Church leaders are speaking out following a deadly shooting in Minneapolis involving an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer and a 37-year-old woman.
The woman, identified as Renee Nicole Good, was shot in the head by an ICE officer in a South Minneapolis residential neighborhood following a confrontation involving a vehicle.
Good was reportedly a U.S. citizen who recently moved to Minnesota with her partner. The mother of three was dropping her 6-year-old off at school right before the shooting, according to The Associated Press. In an interview, her ex-husband said Good was a devout Christian who had participated in mission trips.
The Trump administration deployed more than 2,000 ICE agents to Minneapolis in the latest immigration crackdown on a major American city. Federal officials said the shooting was an act of self-defense. In a social media post, President Donald Trump claimed the officer had fired his weapon in self-defense.
"[T]he 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-defense," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "Based on the attached clip, it is hard to believe he is alive, but is now recovering in the hospital."
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the woman was "stalking and impeding" officers throughout the day and tried to "weaponize her vehicle" in an attempt to run over the officer in an act of "domestic terrorism."
Noem said that ICE operations would remain in the city, and the FBI will investigate the incident. In the meantime, church leaders in Minnesota are speaking out following the deadly shooting.
"Minnesota, we stand together in prayer," Emmanuel Christian Center leaders said. "For peace. For healing. For unity. For hope."
"This blatant racism, the violence of shooting a woman sitting in her own car, the detention of a clergy person who is protesting peacefully by a masked and unidentifiable officer, are all outrages against a just and caring society," the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) Denomination wrote on a Facebook post, after it claimed ICE agents detained its pastor. "As MCC, we are committed to resisting the structures that oppress people and to standing with those who suffer under the weight of oppressive systems."
“It’s important for those folks to know we have their backs, first and foremost,” Corinne Freedman Ellis, a pastor at Peace United Church of Christ in Duluth, told the Minnesota Post during a vigil for Good on Wednesday night.
Ellis told the local news outlet that Wednesday's tragedy brought back memories of George Floyd's murder. “
"It feels like a time of solidarity for all Minnesotans," she added.