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Elaine Okyere
A video filmed by the US immigration agent who fatally shot a woman in Minneapolis on Wednesday has emerged, showing the moments before gunfire rang out.
The 47-second clip, obtained by Minnesota-based conservative news outlet Alpha News, shows Renee Nicole Good sitting behind the wheel of her car and speaking to the officer.
US Vice-President JD Vance shared the footage on social media, commenting that the agent had acted in self-defence. Local officials have insisted the woman posed no danger.
Good’s wife has paid tribute to the 37-year-old, saying the pair had been trying to support their neighbours when she was shot. Her death has sparked protests across the US.
President Donald Trump’s administration says Good tried to run over the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer in an act of “domestic terrorism” after blocking the road and impeding the agency’s work.
Democratic Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has described that account as “garbage” based on the video footage.
The BBC has asked the homeland security department and the White House for comment on the new video that emerged on Friday.
The footage starts with the officer getting out of his car and filming Good’s vehicle and registration plate while he walks around the Honda SUV. A dog is in the backseat.
Good says: “That’s fine dude. I’m not mad at you.”
Her wife, Becca Good, is standing on the street filming the interaction with her mobile phone. She tells the ICE agent: “That’s OK, we don’t change our plates every morning just so you know. It will be the same plate when you come talk to us later.”
She adds: “You want to come at us? You want to come at us? I say go and get yourself some lunch, big boy.”
Another agent approaches Good on the driver’s side and uses an expletive as he says: “Get out of the car.”
The agent filming the clip moves in front of Good’s car as she reverses.
In a chaotic few seconds, she turns the wheel to the right and pulls forwards.
The camera jerks up to the sky. “Woah, woah!” a voice says, as bangs are heard.
In the final part of the video, the car is seen veering down the road. The ICE agent swears.
Other clips previously released from the scene show the maroon SUV crashed into the side of the road after Good was shot by the agent.
The officer appears to stay on his feet, and is later seen in other videos walking toward the crashed car.
Federal officials say the agent was injured and treated in hospital. The FBI is investigating the incident.
The officer who fired on Good is Jonathan Ross, a veteran ICE agent who was previously injured in the line of duty when he was struck by a car.
When asked about the video at the White House on Friday, Trump said: “You have agitators and we will always be protecting ICE, and we’re always going to be protecting our border patrol and our law enforcement.”
Vance reposted the video on X on Friday, and defended the agent’s actions, saying: “The reality is that his life was endangered and he fired in self-defence.”
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt also share the video, saying the media had smeared an ICE agent who had “properly defended himself from being run over”.
Good’s wife told local media the pair had gone to the scene of immigration enforcement activity to support neighbours.
“We had whistles,” Becca Good said. “They had guns.”
When speaking about Good – a mother-of-three, including a six-year-old son – she said “kindness radiated out of her”.
“We were raising our son to believe that no matter where you come from or what you look like, all of us deserve compassion and kindness,” she added.
Demonstrators turned out for a third night of protests on Friday over the killing of Good.
The Minneapolis Police Department told BBC News that at least 30 people were detained, cited and released after protests in the downtown area.
Photos showed protesters gathered outside a hotel in the city, believed to be where some ICE agents were staying.
Minnesota’s Department of Public Safety said it assisted police officers with arresting people suspected of unlawful assembly, after receiving “information that demonstrations were no longer peaceful and reports of damage to property” near the Canopy Hotel in the city’s downtown.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz earlier said he had activated the state’s National Guard to help with security around the protests.
On Friday, Minnesota officials said they would open an inquiry into the shooting after saying they had been frozen out of the federal investigation.
Trump was asked by a reporter whether the FBI should share its findings with Minnesota, and said: “Well normally I would, but they’re crooked officials.”
The announcement by Hennepin County’s top prosecutor Mary Moriarty and Minnesota’s Democratic Attorney General Keith Ellison came a day after the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said the FBI had initially pledged a joint investigation, then reversed course.
One federal agency that is not looking into the shooting is the US justice department’s Civil Rights Division, which has in the past investigated alleged excessive use of force by law enforcement.
But prosecutors have advised its criminal section that there will be no investigation in this case, sources told the BBC’s US partner, CBS News.
Walz, a Democrat, has accused the Trump administration of blocking state officials, but Vance said it was a federal matter.
