US ICE agents have been accused of making vile homophobic slurs about Renee Nicole Good, the mother of three who was shot and killed by authorities on 7th January.
Good and her partner Rebecca were allegedly acting as observers of a protest against the Trump Administration’s sweeping deportation efforts to remove people deemed to be illegal residents. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement has deployed over 2,000 officers to the city of Minneapolis on January 6th, and the following day Good had an interaction with officers.
Good’s car had been stopped across the street, when officers surrounded her and reached into the car demanding she exit the vehicle. She briefly reversed and then turned away from the officers in the direction of traffic.
Officer Jonathan Ross fired at close range hitting Good through the windscreen and through the open driver’s window. Attempts to revive her failed and she pronounced dead at a hospital shortly afterwards. The interaction was filmed, and Good’s partner was looking on. While shooting Good the officer allegedly also was filming the incident with his mobile phone in his other hand.
Following the shooting Officer Ross left the scene, and US officials quickly branded the 37-yar-old mother of three a domestic terrorist and proclaimed that the officer had been acting in self defense. A medical report later revealed that Good was shot four times in the volley of fire.
Now other protesters against the actions of ICE agents have alleged that agents are using gay slurs to describe the slain woman. Patty O’Keefe, 36, and friend Brandon Sigüenza were detained by ICE agents after they followed them around as the made arrests of people suspected of not having the right to reside in the USA.
O’Keefe said officers deployed pepper spray through her windshield vent, smashed her windscreen and dragged her out of the car. She alleges that while in custody officers warned her against future protests saying “You guys gotta stop obstructing us. That’s why that lesbian b***h is dead.”
Federal prosecutors have announced that they are now investigating Good’s partner suggesting she had committed offences during the protest, while Good’s family have secured the services of the same law firm that represented George Floyd for a potential legal action against the US government.
Concern has been raised about the speed at which senior officials in the White House proclaimed Good to be a terrorist, and statements claiming that she had hit the officer who shot her with the vehicle. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told a media conference that Good had hit officer Ross with her car, but video footage from the incident does not show this occurring.
US President Donald Trump has also spoken about the case describing Good as “very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense”. The President also said it was hard to believe that Ross was alive after the interaction.
Vice-President JD Vance has declared that Good’s death is her own fault, telling reporters it was “a tragedy of her own making” and that she was a “victim of left-wing ideology”.
The death has resulted in a series of protests in Minneapolis and across other US cities. On January 15th President Trump threated to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 and sent the US military into the city to quell US citizens protesting his adminitration.
