Minnesota officials open their own probe of ICE shooting as protests spread

Minnesota authorities on Friday said they were opening their own probe into a US Immigration officer’s fatal shooting of a 37-year-old woman in her car, after some state and local officials criticized the federal government for refusing to cooperate.

Mary Moriarty, the top prosecutor for Minneapolis’ Hennepin County, and the state’s Democratic attorney general, Keith Ellison, said at a press conference that they would collect evidence from Wednesday’s shooting, including witness videos and statements.

The announcement came one day after the state’s lead investigative agency, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said the FBI had reversed its initial cooperation and blocked the BCA from scene evidence, witness interviews and other material.

Moriarty, a Democrat, said she had concerns that without the involvement of the BCA, her office might not receive enough evidence to decide whether state charges against the officer might be warranted.

The decision could set up separate, parallel probes into the shooting. The FBI, for instance, has taken possession of the woman’s car for forensic analysis, Moriarty said.

US officials, including Vice President JD Vance, have dismissed the idea that a federal officer could face state criminal charges, though there is some precedent for such cases. But Moriarty was unequivocal on Friday.

“To be sure, there are complex legal issues involved when a federal law enforcement officer is involved. But the law is clear: we do have jurisdiction to make this decision,” she said.

The announcement underscored the extent to which Republican President Donald Trump‘s immigration crackdown in mostly Democratic-run cities – despite the opposition of their mayors – has severely frayed the trust between local and federal officials.

Earlier in the day, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey accused the Trump administration of trying to predetermine the investigation’s outcome by cutting out state authorities.

“This is a time to follow the law,” Frey, a Democrat, said. “This is not a time to hide from the facts.”

Trump administration officials have defended the shooting as self-defense and accused the woman, Renee Good, a US citizen and mother of three, of deliberately aiming her car at the officer in an act of “domestic terrorism” – a narrative described by Frey as “garbage.”

In Portland, Oregon, on Thursday afternoon, a US Border Patrol agent shot and wounded a man and woman in their car after an attempted vehicle stop. As in Minnesota, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that the driver “weaponized” the car in an effort to run over the agent, who fired in self-defence.

Portland Mayor Keith Wilson, echoing Frey, said he could not be sure the government’s account was grounded in fact until an independent investigation took place.

“There was a time when we could take them at their word,” Wilson, a Democrat, said of federal officials. “That time is long past.”

Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield told CNN on Friday morning that there is cooperation between federal and state investigators so far but that it was too early to draw any conclusions.

The two shootings have drawn thousands of protesters in Minneapolis, Portland and other U.S. cities, with more demonstrations expected over the weekend. In Minnesota, Democratic Governor Tim Walz has put the state’s National Guard on alert.

STATES ACCUSE FEDS OF SOWING CHAOS

In both cases, Democratic mayors and governors have called on the Trump administration to pull federal officers out, arguing that their presence is sowing chaos and needlessly creating tensions on the streets.

The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who shot Good was one of more than 2,000 federal personnel whom the Trump administration has ordered deployed to Minneapolis in what DHS described as the “largest operation” in its history.

He was identified as Jonathan Ross, based on comments by federal officials that the officer had previously been dragged by a migrant’s car during an attempted arrest last summer, suffering serious lacerations. The details matched those reflected in the court records of a case in Bloomington, Minnesota, in June 2025, in which a man was eventually convicted of assaulting Ross.

DHS has declined to confirm the officer’s name.

Bystander videos of the shooting appear to show Good turning her wheels away from the officer as she drives forward, while he fires three shots while jumping backward from the front of the car. The final two shots appear to be aimed through the driver’s side window, after the car’s front bumper has already passed by the officer’s legs.

Since the killing, Trump administration officials have doubled down on the government’s version of events. Trump said on social media that the car “ran over” the officer, while Vance on Thursday accused Good of “attacking” agents and praised the officer for his actions.

Good’s wife, Becca Good, who was with her at the scene of the shooting on Wednesday, issued a statement to Minnesota Public Radio on Friday in which she said the two had “stopped to support our neighbors.”

“We had whistles,” she wrote. “They had guns.”

She also described her late wife as someone who had “sparkles coming out of her pores.”

“Renee lived by an overarching belief: there is kindness in the world and we need to do everything we can to find it where it resides and nurture it where it needs to grow,” she said. “Renee was a Christian who knew that all religions teach the same essential truth: we are here to love each other, care for each other, and keep each other safe and whole.”

While the Minnesota operation is part of Trump’s broader immigration crackdown, the president has for months aimed political attacks at the state, particularly its large Somali-American community.