Minnesota, US officials clash over ICE shooting investigation

MINNEAPOLIS - The investigation into the killing of a US citizen by an ICE agent in Minneapolis this week is being complicated by clashes between federal and local officials, with the FBI taking control over the objections of Governor Tim Walz.

State authorities questioned whether a federal probe could be trusted, especially given comments by Trump administration officials that seemed to exonerate the officer. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said that after it was invited to participate in the probe of Wednesday’s shooting, federal officials later decided the state wouldn’t get access to evidence or interviews.

“Now that Minnesota has been taken out of the investigation, it feels very, very difficult that we will get a fair outcome,” Walz said at a press conference Thursday.

As tense protests continued for a second day, Walz said he ordered the state National Guard to be “staged and ready” to assist with protecting infrastructure and aiding local law enforcement if needed.

It’s unusual for federal law enforcement officials to take sole control of an investigation in which both state and federal laws may have been violated. Federal agents typically conduct joint probes with state and local law enforcement and cooperate in the sharing of evidence, as was initially the case in the Minneapolis shooting before the FBI changed course.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told reporters in New York that Minnesota doesn’t have jurisdiction over the investigation. She portrayed Renee Nicole Good, the 37-year-old US citizen who was killed by an ICE agent on Wednesday, as a domestic terrorist — and said the officer who shot her was acting in line with established protocols.

The Minnesota Star Tribune identified the agent who shot Good as Jonathan Ross. Court records show that the same agent was previously injured during an arrest in June in which he was dragged by a vehicle for 100 yards.

On Thursday, Vice President JD Vance defended the decision to cut out Minnesota officials from the investigation.

“The precedent here is very simple,” he told reporters in Washington. “You have a federal law enforcement official engaging in federal law enforcement action. That’s a federal issue.”

“I can believe that her death is a tragedy, while also recognizing that it’s a tragedy of her own making,” Vance said.

As ICE said that immigration enforcement efforts were continuing in the Twin Cities, protests flared Thursday, with tense standoffs between demonstrators and federal agents. The Minneapolis public school system canceled classes for the rest of the week.

Trump on Wednesday accused the woman of running over the ICE officer. But New York Times reporters who were in the Oval Office for an interview showed a slow-motion surveillance video of the shooting to Trump and pointed out that it didn’t appear to show that, the paper said.

Federal agents began arriving in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area in early December under what ICE called “Operation Metro Surge.” The Trump administration said this week the effort will involve as many as 2,000 federal agents, and it’s already resulted in at least 1,500 arrests. (Source: Bloomberg)