ICE agent acted in self-defense in Minnesota shooting: expert

Conflicting views of a fatal encounter in Minnesota are fueling debate over whether an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent’s actions were legal, but some say the agent’s use of deadly force was clearly justified.

The incident took place Wednesday on a snow-covered road in Minneapolis, where an ICE agent fired three shots at a driver, 37-year-old Renee Good, killing her.

Various videos circulating on social media appear to show ICE agents approaching Good’s stopped vehicle and ordering her to exit it. The ICE agent in question was positioned in front of her vehicle when she appeared to accelerate.

Amy Swearer, a senior legal fellow at Advancing American Freedom who specializes in firearm issues, told Fox News Digital the ICE agent’s actions were “absolutely reasonable.”

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“When you take those circumstances as that officer was actually in them, where he is having to discern whether this unknown but non-compliant driver of a two-ton vehicle, who was not just accelerating toward him but was actually in the process of hitting him, and he’s got to decide in that moment, ‘Is this person intending to swerve away from me, or is this person about to floor it right over me with this two-ton vehicle?’ I think it is absolutely reasonable for him in that position to fear that this is an imminent threat,” Swearer said.

Swearer added that the perceived danger was not “some light threat” but rather a potentially deadly one.

“It is absolutely reasonable for him to fear death or serious bodily injury and to act in the way that he did to try to neutralize that threat,” Swearer said.

Prominent voices on the left took a different view. 

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the agent “murdered” Good. Democratic Gov. Tim Walz called it a “brazen” use of force. Protesters flocked to the site of the shooting and demanded ICE leave the state.

One lawyer opined on social media that Good turned her steering wheel in such a fashion that suggested she was trying to avoid hitting anyone and fleeing the scene entirely. 

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement Thursday the law allows lethal force when law enforcement personnel are faced with a “serious threat of harm.” He noted that officers must make snap decisions and act within seconds.

“They must make decisions, under dynamic and chaotic circumstances, in less time than it took to read this sentence,” Blanche said. “The law does not require police to gamble with their lives in the face of a serious threat of harm. Rather, they may use deadly force when they face an immediate threat of significant physical harm. Following any officer-involved shooting, standard protocols ensure that evidence is collected and preserved.”

The FBI, rather than the state, is investigating the incident. Walz said during remarks to reporters that Minnesota was shut out of the probe. The state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension was denied the “ability to participate in the investigation,” Walz said.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat, has said claims that the ICE agent acted in self-defense were “bulls—.” A DOJ official told Fox News that those remarks signaled to the federal government that the state did not intend to pursue a good-faith inquiry.

The FBI declined to comment.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told reporters Thursday that Minnesota officials “have not been cut out.”

“They don’t have any jurisdiction in this investigation,” Noem said of the case, which she said was being investigated as an attack on federal law enforcement.

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Vice President JD Vance said during a news conference that the ICE agent was involved in a harrowing incident six months ago in which he was dragged by a car and required 33 stitches to his leg. He might be “a little bit sensitive about somebody ramming him with an automobile,” Vance said.

The vice president said that while Good’s death was tragic, “it was a tragedy of her own making” because she had attempted to “obstruct a legitimate law enforcement operation.”

DHS also has a “use of force” policy, which was updated during the Biden administration in 2023. Swearer said the agent’s actions appeared in line with that policy.

The policy says a DHS officer should not fire at a moving vehicle strictly to disable it. But the policy is explicit in allowing an officer to discharge guns at the operator of a moving vehicle whenever lethal force is otherwise justified, Swearer noted.

DHS states that its use of force standards are the “governing legal framework” that the department adheres to.

Good was a mother of three, who, according to her ex-husband, had just dropped her 6-year-old son off at school when she encountered the ICE agents on her drive home, The Associated Press reported.

David Spunt contributed to this report.