Protesters and mourners by more than a thousand gathered in an outdoor vigil and speak-out Wednesday evening for Renee Nicole Good, a Minneapolis woman who was fatally shot by federal agents earlier that day as she attempted to drive away from them at 34th Street and Portland Avenue.
Participants filled the streets in the area — some holding held candles or anti-ICE banners, others tying flowers to nearby street poles. They were largely subdued as they listened to speakers and stood solemnly in the twilight.
“Knowing that even white allies can be killed for simply observing, that’s not right,” said freelance photographer Len Sanqui, one of many attendees who gathered near the site of Good’s shooting to pay their respects.
Sanqui, who said her friends had been neighbors with Good, said the past few weeks have been tense ones for her and other immigrant families during a time of stepped up immigration enforcement. “At the same time, I’m seeing a lot of ways that the community is holding each other,” she said.
Nekima Levy Armstrong, a civil rights attorney, told the swelling crowd along Portland Avenue that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were poorly trained and their operations lacked legitimacy.
“People who clearly have no training coming out here to terrorize our community all because they know the power of our community,” she said. “This isn’t a time to be silent.”
Other speakers invited by Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee and the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice called on the crowd to chant Good’s name and demand accountability from the White House. “This isn’t about where a person is from,” said a speaker. “This is about right versus wrong.”
Volunteers distributed whistles intended to help alert community members when ICE is near and signs that said “ICE OUT.”
The fatal shooting was widely condemned throughout the day by elected officials in St. Paul and Minneapolis, including Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who demanded that ICE agents leave the city in a speech laced with expletives, even as White House and Department of Homeland Security officials took to social media to cast the killing as heroic self-defense.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, in Minnesota to launch what’s believed to be a 30-day surge combining immigration enforcement and fraud investigation, also held a press conference from the Twin Cities at 5 p.m. Wednesday, the same time as the vigil.
The shooting was also condemned by members of the St. Paul and Minneapolis City Councils, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office and individual lawmakers.
“This was as preventable as it is shocking,” said State Auditor Julie Blaha, in a statement. “The major, obvious errors evident in the Trump administration’s characterization of the shooting suggest they have not made even a cursory review of the facts.”
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“I am closely monitoring the situation in Minneapolis,” wrote St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her on her social media accounts on Wednesday afternoon. “My heart is broken for the victim, their family, and our community as a whole. I join Mayor Frey in demanding that ICE leave our cities immediately before they cause any further harm.”
Her added, in a subsequent post: “I urge everyone to please use caution as you express your right to protest this horrific action by federal law enforcement. These agents are unprepared for this job, and you should not put yourself in harm’s way because of their lack of training. Please be safe.”
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