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Federal officials came forward Honda SUV parked almost vertically on a one-way residential street minneapolisthe roadside is covered with snow.
Within seconds, he shot and killed the driver, Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three.
Federal officials said the officer acted in self-defense and was engaging in an “act of domestic terrorism” when the driver of the Honda approached him, and that he was lucky to escape alive.
Police experts say some of the choices the officer made at the time ran counter to decades of practice followed by nearly every law enforcement agency.
“This is a dangerous decision”
Video captured by bystanders from multiple angles showed the Honda parked on Portland Avenue before the shooting. It spanned multiple lanes, but didn’t completely block traffic: The driver’s side window was open, and the driver was waving his left arm as if to signal traffic to go around. A large SUV drove around the front of the Honda and down the street. Multiple unmarked federal vehicles were idling on nearby roads.
Some bystanders heckled officers: “Go home to Texas,” one woman shouted from the sidewalk. “Why don’t you let people see your face?” shouted another. Some whistled to alert neighbors that immigration agents were in the area, others honked their horns.
A gray four-door Titan truck was parked on the driver’s side of the Honda. Two police officers climbed out of the vehicle and approached the Honda. Both officers were wearing what appeared to be woolen hats and black masks covering their noses and mouths.
A woman can be heard saying “get around it.”
One officer said, “Get out of the car. Get out of the damn car.”
The Honda’s backup lights came on and it began to slowly roll backwards, and one of the officers grabbed the driver’s side door handle and tried to pull it twice before reaching his arm through the open driver’s side window.
A third deputy stood first on the passenger side of the car, then walked around the hood of the Honda and stood in front of the driver, appearing to hold up a cellphone as if filming.
“Why would he do that? Why would he put himself in more danger than he already was?” asked Geoffrey P. Alpert, a police expert at the University of South Carolina, who called it “ridiculous” for an officer to use his body to try to block a 4,000-pound SUV.
Darrel W. Stephens, the former chief of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, also noted that the moment was the confusing first step in a series of questionable actions that most police departments have discouraged for years. As police chief, he banned officers from standing in front of cars in the early 1990s.
“I can’t explain why he stood there and put himself in front of the car,” Stephens said. “This is a dangerous decision.”
“A 4,000-pound unguided missile”
secretary of homeland security Kristi Noem Calling the incident an “act of domestic terrorism” against ICE officers, a woman “attempted to run over them and hit them with her vehicle. One of our officers quickly acted defensively and fired his weapon to protect himself and those around him.”
president Donald Trump A post on Truth Social said the ICE officer shot the driver in self-defense. Trump said it was “hard to believe he’s still alive,” according to the video. He said the driver “viciously ran over the ICE officer.”
But it’s not clear from the video whether the car made contact with police.
The Honda began to drive forward, its tires spinning to the right as the officer stood in front.
“Why didn’t he get out of the way? Why didn’t he move away?” Alpert asked.
The officer unholstered his gun. In less than a second, he shot through the windshield and then leaned back away from the car as it turned away from him.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has not publicly identified the officer who shot Goode. But she spoke of an incident last June in which the officer was dragged away by a getaway vehicle. Court records in the case identified the officer as Jonathan Ross.
Experts say most police departments have long banned officers from shooting into moving vehicles except in very limited circumstances when there are no other options to save lives.
“That’s a good reason,” said Sharon Fairley, a University of Chicago law professor and criminal justice expert. “If the officer succeeds in shooting the driver, then you have a motor vehicle, a two-ton vehicle without a command, which creates a huge public safety risk.”
The officer fired his weapon a second time. By then, he was on the side of the car, an arm’s length from the driver’s side window. Then came the third shot.
None of the other officers drew their weapons.
The officer who fired watched the car careen in the road, then reholstered his gun. The street was quiet for a while.
Three seconds later, the Honda hit a parked car with such force that its tires flew off the street and the pile of cars tipped forward several feet, sending snow flakes billowing.
“Thankfully no one was in the car she hit on the side of the road,” Alpert said. “Luckily there were no children playing outside and no one else was hurt.”
Alpert described the vehicle at the time as “a 4,000-pound unguided missile.” people Alpert said they shouldn’t hit the brakes after being shot.
There are people on the street. One video shows a woman walking her poodle.
Blood drops dyed the snow red
A pedestrian wearing a flannel shirt ran toward the scene of the accident.
The officer who fired the gun slowly walked in that direction. Most federal agents remained in unmarked vehicles.
Drops of blood dyed the snow red.
None of the agents immediately went to the Honda to render aid; a minute after the crash, a pedestrian wearing a flannel shirt could be seen on video leaning alone against the open driver’s side door. A paramedic ran to the crash site.
Bystanders started screaming.
“Criminal!” a woman shouted. “What did you do?”
One man shouted “Murderer!” over and over.
Officials ordered everyone to return.
A bystander focused his camera on the officer who fired the shot as he walked away from the accident toward his colleagues parked next to a federal vehicle and told them to call 911. He didn’t look injured.
“Shame on you,” she screamed, “shame on you.”
He climbed into an SUV and bystanders shouted: “Don’t let the killer get away!”
The SUV drove away.
Fairley, the University of Chicago professor, said an investigation into what happened here must examine whether the officer acted reasonably at the time and before the shooting. It could weigh issues such as whether an agent put himself in danger by walking in front of a car and whether the officer might have made other choices in the process to avoid death.
“The question is whether the officer reasonably believed that the driver posed an imminent threat of death or bodily harm to himself or others,” she said. “That is really a legal question that must be answered.
For example, the car’s license plate is clearly visible throughout.
Another option, Fairley said, was to let her go and arrest her later.