Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has issued a warning order to prepare the state’s National Guard after a fatal shooting involving an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent during an operation in Minneapolis on Wednesday.
Walz said the order places National Guard soldiers on standby, noting they are currently in training and ready to deploy, if necessary, while urging peaceful protest.
“I want Minnesotans to hear this from me: The desire to get out in the protest and to speak up to this administration of how wrong this is, that is a patriotic duty at this point in time, but it needs to be done safely,” he said.
The move comes amid growing tensions between state leaders and federal authorities over the circumstances surrounding the shooting, which killed 37-year-old Minneapolis resident Renee Nicole Good while she was inside her car.
Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey have disputed federal accounts of the incident, with the governor insisting the shooting was unjustified.
“We have someone dead in their car for no reason whatsoever,”
“It was preventable and unnecessary.”
Fatal Shooting in Minneapolis Sparks National Guard Alert
According to Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, the woman was allegedly running away from law enforcement when she was shot.
“She was attempting to run over our law enforcement officers when an ICE officer fatally shot her on Wednesday morning,” McLaughlin said.
She added that the incident was an act of domestic terrorism and described the vehicle as a deadly weapon.
Even though Governor Walz stated that he would deploy trained soldiers, if necessary, a Minnesota National Guard spokesperson said they had not been issued an official request for support.
Based on video and photos from the scene in Minneapolis following the shooting, law enforcement deployed crowd control measures, including tear gas and pepper spray, on some protesters.
President Donald Trump defended the officer, stating that he had acted in self-defense.
“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-defense,” read part of Trump’s statement.
ICE Operation in Minnesota
Trump deployed an additional 2,000 federal agents to the Minneapolis area in response to allegations of welfare fraud.
Also Read: Trump Terminates Temporary Protected Status for Somalis in Minnesota
The deployment, which began on Sunday, is one of the largest concentrations of Department of Homeland Security personnel in a US city in recent years.
It follows an immigration enforcement campaign launched by ICE late last year to target individuals in Minneapolis who were issued deportation orders, including members of the city’s Somali community.
Therefore, the Trump administration has sent ICE agents to other cities across the US, where they have made thousands of arrests as part of what the administration says is a crackdown on crime and immigrants who illegally entered the country.
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Damian Dovarganes / AP
