WESTWOOD — More than 100 people gathered Sunday afternoon, Jan. 11, along Washington Avenue in front of Veterans Park for a vigil honoring Renée Nicole Good, 37, a Minneapolis woman who was shot and killed Wednesday, Jan. 7, during a federal immigration enforcement operation, according to news reports and public officials.
The gathering — serving also as a protest of perceived Trump administration abuses of power — organized quickly over the weekend and timed with other vigils and demonstrations across the country, filled the sidewalk in front of the park with residents holding handmade signs. Messages ranged from “Democracy needs your courage” to “Stop domestic terrorism — deport ICE.”
Organizers said they had hoped to hold the vigil at the park’s bandstand, but were unable to secure borough approval and instead assembled along the curb line on Washington Avenue.
During the afternoon hour a reporter was there, a steady procession of traffic passed the group, with frequent honks of support, thumbs up, and smiles aimed toward the crowd.
A lone counter-protester wearing MAGA-themed clothing, including a face mask, stood across the street evidently video-recording, at times goading vigil participants.
There were children, dogs and guitars at the vigil. At intervals, attendees played folk songs.
Several people interviewed said they came out of grief and outrage over the circumstances of Good’s death and what they described as an escalating pattern of political violence and erosion of democratic norms under President Trump.
“We’re here to keep reminding people that we live in a democracy and we still have a Constitution,” said Tomasina Schwarz, president of The League of Women Voters Northern Valley, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to empowering voters and defending democracy. “We need to keep reminding people that this Constitution needs to be enforced and it needs to be the law of the land.”
What happened in Minneapolis
Immigration and Customs Enforcement is a federal agency within the Department of Homeland Security, created after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks as part of a broader reorganization of U.S. security agencies. ICE enforces immigration laws inside the United States, including detaining people it suspects are in the country unlawfully and carrying out removals.
Its authority is tied to immigration enforcement; it can detain U.S. citizens only in limited circumstances — for example, if agents believe someone is interfering with an arrest, assaulting an officer, or is unlawfully present. The use of force by federal agents is governed by the U.S. Constitution, federal law and DHS policy. Under those standards, deadly force is permitted only when an officer reasonably believes it is necessary to prevent an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury to the officer or others.
Under the Trump administration, ICE has taken on a higher-visibility role in interior immigration enforcement, with expanded budgets, larger deployments and more frequent public-facing operations, a shift that has drawn increased public scrutiny and debate over the agency’s mission and tactics.
Good, who was a U.S. citizen, was serving as a legal observer during federal enforcement actions in the city and was not a target for arrest by ICE agents, Minneapolis leaders said in public statements.
The Associated Press reported that Good had just dropped her 6-year-old off at school and was driving home with her wife when she encountered ICE agents, who attempted to remove her from the vehicle.
Videos of the encounter circulating online appear to show an ICE agent firing the first shot through the front of the SUV as it begins to move, with the vehicle’s front wheels angled away from him. The footage then appears to show the agent firing additional shots through the open driver’s-side window as the SUV continues forward and past his position.
In agent-recorded video that has been circulated by news outlets, the SUV is then seen accelerating down the street, and a male voice is heard saying, “f—–g bitch.” The vehicle continues a short distance before crashing into a parked car.
Federal officials immediately defended the shooting as self-defense. State and local officials in Minnesota, as well as protesters and others, have disputed that characterization and called for transparency and independent oversight as investigations proceed.
“Renée Nicole Good was a wife, mother, poet, singer, member of the LGBTQI+ community, and United States citizen,” the 12 co-chairs of the Congressional Equality Caucus said in a joint statement released Saturday. The openly LGBTQI+ U.S. representatives called for a full, transparent and open investigation into the shooting.
Good’s father told CBS News her child has a loving extended family and will be “well taken care of.”
Local voices
Participants in Westwood said the incident raised broader questions about accountability and authority.
“Federal agents just murdered a woman and covered it up,” said Todd Tavares of Emerson, who attended with his wife, Charlotte Hammond, and their young son. “ICE has no legal authority over Americans. They don’t have the right to detain or use violence against us — but they just murdered an American.”
Hammond said the case felt personal. “I’m 38. Renee was 37. She was a mother and a writer. I’m a mother and a writer,” she said. “I had to do something — take action against this — because I don’t want to live in a country like this.”
Kathleen McGuire of Westwood said she was drawn to speak out in part because the agent involved in the shooting was masked, based on the videos she had seen. “Police officers don’t walk around with their faces covered,” she said. “So, yeah, we have to stand up for this.”
Immediate past Westwood Mayor John Birkner Jr., a Democrat, said he was driven by anger at what he described as growing intolerance and lawlessness in American political life.
“I’m outraged at the condition of our country,” Birkner said. Referring to Westwood’s vigil for Charlie Kirk, which took place in Veterans Park at the bandstand, he said, “I’m outraged that our local leaders are celebrating podcasters that spew racist tropes … I’m here because my dad fought nazis.”
Birkner added, “I’m here because the President of the United States — you can absolutely quote, please quote me — the President of the United States is a convicted felon. He’s running a criminal enterprise that is bleeding our nation dry. That’s why I’m here. Okay? I want Donald Trump out of office. His whole cavalcade clown car needs to go. Donald Trump is a criminal, period.”
Westwood’s Ed Murtaugh said, “I’m here for a kid who lost a mother. I’m here for peace and freedom.”
Robert Fisher of Washington Township said he came because he believes democratic norms are at risk.
“He has no respect for democracy, no respect for the Constitution — lawless,” Fisher said, referring to the president. “And we can’t have that. … And ICE, the ICE raids are awful. I mean, they’re just ripping people out of their homes and communities.”
Among those holding signs was Helen Sites of Dumont, who attended with her husband, Tom. Wiping away tears, she described fear for the country’s direction.
“We want to stand up for America,” she said. “We’re frightened by what’s happening — grabbing people off the street, masked, carrying them away. … My parents fought in the Second World War against Nazism. I never thought I’d see something like this happen in my lifetime.”
Her husband, a retired history teacher, framed the vigil as civic duty. “We’re doing exactly what the patriots did in 1776,” he said. “I’m here to defend my country.”
