A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer shot and killed a 37-year-old woman inside her car in Minneapolis on Wednesday during a large immigration enforcement operation carried out by the Trump administration. The shooting happened in a residential area south of downtown Minneapolis, just a few blocks away from some of the city’s oldest immigrant-run markets.

The woman who was killed has been identified as Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old resident of the Twin Cities area. The location of the shooting is about one mile from where George Floyd was killed by a police officer in 2020, an incident that led to nationwide protests against racial injustice and police violence in the United States.

Federal officials said the ICE officer fired his weapon in self-defence. According to their account, the officer opened fire after Good allegedly tried to run over federal agents with her car during the operation. Authorities claimed the officer felt his life was in danger and acted to protect himself.

US President Donald Trump strongly defended the ICE officer and blamed the incident on what he called the “radical left.” Sharing a video clip of the incident on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump said the driver “violently, wilfully and viciously” targeted the officer. He claimed the officer fired only to defend himself. Trump also described another woman heard screaming in the video as a “professional agitator.”

Trump further claimed that the ICE officer was seriously injured and recovering in hospital. However, video footage taken from another angle appeared to show the officer unharmed, raising questions about Trump’s statement. Despite this, Trump stood by his support for ICE, saying immigration officers were being attacked regularly and were simply trying to “make America safe.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem also supported the officer’s actions. Speaking during a visit to Texas, she called the incident an act of “domestic terrorism” against ICE personnel. Noem said the woman attempted to ram federal agents with her vehicle, leaving the officer with no other option but to open fire. She added that more than 2,000 officers and agents had been deployed across Minneapolis and St Paul, and that authorities had already made “hundreds and hundreds” of arrests.

However, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey strongly criticised both the shooting and the federal operation. He said ICE officers were not making the city safer and accused them of creating fear in immigrant communities. Frey rejected the self-defence claim, saying he had personally reviewed the video footage. He described the explanation given by federal authorities as false and misleading, adding that the operation was tearing families apart and causing chaos on city streets.