Washington — Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem held a news conference Thursday in New York City one day after U.S. Immigration and Customs enforcement officer fatally shot a U.S. citizen during an operation in Minneapolis. Noem announced the “takedown” of dozens of people suspected to be connected to the Dominican Republic-based gang Trinitarios.
But it was the shooting death of 37-year-old Renee Good in Minneapolis that was the focus of reporters’ questions, and the incident has sparked protests in the Twin Cities and elsewhere, including New York. Noem said Wednesday that the actions of the woman who was shot constituted a “domestic act of terrorism.”
On Thursday, Noem said the ICE officer involved “did follow his training.”
“This is an experienced officer who followed his training, and we will continue to let the investigation unfold into the individual and continue to follow the procedures and policies that happen in these use of force cases,” she said.
The ICE agent who opened fire yesterday is based in Minneapolis and has over 10 years of experience, a senior DHS official told CBS News. He is a member of the ICE ERO Special Response Team (SRT), a specially trained tactical unit within ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations.
Minnesota officials say the FBI has blocked them from accessing key information. Noem said local authorities in Minnesota have not been “cut out” of the investigation.
“They have not been cut out,” she said. “They don’t have any jurisdiction in this investigation.”
The Trump administration has deployed about 2,000 federal immigration and investigative agents to the Minneapolis-St. Paul region to crack down amid the state’s fraud scandal.
Trump administration officials have said the shooting was in self-defense, while Minneapolis’ mayor and Minnesota’s governor have indicated otherwise after footage of the incident was posted online. The city of Minneapolis said police responded to a call reporting a shooting around in a Minneapolis neighborhood, and upon arrival, found that a woman in a vehicle had been shot in the head. She was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
On Wednesday, Noem said any loss of life is a “tragedy” but alleged that this incident was “preventable.”
“ICE officers and agents approached the vehicle of the individual in question, who was blocking the officers in with her vehicle,” Noem said Wednesday night. “And she had been stalking and impeding their work all throughout the day. ICE agents repeatedly ordered her to get out of the car and to stop obstructing law enforcement, but she refused to obey their commands. She then proceeded to weaponize her vehicle and she attempted to run a law enforcement officer over.”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey expressed outrage over the shooting, directing a message to federal immigration officials — “get the f*** out of Minneapolis.”
Noem on Thursday said Frey “chose to stand with illegals” with his statements.
Regarding the arrests and deportations of people suspected to be connected to Trinitarios, Noem said the group is behind the July 2025 shooting of an off-duty Customs and Border Protection officer in Manhattan. Federal authorities said the vast majority of those people had either charges or convictions, and all were in the U.S. illegally.
“We’ve arrested 54 individuals as a part of Operation Salvo since its inception just a few months ago,” Noem said. “Those arrested are violent transnational gang members and affiliates associated with Trinitarios who are responsible for weapons trafficking, for human smuggling, for narcotics distribution and for armed robberies. They had perpetuated previous violent attacks across the city of New York City.”
