Jacob Davis suspected that nothing positive would come from the Trump administration’s announcement on Tuesday that it had deployed some 2,000 federal agents to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul in Minnesota.
One day later, Renee Nicole Good was dead.
The mother of three was in her car when a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer opened fire. Cellphone videos posted online showed the 37-year-old poet turning her SUV away from the agent. He continued to shoot at her. Good is at least the fifth person killed during recent immigration crackdowns. The day after she was killed, two people in Portland, Oregon, were shot by federal officers.
“Sadly, the shooting wasn’t surprising,” Davis, 30, who lives in a suburb of Minneapolis, told Capital B on Thursday. “Maybe the only surprising thing about it was the fact that it happened so quickly. And it really hit close to home because it happened only about 10 minutes from my house.”
Five years after the killing of George Floyd, Davis is one of many residents who fear that the administration’s rhetoric and decision to send agents to cities that are often home to large Black and migrant populations will increase the risk of violence, as calls grow for justice for Good.
In December, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem framed Minneapolis as a place with significant crime and fraud issues that the federal government must address. The area is about 18% Black and has a large Somali community.
That same month, President Donald Trump stunned many when he disparaged the country’s Somali community.
“They contribute nothing. I don’t want them in our country,” he told reporters during a Cabinet meeting. “We can go one way or the other, and we’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country.”
Then, tensions in Minnesota escalated after a YouTuber in December alleged with little evidence that he had uncovered massive day care fraud in the state.
On Monday, a Liberian-born, naturalized citizen said that an encounter with agents left him hospitalized. He said that he was attacked in Brooklyn Park, which is located approximately 10 miles from downtown Minneapolis.
“I think that it’s fearmongering,” Davis said of the administration’s rhetoric. “I don’t agree with it. I don’t feel unsafe when I go outside. I feel like I can live my life without fear.”
He added that what has put him on edge is the increased presence of agents in his area, where there are many Spanish speakers. A Mexican restaurant recently opened down the street from his house, and driving past it now worries him — “I know that it’s an easy target,” he said.
Data from the Minneapolis crime dashboard in December showed that robbery, carjackings, homicides, and most other types of crime have decreased since a pandemic-era peak in 2020 and 2021, according to MPR News. City homicide rates for the start of the year aren’t yet available.
Michael Duruaku, 37, echoed Davis’ concerns about growing alarm in the area.
Duruaku said that the administration’s increasingly aggressive rhetoric has resurfaced difficult conversations among his family about being Black in the U.S. He is Nigerian American and lives in a suburb of Minneapolis with his family.
“I have an 8-year-old son who is, I think, a little more aware of the world around him,” he told Capital B on Thursday. “He’s asking a lot of questions about how all this impacts us, about why Black people and migrants are being targeted.”
Like Davis, Duruaku rejects the picture of Minneapolis that the administration is painting, and believes that it endangers residents.
“You can go to any major city or small town and find crime, but that doesn’t necessarily speak for the personality of the whole place,” he said. “I think that Minneapolis is a great place not only to raise a family but also to grow up. It has a highly diverse culture that people should experience.
“Those who are trying to create a narrative around crime and other things probably haven’t been out here long enough to speak from an informed point of view.”
For Duruaku, Wednesday was also difficult because of its similarities with the 2020 murder of George Floyd. Floyd, 46, was killed by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, blocks from where Good was fatally shot.
“It really wasn’t that long ago that there was this other tragedy,” Duruaku said. “Wednesday was heavy because we were dealing with the reality that there’s this ongoing brutal force being used to harm people.”
In December, the Minneapolis City Council approved a plan to “reimagine and reconstruct” the community-created memorial at the intersection where Floyd was killed, to “create a space for a memorial,” Andrea Jenkins told Capital B on Friday.
Jenkins retired from the council this month and was the first out Black transgender woman elected to public office in the U.S.
“I’d classify this community as still grieving, still healing from the murder of George Floyd. So this,” said Jenkins, 64, when referring to Good’s killing, “this actually compounds that, right? Because, it’s the same community, it’s the same people, it’s literally the same exact neighborhood.”
Search for justice
The administration has defended the actions of the agent who killed Good. White House officials described the victim as a domestic terrorist, one whose death was “a tragedy of her own making.” Good had no criminal record.
Officials and civil rights organizations have denounced this characterization, calling for a full, transparent investigation.
U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, whose district includes Minneapolis, criticized the administration, saying that its actions have “spread fear, chaos, and violence.”
“ICE’s actions today were unconscionable and reprehensible,” the Democrat said in a statement Wednesday. “This is not law enforcement. It is state violence. It is simply indefensible, and ICE must be held accountable.”
Janai Nelson, the president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, shared similar sentiments.
In a statement Wednesday, she condemned what she called the “wanton killing of a legal observer” by an ICE officer and the “horrific abuse of power” that was used against “an American citizen exercising her First Amendment freedoms.”
“As Minneapolis residents and people nationwide know too well, it is DHS agents’ violent actions that are instilling fear in Minneapolis and other communities across the country, not their immigrant neighbors,” Nelson said. “We urge the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to swiftly and comprehensively complete their investigation in the interests of justice and accountability.”
These demands for accountability come amid concerns that a fair investigation might not be likely, since federal authorities are leading the investigation without help from the state.
Hours after the shooting on Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts filed a motion to subpoena all records and footage related to this killing.
But “Republicans shamefully voted it down — demonstrating once again that they have never cared about law and order or keeping our communities safe,” the Democrat said in a statement Wednesday.
Karianne Jones, an attorney and a partner with Evergreen Legal Strategies, spoke about the shooting on a Thursday press call. “When federal agents behave egregiously, unreasonably, and in ways that really just cannot be characterized as carrying out their official duties, in those circumstances, states can — and do — prosecute,” Jones said.
Legal experts said that regardless of which agency leads the investigation, once it concludes, investigators are ethically required to turn over requested evidence to any subsequent investigating authority.
Whether the FBI fully complies with these requests will affect “the ability of state and local prosecutors to bring a case,” Jones said. “It is important that state and local governments use all the authority that they have to step in and find justice for victims.”
This shared passion for justice among advocates across the state is what Davis, the Minneapolis-area resident, will carry forward as protests continue in the days ahead.
“People in Minnesota are so generous, care about social causes, and want to make a difference,” he said. “The common thread I see between 2020 and now is the way Minnesotans use their voices after a tragedy.”
This story has been updated.