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Police arrested several demonstrators Saturday outside a federal building just south of Minneapolis, breaking up a protest marking the one-month anniversary of a Minnesota woman’s death at the hands of an immigration officer.
Renee Good was killed on 7 January as she was driving away from immigration officers in a Minneapolis neighborhood. Her death and the killing of another Minneapolis resident, Alex Pretti, just weeks later have stoked outrage nationwide over Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Scores of protesters gathered across the street from the Bishop Henry Whipple federal building around midday, throwing bottles and sex toys at a line of police guarding the property. The Minnesota Star Tribune reported that officers arrested a handful of protesters after the crowd starting throwing chunks of ice. A deputy was hit in the head, and a squad vehicle’s windshield was smashed, according to a statement the newspaper obtained from the Hennepin county sheriff’s office.
Police declared the gathering unlawful and ordered protesters to leave. Many complied, the Star Tribune reported, but about 100 remained in a standoff with deputies, state troopers and state conservation officers.
Video circulating on social media shows several protesters being forced to the ground and taken into custody. One person, as they appear to be placed in handcuffs, says: “I was here delivering pizza for the protesters. I had no idea that this was happening. I moved to the side of the curb when they started rushing everyone and now they’re arresting me. I am a peaceful protester delivering pizza and they’re arresting me.”
No one from the sheriff’s office responded to email, voicemail and text messages from the Associated Press on Saturday afternoon requesting a copy of the statement and inquiring about how many people were arrested, whether anyone was injured and what led up to the arrests.
Meanwhile on Saturday, hundreds of people gathered on a snow-covered field in a Minneapolis park to honor Good and Pretti. Event organizers echoed recent criticisms of the immigration crackdown across Minnesota, characterizing it as a federal occupation.
A Lakota spiritual leader, Chief Arvol Looking Horse, led a ceremony at the front of the crowd filled with people holding signs and American flags. Others shared music and poetry to honor the two people who have become central figures in the polarizing immigration debate in recent weeks.
A federal immigration officer shot and killed Good , a 37-year-old mother of three, in her car in Minneapolis on 7 January. Three agents surrounded her Honda Pilot SUV on a snowy street a few blocks from Good’s home. Bystander video show an officer approaching the SUV, which was stopped across the middle of the road, demanding the driver open the door and grabbing the handle.
The vehicle began to pull forward and a different ICE officer standing in front of it pulled his weapon and immediately fired at close range, jumping back as the vehicle moved toward him. The Trump administration has painted Good as a domestic terrorist who tried to run over an officer with her vehicle. State and local officials have rejected that characterization.
Pretti was killed on 24 January during a scuffle with immigration officers on the street. Bystander video shows a half-dozen officers taking Pretti to the ground. One spots Pretti’s gun, which he was licensed to carry, and shouts: “He’s got a gun.” Two officers then open fire.
The Trump administration’s border czar, Tom Homan, on Wednesday announced the administration would pull 700 immigration officers from Minnesota – roughly a quarter of the officers deployed to the state – after state and local officials agreed over the past week to cooperate by turning over arrested immigrants. Homan did not say when the administration would end its crackdown in the state, however.
Good’s wife, Becca Good, issued a statement Saturday saying that the immigration effort is hurting people in Minneapolis and no one knows their names.
“You know my wife’s name and you know Alex’s name, but there are many others in this city being harmed that you don’t know – their families are hurting just like mine, even if they don’t look like mine,” Becca Good said in the statement. “They are neighbors, friends, co-workers, classmates. And we must also know their names. Because this shouldn’t happen to anyone.”
Marina Dunbar contributed reporting.
