Calls for accountability and the removal of federal immigration authorities intensified as protests gripped Minnesota on Thursday following the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old woman who was killed by an ICE agent.
Good was in her car when she was shot in her face by an ICE agent on January 7. Federal authorities termed the shooting to be an act of self defence, protestors and eyewitnesses however, said it wasn’t one.
A candlelight vigil was held at the site of the shooting on Portland Avenue in Good’s remembrance, where flowers, candles and a memorial bearing the word “Remember” were placed.
‘We want everyone to be safe’
“We want to keep our people safe. We want to keep everybody safe. We know we don’t want anyone else to die here in Minnesota today,” Beth Gendler, the executive director of the National Council of Jewish Women Minnesota, told CNN’s Ryan Young on Thursday.
Several visuals from multiple protest sites have surfaced online. Gendler described the crowd gathered in Minnesota on Thursday as “a huge crowd of Minnesotans saying ‘Get ICE out of our town! We’re the ones who keep each other safe’.”
Nekima Levy Armstrong, an immigrant rights lawyer, said the group is demanding the immediate removal of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from Minnesota and the arrest of the officer involved in the shooting.
Demonstrators and federal agents faced off outside the Whipple federal building in Minneapolis. Border Patrol officers deployed teargas + chemical agents and detained multiple people.
— Matt Gutman (@CBSMATTGUTMAN) January 8, 2026
Eventually the crowd (lots of moms) thinned out bc many of the protesters had to go to work. pic.twitter.com/RQP8mjEuPN
The group is also calling for the shooting to be investigated by a local law enforcement agency, rather than federal authorities.
‘We don’t trust FBI under Kash Patel’
“We don’t trust the FBI under Kash Patel,” Armstrong said, referring to the FBI director appointed by President Donald Trump last year.
Armstrong told CBC News that Good had been acting as a citizen observer of ICE agents during an immigration operation and appeared to be attempting to leave the area when she was shot.
According to Armstrong, an ICE agent stepped in front of Good’s vehicle and fired multiple shots, killing her. “They intentionally took a kill shot,” she said, adding that non-lethal alternatives were available.
ICE agents have been operating in Minnesota for weeks as part of what the Trump administration has described as the “largest immigration operation ever.”