A poet who was shot dead by ICE while sitting in her car was gunned down just a mile away from where George Floyd was killed in 2020.
Renee Nicole Good, 37, was named by her family as the victim. She is a poet, mother and writer who was reportedly a member of ICE Watch, a group trying to impede the agency’s operations.
Ms Good had reportedly used her 4×4 to block agents from conducting a large-scale deportation operation with protesters nearby.
Video taken just before the deadly shooting showed officers swarming, telling her to ‘get out of the f***ing car’ and as she appeared to turn away and follow their orders.
Then, an officer fired three shots, hitting her in the head, causing her to crash into a telephone pole.
After Ms Good’s death, Trump took to Truth Social and wrote: ‘The woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self-defence.
‘The reason these incidents are happening is that the radical left is threatening, assaulting and targeting our officers and ICE agents on a daily basis.’
Democrats have condemned Trump’s response, including Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who said he had seen the video himself.
‘Don’t believe the propaganda machine,’ he wrote on social media. ‘The state will ensure there is a full, fair, and expeditious investigation to ensure accountability and justice.’
Those who witnessed the shooting have also said Ms Good was not trying to agitate the process, but drive away.
The brutal act has drawn condemnation from around the country, with many pointing out it took place just a mile from where George Floyd was brutally murdered in 2020, an act which also sparked outrage and nationwide protests.
Floyd was killed on May 25, 2020, also in Minneapolis, by a white police officer who kneeled on his neck for more than 8 minutes, suffocating him.
His death sent shockwaves through his community in Minnesota, prompting widespread protests which stretched across the globe.
Trump had a very different response to Floyd’s killing, telling Americans: ‘We have peaceful protesters and support the rights for peaceful protesters — we can’t allow a situation like happened in Minneapolis to descend further into lawlessness, anarchy and chaos.
‘The family of George is entitled to justice, and the people of Minnesota are entitled to live in safety. Law and order will prevail.’
The ripple effect of Floyd’s murder
Floyd’s murder sparked an outpouring of grief and outrage across America, revitalising Black Lives Matter, an almost decade-old decentralised movement that seeks to bring attention to the long-ignored and deadly issues of racism and racial inequality.
Protests against police brutality and institutional racism erupted worldwide, and a reckoning swept over everything from public statues to tea brands.
People marched in front of boarded-up storefronts demanding urgent police reform and abolishment and money poured into Black Lives Matter groups, protester bail funds and other Black institutions.
Britain took part too (All Black Lives UK included), even as the right-wing screamed for them to stop, in testimony to how the establishment felt so threatened by the mere acknowledgement of centuries of racism.
The protests brought greater visibility and support.
More conversations over how police budgets could be better spent (or yanked altogether), better policy-making to prevent police violence and the normalisation of filming police.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
