son from her second. The father of the 6-year-old died in 2023.

CNN said Good was a “devoted Christian” who participated in mission trips to Northern Ireland in her youth. She graduated in 2020 from Virginia’s Old Dominion University with an English Degree.

“May Renee’s life be a reminder of what unites us: freedom, love, and peace,” Old Dominion President Brian O. Hemphill said in a statement. “My hope is for compassion, healing, and reflection at a time that is becoming one of the darkest and most uncertain periods in our nation’s history.”

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