LA demonstrators want ICE officer charged with murder after fatal immigration shooting in Minneapolis

Around 80 people gathered at Placita Olvera in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday evening, Jan. 7, to demonstrate against ICE after a federal immigration officer shot and killed a 37-year-old woman in Minneapolis earlier in the day.

The Los Angeles protest at the historic Mexican plaza was organized by the Party for Socialism & Liberation. Organizers called for the officer who shot  Renee Nicole Good to be charged with murder. Protesters said Good was exercising her right to watch and observe ICE activity when the officer shot her.

Some participants carried signs reading “Stop ICE terror now!” and “ICE out of our communities.”

Maria and Mike, who asked not to be identified with their last names, said they gathered at Olvera  to show protesters in Minneapolis that they aren’t alone in their anger and grief.

Mike added he worried that he and other community members were becoming used to immigration raids in Southern California and across the country.

“We don’t want to get desensitized,” Maria said.

The violence, Mike said, is hard for anyone to ignore this time, because there were videos circulating across social media of the shooting in broad daylight.

Maria hopes their efforts will help make the world a better place before her son is born in a few months. She said other branches of government should stand up to President Trump, so that he’s pressured to stop federal takeovers of Minneapolis, Chicago, L.A. and other cities across the country.

Minneapolis officials denied Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s characterization of events earlier in the day as an “act of domestic terrorism” against ICE officers. Noem said the officer shot the woman — identified by family as Good — in self defense and accused the woman of trying to hit federal officers with her vehicle.

After watching footage of the scene, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said the shooting wasn’t in self defense and called on federal officials to leave the metropolitan area amid the Trump administration’s most recent immigration crackdown in the Twin Cities, which federal authorities announced Tuesday, Jan. 6.

State and federal authorities are investigating the shooting.