As protests continue to unfold locally and nationally over the killing of a woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis, the mother of a man who was fatally shot by an off-duty ICE agent in Northridge on New Year’s Eve called Friday for justice for her son.
Keith Porter Jr., 43, was fatally shot shortly after 11:30 p.m. Dec. 31 in the 17700 block of Roscoe Boulevard by an unidentified ICE agent. The Department of Homeland Security issued a statement saying the agent “bravely responded to an active shooter situation” and “exchanged gunfire with” Porter.
Local activists, however, said Porter was not an active shooter, although he was firing a weapon into the air to celebrate New Year’s Eve — a practice routinely condemned by law enforcement officials.
The shooting has led to increased criticism of the ICE presence in the city, and calls for a thorough investigation and the release of the name of the agent who shot Porter.
Discussion of Porter’s death was renewed following Wednesday morning’s fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good, 37, in Minneapolis by an ICE agent who fired into her moving SUV during an immigration operation.
During Friday’s Los Angeles City Council meeting, several members discussed Good’s shooting, with Councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez saying Porter’s death should not be forgotten.
“What happened to Keith Porter also deserves our attention, especially when it involves federal ICE agents who operate with almost no oversight and a long history of violence followed by denial,” Hernandez said. “This happened in our own backyard, and silence is not an option.”
Hernandez then introduced Porter’s mother, Franceola Armstrong, who described her son as a man with a wonderful soul and big heart.
“He didn’t deserve this,” Armstrong said. “He was on his way back. He didn’t even get to pop the champagne. He didn’t get to say goodbye. I just want to touch my baby one last time, kiss his face and hold him. I don’t have him. His life was snatched from us. Lord, please, I just wish you could get justice for my child.”
Joseph Williams of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles also spoke to the council and condemned Porter’s shooting and the lack of any criminal action against the ICE agent.
“We know that in this city, law enforcement shootings by LAPD have increased by, what, 70% last year, and there has been very little of any accountability in any of those cases,” Williams said. “The fact that Keith Porter’s murder was not arrested and to give up his service weapon on that very night is unacceptable.”
Porter’s relatives are expected to join civil rights leaders on Saturday in Carson Park for a candlelight vigil in memory of Porter and Good, a mother of three.
Multiple protests have been held in downtown Los Angeles over the past two days in response to Good’s shooting in Minneapolis.
Federal officials said an ICE agent fatally shot Good in self-defense, and they accused her of trying to use her vehicle to run over law enforcement officers after interfering with an immigration-enforcement operation. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called Good’s actions an “act of domestic terrorism” and part of an escalating trend of assaults and attempted attacks on immigration agents nationwide. She said an ICE agent was injured by Good’s vehicle and treated at a hospital.
President Donald Trump also defended the actions of the agent who opened fire.
“I have just viewed the clip of the event which took place in Minneapolis, Minnesota,” Trump wrote on social media. “It is a horrible thing to watch. The woman screaming was, obviously, a professional agitator, and 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.
“Based on the attached clip, it is hard to believe he is alive, but is now recovering in the hospital. The situation is being studied, in its entirety, but the reason these incidents are happening is because the Radical Left is threatening, assaulting, and targeting our Law Enforcement Officers and ICE Agents on a daily basis.
Local officials have condemned the Minnesota shooting. Protests were held Wednesday night and Thursday in downtown Los Angeles and Boyle Heights.
“The senseless killing of an innocent and unarmed wife and mother by ICE agents today in Minneapolis is shocking and tragic and should never have occurred,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement Wednesday night. “And it happened because of the brutal and racist policies of the Trump administration that unleashed these agents in Minneapolis to go after a specific population — Somalians.
“Our hearts go out to the family of Renee Nicole Macklin Good, who was the mother of a 6-year-old child. Make no mistake, this new wave of ICE agents descending on American cities is a purposeful campaign of fear and intimidation by the administration meant to distract from Trump’s cruel policies that have tanked the economy and are impacting everyday Americans who can no longer afford basic needs like health care, rent, utilities, medicines, and groceries. Violence like this does not exist in isolation — it undermines public safety and strikes at the very foundation of our democracy. It’s atrocious, it’s dangerous, and it’s un-American.”
Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Long Beach, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, called for an immediate investigation into the shooting.
“Oversight Democrats are demanding answers on what happened,” Garcia wrote on social media.
Rep. Derek Tran, D-Garden Grove, called Good’s killing “a profound failure of justice and a grotesque violation of the values we claim to uphold.”
“I am sickened, though tragically no longer surprised, by this display of lethal incompetence,” Tran said in a statement. “Under this administration, we have seen a consistent, disturbing pattern: the escalation of force.
“This has nothing to do with the rule of law and everything to do with a culture of cruelty that threatens our communities rather than keeping us safe.”
Very sad situation, but folks need to keep in mind that the reason ICE is shooting innocents in the first place is that Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem is mistaking people for dogs!