A woman was shot dead by a US immigration officer in Minneapolis.

A US immigration agent shot and killed a 37-year-old woman in downtown Minneapolis, sparking a war of words as local officials rejected the Trump administration’s claim it was self-defence.

The Department of Homeland Security said the woman, Renee Nicole Good, was a “violent rioter” who tried to drive over Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

But Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said, “This was an agent using power carelessly, which resulted in someone’s death,” calling for ICE officers to leave the city in derogatory comments.

crackdown on illegal immigration.

Hundreds of ICE agents have been deployed to the city as part of the White House’s nationwide crackdown on illegal immigration.

Videos posted on social media by onlookers showed the moment of the shooting, which occurred around 10:25 a.m. The shooting took place around 10:25 a.m. local time on Wednesday.

Various vantage points reveal a maroon SUV blocking a residential street in Minneapolis.

People line up on the footpath in protest.

Nearby, law enforcement vehicles are visible. Immigration agents approach the vehicle parked on the road, exit the truck; and ask the woman driving to get out of the SUV. One of the agents pulled the driver’s side door handle.

Another agent is stationed in front of the vehicle.

It’s not clear exactly how close the agent was standing or whether he was hit by the vehicle, based on video quickly reviewed by the BBC.

As the maroon SUV tries to flee, the agent opens fire.

Three pops are heard, and the vehicle can be seen losing control and crashing into a car parked on the side of the road.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said an ICE officer was “brutally” run over. “It’s hard to believe he’s alive but now recovering in hospital,” he wrote.

The Republican president also accused the “radical left” of “intimidating, attacking, and targeting our law enforcement officers and ICE agents on a daily basis.”

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the driver was in his vehicle and blocking the roadway on Portland Avenue. Then a federal law enforcement officer approached her on foot, “and she started driving off.”

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the woman had been “chasing and obstructing” officers throughout the day and tried to “disarm her vehicle” in an attempt to run down the officer as part of “domestic terrorism”.

The federal agent fired “defensive shots” and he himself was wounded, Noem said, before he was treated and released from a local hospital.

However, the Minneapolis City Council said in a statement that Good was simply “looking after her neighbours” when she was shot and killed.

Noem stated that a car struck the same agent while on duty in June.

He said ICE operations would continue in the city and the FBI would investigate Wednesday’s incident.

Emily Heller told CNN she was at home when she saw ICE agents arguing with protesters outside. She said she heard agents yelling at a woman driving an SUV, then an agent tried to open her car door, and the driver went into reverse and began pulling over.

“An ICE agent came up to his vehicle and said, ‘Stop!’ And then – I mean, she was already moving – and then, shot her right in the face right through her windscreen,” Heller told the US network.

Minnesota State Governor Tim Walz also pushed for a federal account of the incident.

“Don’t believe this propaganda machine,” Walz wrote in response to a Department of Homeland Security post about the shootings.

“The State will ensure a full, fair and prompt investigation to ensure accountability and justice.”

Top Democrats, including former Vice President Kamala Harris and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, also issued statements. Harris called the Trump administration’s actions “gaslighting”.

Protests and marches took place in many parts of the city as some angry Minneapolis residents condemned the shooting and called for ICE to step down.

The main gathering was near the shooting site, about a mile from where George Floyd was killed by a city police officer in 2020, sparking anti-racism protests around the world.

Protests were being held in other US cities, including New Orleans, Miami, Seattle and New York City.

Minneapolis Public Schools announced that classes were cancelled for the remainder of the week “due to safety concerns.” This comes after an arrest outside a high school on Wednesday, reportedly by federal agents.

The Trump administration has deployed an additional 2,000 federal agents to the Minneapolis area in recent weeks in response to allegations of welfare fraud in the state.

The mayor said at Wednesday’s press conference that ICE is not making the city safer. “They’re tearing families apart; they’re creating chaos on our streets,” he said.

The deployment, which began Sunday, is one of the largest concentrations of Department of Homeland Security personnel in a U.S. city in recent years.

It follows an immigration enforcement campaign launched by ICE late last year in Minneapolis to target individuals who were issued deportation orders, including members of the city’s Somali community.

That community has been frequently criticised by Trump, who has called them “trash”.

The President said, “I don’t want them in our country. I’ll be honest with you.” “Their country is not good for some reason. Their country stinks.”

Trump later doubled down on his comments after a YouTube video from a conservative online content creator accused him of rampant fraud at daycare centres run by Somali immigrants.

In response, Trump has withheld federal childcare funding from the state of Minnesota.

The Trump administration has also dispatched ICE agents to other cities, all part of a broader crackdown on illegal immigration into the US.