Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer who shot and killed a Minneapolis woman was hit by her car in the episode.
“The officer was hit by the vehicle. She hit him,” Noem said. “He went to the hospital. A doctor did treat him. He has been released, but he’s going to spend some time with his family.”
She said there would be no pause in the Trump administration’s immigration actions in the city.
Noem’s claim will add fuel to those who have defended the officer, saying he acted in self-defense, but video footage shows a complex scene.
Video taken by one witness shows the driver’s car surrounded by three officers, with one telling the woman to “get out of the f—ing car,” while one masked officer repeatedly pulls on the door handle. The officer who ultimately fired the shots approaches the car from the front and begins to draw his weapon as the car turns its wheels — beginning to drive away from the officers.
Three shots ring out, beginning as the officer is in front of the car and continuing as it passes to his side. With the driver incapacitated, the car careens to the side of the road, crashing into a parked car.
Noem said the officer involved in the shooting had previously been dragged by a car during an operation earlier in the summer.
“It’s clearly established law that a vehicle driven by a person and used to harm someone, is a deadly weapon. Deadly force is perfectly lawful when a threat is faced by a weapon. So I do believe that this officer used his training in this situation,” she said.
“ICE agents repeatedly ordered her to get out of the car and to stop obstructing law enforcement, but she refused to obey their commands. She then proceeded to weaponize her vehicle and she attempted to run a law enforcement officer over.”
However, that characterization was disputed by others who reviewed the footage.
“Having seen the video myself, I want to tell everybody directly, that is bulls—,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) said earlier Wednesday.
“This was an agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying, getting killed.”
“I’ve seen the video,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) wrote on the social platform X. “Don’t believe this propaganda machine.”
At the top of her remarks, Noem asked for prayers for the officer, as well as the woman he killed, identified by The Minnesota Star Tribune as 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good.
“Any loss of life is a tragedy, and I think all of us can agree that in this situation, it was preventable,” she said.
But she spent much of her brief press conference bashing Walz and Frey.
“Governor Walz and Mayor Frey refused to protect Minnesotans, and instead, they protect these criminals,” Noem said.
More than 70 percent of those currently held in ICE detention have no criminal record.
“We discussed what happened here today,” she said of a conversation with Walz. “We have two very different viewpoints of it. I talked specifically about the fact that we have laws, they need to be enforced. He knows that I believe sanctuary policies have protected criminals and placed a priority of them over the citizens that live here, and he knows we’ll continue to do our work.”
Walz on Wednesday said the Trump administration had “done enough.”
“From here on, I have a very simple message: We do not need any further help from the federal government,” Walz said. “To Donald Trump and Kristi Noem, you’ve done enough.”
He also encouraged peaceful protest in a city that has previously been rocked by police shootings.
“Donald Trump and his administration may not care much about Minnesota, that’s been pretty evident. But we love this state. We won’t let them tear us apart; [we] will not turn against each other. To Minnesotans, they say this, I feel your anger. I’m angry. They want to show. We can’t give it to them. We cannot. If you protest and express your First Amendment rights, please do so peacefully, as you always do,” he said.
“We cannot give them what they want.”