During a phone conference with Iowa reporters on Wednesday, Rep. Ashley Hinson again repeated her contention that ICE agent Jonathan Ross was justified in shooting and killing Renee Good in Minneapolis on Jan. 7. The 2nd District Republican congressmember, who is currently running for the U.S. Senate, blamed Good for the shooting.
“I’ve seen those videos, and it’s very, very clear this woman did not respond to law enforcement calls to get out of the way,” Hinson told the reporters, Iowa Public Radio reports. “And while it’s unfortunate she made that choice, I stand with our ICE agents and our law enforcement and their ability to do their jobs in our communities and do it safely for themselves every single day.”
Multiple videos of the shooting from different angles were posted online immediately after Good was killed. Analyses of the videos published by the New York Times, the Washington Post, the international investigative research collective Bellingcat and others have shown that none of the ICE agents were in danger. Ross was able to step beside the SUV as he fired at Good.
Even the video Ross took with his phone as he fired three shots at Good, striking her in the face, shows him easily stepping away from the front of Good’s SUV as it slowly moves forward. That video, which was released by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), also shows Good speaking to Ross through her open driver’s side window, before other ICE agents approach the SUV, yelling at her to both move her vehicle and to get out of it.
“That’s fine, dude,” she said calmly, smiling at Ross. “I’m not mad at you.”
After being shot by Ross, the fatally wounded Good drives away. She doesn’t come close to hitting any of the ICE agents, and travels less than a block before crashing. After the crash, Ross can be heard on the video saying, “Fucking bitch.”
Good was returning from taking her 6-year-old son to school when she joined a group of local citizens in her neighborhood observing ICE agents. DHS claims Good was blocking the road to prevent ICE agents from driving to their destination, but video shows ICE vehicles driving past Good, who was stopped in what appeared to be an attempt to make a U-turn as agents approached on foot. DHS claims Good was engaged in an act of “domestic terrorism,” and was using her SUV as a weapon, despite all the video evidence to the contrary.
“Having seen the video myself, I want to tell everybody directly — that is bullshit,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said about claims the shooting was justified during a news conference on Jan. 7.
Hinson’s remarks on Wednesday were in keeping with those she made in the immediate aftermath of Good’s killing.
“The brave men & women of ICE protect our communities every single day. I stand with ICE & condemn the shameful, gross rhetoric from the Mayor of Minneapolis and others on the Left who continue to incite violence against law enforcement,” she posted on her official congressional X account hours after the shooting.
Two days later, during her weekly phone conference with Iowa reporters on Jan. 9, Hinson again declared, “I stand with ICE.”
“This woman interfered with an ICE agent who was doing his job,” according to the three-term congressmember. “She was accelerating toward him and that’s clear.”
Hinson went on to blame “the media” for helping to undermine the rule of law in the country: “So we’ve seen this unhinged rhetoric against our law enforcement, much of it fueled by the media, and it has encouraged Americans to ignore the laws that we have on the books.”
“If you don’t get in the way of ICE agents, it won’t be a problem for you,” she added. “And I always stand with and support our law enforcement.”
ICE agents, and other federal law enforcement officers sent to support their massive enforcement action in Minneapolis, have continued to use violence in encounters with the public. In one notable example, an ICE agent shoved Minneapolis City Council President Elliot Payne off the sidewalk on Monday night, when Payne started to question him about stopping a citizen at a bus stop.
“If this is how they treat the President of the Minneapolis City Council who is legally observing, just think of what they’re doing to everyone else in our City,” Payne wrote when he posted video of the encounter on Bluesky.
Agents have also continued to use chemical agents, including tear gas and so-called less-than-lethal munitions against people in Minneapolis. Minnesotans have largely responded by blowing car horns and whistles, shouting at agents, following and videoing them, and occasionally throwing snowballs. But on Wednesday evening, when crowds gathered after an ICE agent shot another person, some protesters went further, throwing fireworks and vandalizing two cars federal agents abandoned at the scene.
On Wednesday evening, ICE agents attempted to detain an undocumented Venezuelan national, whose car they pulled over in North Minneapolis in what DHS called “a targeted traffic stop.” The person fled, and after an ICE agent caught up to him, a fist fight ensued, during which two bystanders allegedly “attacked the law enforcement officer with a snow shovel and broom handle.”
“Fearing for his life and safety as he was being ambushed by three individuals, the officer fired a defensive shot to defend his life,” DHS said. “The initial subject was hit in the leg.”
The detained man was taken to the hospital where he was treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
A large crowd of protesters gathered at the scene, but remained peaceful as they confronted agents. A few people tossed fireworks in the direction of the agents, and after the agents left the scene, vandalized two cars they left behind. There were no reports of federal agents being injured by protesters, but the agents’ use of gas and flash-bang grenades did result in six children being taken by ambulance to a hospital.
“Shawn Jackson was parked nearby the scene with his kids in the car,” Minnesota Reporter, a Twin Cities-based news site, reported. “A law enforcement agency — unclear which one — set off flash bangs that detonated the airbags in his car. Officers then sprayed tear gas. The Minneapolis Fire Department took the children — including a baby suffering breathing problems, Jackson’s mother said — to the hospital.”
On Thursday morning, President Trump posted on Truth Social that he will “institute the INSURRECTION ACT” if “the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job.”
The seldom-used Insurrection Act, passed by Congress in 1807, allows a president to deploy the U.S. military within the United States to enforce the law. It was last used in 1992 during the riots in Los Angeles following the acquittal of the police officers who beat Rodney King. No president has ever before threatened to use it in response to two people hitting a law enforcement officer with a snow shovel and a broomstick, or someone throwing fireworks.
