Emergency calls reveal chaos after Minneapolis ICE shooting as city braces for more unrest

By Brad Brooks, Joseph Ax and Renee Hickman

MINNEAPOLIS, Jan 16 (Reuters) – Newly released transcripts of emergency calls and dispatch records on Friday detailed the chaotic and dangerous scene that unfolded after a U.S. immigration officer shot Renee Good in Minneapolis, a killing  that has become a national flashpoint over President Donald Trump’s harsh immigration crackdown.

In one panicked call after another, witnesses told police what they had seen: Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the street, several shots fired at a driver, her vehicle slamming into other cars, blood everywhere.

“There’s 15 ICE agents, and they shot her, like, ’cause she wouldn’t open her car door,” one caller said, adding a stream of profanities.

“ICE fired shots into her windshield,” another caller said, as the operator urged the person to slow their breathing. “She’s bleeding.”

Later, as Good was being pronounced dead at a local hospital, police were trying to evacuate ICE officers from the scene while angry protesters cut down crime-scene tape around the area, according to an incident report that recorded communications between emergency responders.

“ICE BEING SURROUNDED,” one person transmitted at 11:01 a.m., about 80 minutes after the shooting, according to the report.

The transcripts surfaced hours before news that the U.S. Justice Department was investigating Minnesota officials, including Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, over an alleged conspiracy to impede immigration agents.

A source familiar with the matter confirmed reports in the Washington Post, CBS News and other outlets that the probe stems from statements made by Walz and Frey, both Democrats, about the thousands of federal agents deployed to the Minneapolis region in recent weeks. The Justice Department did not immediately comment.

Both officials along with other Minnesota Democrats have denounced the ICE operation and Good’s death, and they accused Trump of intentionally fomenting chaos.

THOUSANDS OF FEDERAL AGENTS SENT TO MINNESOTA

Minnesota’s most populous city has seen increasingly tense confrontations between residents and federal officers since Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was shot behind the wheel of her car on January 7 by an ICE officer, Jonathan Ross. 

At the time, Good was taking part in one of numerous neighborhood patrols organized by local activists to track and monitor ICE activities.

The shooting came a day after the Trump administration announced the deployment of 2,000 immigration agents to Minneapolis in what the U.S. Department of Homeland Security called its largest such operation in history.

The surge in DHS personnel has since grown to nearly 3,000, dwarfing the ranks of local police officers in the Twin Cities metropolitan area of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Since the ICE surge, agents have arrested both immigrants and protesters, at times smashing windows and pulling people from their cars. Some officers have found themselves surrounded by onlookers jeering and shouting at them for stopping Blacks and Latinos who turned out to be U.S. citizens.

Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, has floated the idea of creating a public database of people arrested on suspicion of interfering with ICE operations or assaulting officers, saying on Fox News on Thursday their identities would then be known to their employers and neighbors.

Trump administration officials have complained about what they call the “doxing” of federal agents, including Ross, saying that puts officers at risk, leading them to wear masks to protect their identities.

In the case of the Good shooting, Trump and other administration officials accused her of deliberately trying to run over Ross and other agents at the scene with her car. Videos showed she turned her wheels away from the officers, and Democratic city and state officials have rejected the government’s account as false.

The Trump administration has said Ross was injured during the incident – although video shows him walking around afterward – while noting he was seriously hurt months earlier in an unrelated traffic stop that resulted in him being dragged behind a vehicle.

MINNEAPOLIS ARRESTS

Trump has said the Minneapolis deployment was prompted in part by allegations of fraud among the state’s large Somali American community. Trump has called Somali immigrants “garbage” and said they should be thrown out of the country.

The DHS said on X that 12 “agitators” were arrested on Thursday night for assaulting law enforcement, without providing details.

As Trump’s deportation drive in Minneapolis neared the end of its second week, the Good shooting remained the only fatality associated with the surge.

Fire department records showed paramedics were on the scene four minutes after the shooting was reported, finding Good in her car unresponsive with four apparent gunshot wounds, including one to her head and two to her chest.

Emergency personnel tried to revive her, both at the scene and in the ambulance en route to the hospital. She was pronounced dead less than an hour after being shot.

Meanwhile, at the shooting scene, police were trying to prevent more violence, according to an incident report that recorded communications among first responders.

“CROWD GETTING HOSTILE,” the incident record reads at 9:50 a.m., 12 minutes after the shooting. “CONTACT WHO IS IN CHARGE OF FEDS AND HAVE THEM LEAVE SCENE.”

At 11:01 a.m., ICE agents were “being surrounded,” and protesters were throwing snowballs at them – but not at police, the report says. The agents finally left the scene by 11:20 a.m.

On Friday, at the spot where Good was shot, a makeshift memorial continued to grow and attract visitors, despite frigid temperatures and falling snow.

Residents have cordoned off the area where Good’s car slammed into a light pole, while hand-painted signs call for justice and include anti-ICE slogans.

(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Minneapolis, Joseph Ax in New York and Renee Hickman in Chicago; Additional reporting by Emily Schmall in Chicago and Ted Hesson in Washington; Writing by Joseph Ax and Steve Gorman; editing by Deepa Babington and Cynthia Osterman)