Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara was talking about the rise in Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the area the day before Renee Nicole Good was fatally wounded
A Minneapolis police chief warned that someone would end up being killed the day before a woman was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer in the city.
Police Chief Brian O’Hara was speaking at a press conference last Tuesday (January 6) about the disturbance in the area caused by a recent surge in ICE. Just 24 hours later, 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good was gunned down by an ICE officer during an immigration raid.
“I have been concerned for weeks that because the issue is so emotional, the greatest risk to me is that there would be unrest or that there would be a tragedy. That somebody could get seriously hurt or killed because of what’s happening,” Chief O’Hara chillingly prophesised.
The killing sparked outrage across the US, with tens of thousands of people marching across the city in Minnesota in protest over the weekend. Speaking on the New York Times Podcast on today (January 12), Chief O’Hara said that a tragedy like the was “entirely preventable”.
When asked what his reaction was upon hearing news of the shooting, he said it was “hard to describe” and that, “I just thought f***, this is it – this is the potential here for 2020 [the unrest caused by the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis cops] all over again, for the destruction of the city.”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said that ICE’s activities were “causing chaos” throughout the city following the deadly shooting. He wrote on social media: “We’re demanding ICE to leave the city immediately.
“We stand rock solid with our immigrant and refugee communities.” Speaking publicly following the shooting, he said: “We collectively are going to do everything possible to get to the bottom of this, to get justice and to make sure that there is an investigation conducted in full.
“They are not here to create safety in this city, what they are doing is causing chaos and distrust. They are ripping families apart, sowing chaos in our streets, and in this case are literally killing people.”
However, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary Kristi Noem called the incident an “act of domestic terrorism”. She added that, “what had happened was our ICE officers were out in enforcement action, they got stuck in the snow because of the adverse weather that is in Minneapolis”.
Noem further said: “They were attempting to push out their vehicle, and a woman attacked them and those surrounding them and attempted to run them over and ram them with her vehicle.” But Frey challenged the official version put forward by DHS, which portrayed ICE officers as “fearing for their life” before opening fire into the victim’s car.
“They are already trying to spin this as an act of self-defence. Having seen the video myself, I want to tell everybody directly – that is bulls**t,” he said.
He continued: “This was an agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody getting killed. Your only reason for being in our city is to create some kind of safety, and you are doing the opposite.”
Since 2024, at least five people have lost their lives across several states during immigration enforcement operations. Tensions have escalated in the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul following DHS’s announcement on last week of a crackdown amid allegations of fraud involving Somali residents.
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