People gather to protest against ICE for the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good on January 8, 2026 in Washington, DC. Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on Wednesday, January 7th. Photo: VCG

With the protests sparked by the US military's forceful seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro yet to subside, a new wave of demonstrations triggered by the fatal shooting of a woman by a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent has emerged as a fresh focal point in the US.

"I'm in Minneapolis and today the snow is melting, but I think it's really crying," read a comment from a US netizen regarding the deadly ICE shooting happened on Wednesday in Minnesota. The sentiment was apparently shared by many in US who reportedly protested in the streets. 

The killing of a 37-year-old mother of three and US citizen by a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has sparked heated division within the US and widespread outcry against the agency and US' immigration enforcement policies, according to media reports and social media posts. 

The victim, Renee Good, described herself as a "poet and writer and wife and mom" in social media accounts, AP News reported. She said she was currently "experiencing Minneapolis," displaying a pride emoji on her Instagram account, the report said. Good's ex-husband is a military veteran, per CNN News.

She was shot when she dropped off her youngest child at an elementary school in Minneapolis, the newest city she called home, AP News reported.

Video taken by bystanders posted to social media shows an officer approaching her car, demanding she open the door and grabbing the handle. When she begins to pull forward, a different ICE officer standing in front of the vehicle pulls his weapon and immediately fires at least two shots into the vehicle at close range, AP News reported, adding that the entire incident was over in less than 10 seconds.

Clashing accounts

The incident site is less than a mile from where George Floyd was killed by the police in 2020, the New York Times reported. The death of Floyd, on May 25, 2020, threw the community and the nation into a period of unrest, with widespread calls to view policing differently.

Similarly, the killing of Good also sparked heated debate within the US. Regarding who is at fault for the shooting, for example, the US government and the Democratic Party have offered conflicting accounts, each clinging to their own version of events, according to US media reports. 

US President Donald Trump said on Truth Social that "the woman screaming was, obviously, a professional agitator, and the woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense."

Others in the US administration also repeatedly defended the ICE officer in Minneapolis and claiming he was protecting himself, with some painting Good as a domestic terrorist who had attempted to ram federal agents with her car. 

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said "This appears as an attempt to kill or to cause bodily harm to agents, an act of domestic terrorism," adding the ICE agent responded by firing "defensive shots," CNN News reported.

Minnesota leaders have excoriated these claims, with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey denouncing what he called a "garbage narrative" and "bull----" from the administration, according to the Fox News.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Thursday authorized the Minnesota National Guard to be staged and ready to support local and state law enforcement in protecting critical infrastructure and maintaining public safety after the fatal shooting of Good, per Fox News.

Lü Xiang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Friday that this case highlighted the serious division within the US between state and federal governments and between different political parties over immigration and other policies. Such divisions have increasingly generated tension and chaos, he said. 

In the last four months alone, immigration officers have fired on at least nine people in five states and Washington, D.C. All of the individuals targeted in those shootings were, like the woman killed on Wednesday, fired on while in their vehicles, the New York Times reported. In each case, officials have claimed that the agents fired in self-defense, fearing they would be struck by the vehicle, the report noted.

The US government seeks to construct a narrative that only by deploying federal law enforcement power can it "save" and govern local states, sending a political message across the nation, Lü added.

A protestor pumps his fist while marching during a protest against the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good on January 8, 2026 in Washington, DC. Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on Wednesday, January 7th. Photo: VCG

National outcry

A protestor pumps his fist while marching during a protest against the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good on January 8, 2026 in Washington, DC. Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on Wednesday, January 7th. Photo: VCG

Large-scale protests have erupted in multiple locations across the US, according to media reports.

A few blocks away from where a woman was shot and killed by an ICE agent yesterday, an energized crowd of people has gathered protesting the presence of the agency in the city, CNN reported. 

They are packed tightly on a street corner holding signs, banners and flags. Cars honk as they pass by. One large banner in the front appears to have a picture of Trump on it, the report said. Many protesters are yelling or chanting, CNN News added.

Federal agents tackled several people and deployed chemical irritants at a high school in south Minneapolis as classes were ending on Wednesday, according to a witness, per CBS News.

Additional protests were organized in the Bay Area on Thursday in reaction to the deadly shooting in Minnesota involving a US ICE agent, CBS News reported. Hundreds of protesters rallied in San Francisco outside ICE offices downtown, and later a march was held in the city's Mission District. In Oakland, another protest was held in the city's Fruitvale neighborhood. 

When the US government's hardline measures are turned inward and directly harm its own citizens, the resulting backlash tends to be far more intense, Lü said.

Global attention

The shooting has also caught global media. Multiple media outlets, including CNN News, Fox News, and NBC News have launched live coverage of the shooting incident on their websites, while outlets such as the Guardian, BBC News and German media DW have also reported on the matter.  

The Washington Post said that the tragedy in Minnesota "underscores a moral and political failure." The report said that videos of the scene, and an already overheated political environment risk more violence.

CNN, in its report of this fetal shooting, focused primarily on three unanswered questions: What happened before the shooting, the legality of the operation, and its consequences.

The AP News featured a black-and-white photograph of Good affixed to a railing in one of its articles, on which the words "RIP RENEE" is written.

US federal agents shot two people outside a hospital in Portland, Oregon, a day after an ICE officer shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis, the Guardian reported. As of press time, this related shooting incident has ranked among the most-viewed topics on the X platform.

The incident prompted widespread attention on both US and Chinese social media platforms, where some expressed shock and bewilderment. 

US netizens have also expressed their opinions online regarding the shooting incident, stating that it is incomprehensible. A netizen @Timmo said on X that the death in Minnesota was a failure in training and culture of ICE. "He should have prioritized moving out of harms way instead of [prioritizing] the death of another human. If he was in danger shooting her was always going to make his situation worse as is obvious from the aftermath crash," he added. 

Jimmy Kimmel, a US TV show host, reacted to the video of the woman shot dead by an ICE officer in Minnesota, saying that the US is ordering ICE to kill Americans in unhinged rant.

Some US netizens have even taken to China's social media platform RedNote, Xiaohongshu, to voice their anger over the ICE shooting of Good. A netizen with a US IP commented in the related discussion section, saying that "Murder a woman with the same ballcap they've used for generations to kill people."

Chinese netizens have also taken note of this incident and commented on the killing of the person.

Some said they were shocked and bewildered by what happened. One netizen said that Good was simply dropping her child off at school before the incident, yet she was still "labeled by the US as a terrorist suspect." Another wondered in the comment section, "Could holding a different opinion (with the US government) lead to one being labeled a terrorist?"

A Xiaohongshu user located in the US commented that her husband, a US resident, becomes extra vigilant whenever he encounters police cars or traffic officers on the road, because he knows all too well what they are capable of - especially toward people of color.

Others described the shooting as "too dehumanizing, too cold-blooded." "These officers - your children and families will be ashamed of you," read a comment.

"The murder of an innocent woman in Minnesota by ICE you call that law and order do you," a netizen @Malcolm Kinzett questioned US's law and justice, asking on the X.