Vance says ICE shooter may have been ‘sensitive’, lashes media over coverage

18 hours ago 4

Washington: US Vice President JD Vance said the immigration agent who shot and killed an American citizen in Minneapolis might have been “sensitive” to being hit by a car after a previous incident, as he shamed journalists for their coverage of the horrific incident.

It came as Minnesota state police said they had been cut out of the investigation after the federal US Attorney’s Office “reversed course” and decided only the FBI – a federal agency under the Trump administration’s direction – would conduct the probe.

Vice President JD Vance fielded questions on the Minneapolis shooting during a rare appearance at the White House press briefing room.

Vance used a rare appearance in the White House press briefing room to chide reporters for portraying the dead woman – 37-year-old mother of three, Renee Nicole Good – in a sympathetic light, insisting that she was at fault and part of a broader “network” of left-wing radicals intent on disrupting law enforcement.

“The way that the media by and large has reported this story has been an absolute disgrace,” Vance said.

“That very ICE officer nearly had his life ended, dragged by a car, six months ago – 33 stitches in his leg. So, you think maybe he’s a little bit sensitive about somebody ramming him with an automobile?”

Multiple videos of the incident appear to show Good beginning to drive away from the ICE agents just as one male agent fatally shot her at close range. The agent did not appear hurt and later walked and drove from the scene, though the federal government said he was briefly taken to hospital.

Vance later admitted he did not know what Good was intending to do with her vehicle, and that she may have been panicking. “What I am certain of is that she violated the law,” he said.

“That woman was there to interfere with a legitimate law enforcement operation,” Vance said. “That woman is part of a broader left-wing network to attack, to dox, to assault and to make it impossible for our ICE officers to do their job.”

Vance accused the media of “lying” about the incident. “She was trying to ram this guy with her car. He shot back, he defended himself,” the vice president said.

“Everybody who has been repeating the lie that this was some innocent woman who was out for a drive in Minneapolis when a law enforcement officer shot at her – you should be ashamed of yourselves.”

WARNING: VIDEO CONTAINS GRAPHIC CONTENT

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Donald Trump stood fully behind ICE agents, and that the administration would never cede to Democrats’ demands to defund the agency or have its personnel vacate American cities.

Local officials, including Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, strongly contradicted the Trump administration’s account of Good’s death, calling it “bullshit” and a “garbage narrative” invented to reflexively defend federal personnel.

They said on Thursday (AEDT) that local Minnesota police would conduct a joint investigation with the FBI. However, on Friday, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said it had been informed by the federal attorney’s office that only the FBI would investigate the incident.

A bullet hole is seen in the windscreen of the car Renee Nicole Good when she was shot dead.

“Without complete access to the evidence, witnesses and information collected, we cannot meet the investigative standards that Minnesota law and the public demands,” said Minnesota BCA superintendent Drew Evans. “As a result, the BCA has reluctantly withdrawn from the investigation.”

Minnesota’s Democratic Governor Tim Walz said local authorities must be part of the probe into what happened. It was “very, very difficult for Minnesotans to think in any way this [investigation] is going to be fair when Kristi Noem [the Secretary of Homeland Security] was judge jury and basically executioner yesterday”, he said.

Noem had within two hours of the attack concluded that Good was undertaking an act of “domestic terrorism” and that the ICE agent’s actions were justified in self-defence. That was despite multiple videos contradicting that claim.

On Friday [AEDT], Noem denied Minnesota police had been “cut out” of the process. “They don’t have any jurisdiction in this investigation,” she told reporters.

A mourner kneels at a makeshift memorial honouring Good in Minneapolis on Thursday.

But the FBI’s website says state and local law enforcement agencies are not subordinate to the bureau, and that FBI and local authorities often pool resources. When George Floyd was murdered by a police officer in 2020 just blocks from where Good was killed, the FBI and Minnesota BCA conducted separate, concurrent investigations.

Doubling down on her previous assessment, Noem also said the ICE agent followed his training, something she believed the investigation would confirm. The agent has been identified by local media as Jonathan Ross.

Minneapolis remained on edge as about 100 protesters confronted law enforcement officials on the streets on Thursday, local time. The Minnesota Star Tribune reported some minor scuffles occurred, including a man and woman taken to the ground by agents, but the demonstrations largely remained peaceful.

Civil rights lawyer and social justice advocate Nekima Levy Armstrong, who leads the Racial Justice Network in Minneapolis, said officers could not use deadly force to prevent a person escaping or punish them for doing so, nor could it be justified post-facto by “fear-based storytelling”.

Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was shot while trying to drive away from ICE agents.

Officers were trained not to fire into moving vehicles “except in the most extreme circumstances” where there was no alternative, Armstrong said.

“The federal government is lying about this killing,” she told a news conference.

“They are lying to control the narrative. They are lying to justify the unjustifiable. And they’re lying to shield an officer from accountability after a mother was killed. There’s video, there’s eyewitnesses, and we will not accept lies in place of justice.”

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