Dozens of demonstrators gathered outside the downtown Los Angeles federal building Thursday to condemn the fatal shooting of a woman by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer during an immigration action in Minneapolis.
A coalition of civil rights activists led by Najee Ali gathered at 9 a.m. to call for the arrest of the officer who fired the shots Wednesday that killed 37-year-old Renee Good. An hour later, they were joined by groups including Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, which bills itself as bringing “together clergy and lay leaders of all faiths with the marginalized, the unheard, and the least protected — low-wage workers and immigrants — in strategic campaigns for dignity, justice, and a more sacred and just society.”
“Remember this is not new. We’ve had ICE now, we’ve had them in L.A. for the last year, and we saw many, many times overuse not only of deadly force against some, but we’ve also seen an agency that’s been out of control,” Earl Ofari Hutchinson, president of Los Angeles Urban Police Roundtable, told CBS LA during the protest.
The Rev. Thomas Carey, the retired vicar of the Church of the Epiphany in Lincoln Heights, told the station, “My heart absolutely bleeds about this, but underneath all of that, it’s like there is a river of community support that is underneath the surface of governmental violence.”
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass late Wednesday added her voice to those of other leaders denouncing the Minneapolis shooting.
“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,” Bass said in a statement. “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.”
On Wednesday night, around 80 people gathered at Placita Olvera in downtown Los Angeles Wednesday night to demonstrate against ICE. Organizers called for the officer who shot Good to be charged with murder, the Daily News reported.
Some participants carried signs reading “Stop ICE terror now!” and “ICE out of our communities,” according to the Daily News.
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.”
State Sen. MarÃa Elena Durazo, D-Los Angeles, said, “It is long past time for ICE to withdraw from every city in this country.”
“ICE is carrying out violent and warrantless armed raids in our neighborhoods, using aggressive tactics, and spreading fear that follows entire families,” Durazo said in a statement. “None of this makes our communities safer.”
Assemblyman Juan Carrillo, D-Palmdale, a vice chair of the California Legislative Latino Caucus, said in a statement, “When incidents like this occur, they underscore the urgent need for transparency and oversight, because when enforcement turns violent, no one is safe.”
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.
Widely aired video from the scene, however, does not appear to show anyone being struck by Good’s SUV as she attempts to drive away from agents.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said the shooting “was a federal agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying.”
“We will pursue justice — and we will do so as quickly as possible,” Frey said in an afternoon news conference.
Assemblyman Mark González, D-Los Angeles, issued a profanity-filled statement, calling the claim that Good used her vehicle as a weapon “a cowardly lie meant to justify a cold, reckless … disgusting abuse of power and a complete disregard for human life.
“The fatal shooting of Renee was a public execution, not self-defense,” González said.
President Donald Trump 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.
“They are just trying to do the job of MAKING AMERICA SAFE. We need to stand by and protect our Law Enforcement Officers from this Radical Left Movement of Violence and Hate!”