ICE agent shooter’s own cellphone video undercuts Trump administration's account of Minneapolis killing

Editor's note: Video in this article may be upsetting to some readers.

Update: Wife of Minneapolis woman killed by ICE speaks out for the first time

A newly released cellphone video, apparently filmed by the ICE officer who killed Renee Nicole Good, and obtained by Minneapolis-based Alpha News, a conservative-leaning nonprofit news site, appears to sharply contradict the U.S. government’s public account of the fatal Wednesday shooting, raising new questions about whether the agent who opened fire was ever in immediate danger.

Keep up with the latest in LGBTQ+ news and politics. Sign up for The Advocate's email newsletter.

The footage was recorded on a cellphone by ICE officer Jonathan Ross, not by a department body camera. It captures Ross’s own perspective as he approaches Good’s maroon Honda Pilot during what the Department of Homeland Security claims was a federal operation in south Minneapolis. The Advocate has not independently verified the video’s authenticity.

Related: Shocking video shows ICE agent fatally shooting woman in south Minneapolis

Related: Distraught woman says ICE killed her wife in video after deadly Minneapolis shooting

Inside the SUV, Good, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen, poet, and mother of three, appears calm and even warm, smiling at the masked agent and attempting to defuse the encounter. After he gets out of his car and approaches hers from the passenger side, where a large black dog is sitting in the rear looking out the window, he walks in front of the SUV and moves to the driver’s side window, which is open. “That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you,” she says, as Ross circles the vehicle and films its rear license plate. Her wife, Becca Good, stands nearby, recording as well.

As Ross moves behind the SUV, Becca can be heard calling out, “Show your face,” before adding, “We don’t change our plates every morning, just so you know. It’ll be the same plate when you come talk to us later. That’s fine. U.S. citizen… You want to come at us?”

Ross then walks along the passenger side of the Honda Pilot, where the front wheels are visibly angled to the left.

Ross appears to begin turning back toward his own vehicle. Only then do other federal agents rush into view, shouting in quick succession, “Get out of the car. Get out of the fucking car. Get out of the car.”

At that moment, Renee Good reverses the SUV. As she looks over her left shoulder, she turns the steering wheel and the front wheels sharply to the right, away from the agents, and the vehicle begins to accelerate.

Related: ICE officer who shot and killed Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis has been identified

Related: LGBTQ+ officials denounce ICE killing of Minneapolis woman, demand investigation

Ross, still filming with one hand, appears nearly fully clear of the SUV’s front path when he says “whoa” and shoots three times in rapid succession.

As the Honda Pilot lurches forward out of frame and careens toward a utility pole and a parked vehicle, Ross can be heard muttering, “Fucking bitch.”

Federal officials, including President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, have insisted the shooting was justified, claiming the officer acted in self-defense after being charged by the vehicle. The newly released footage appears to show Ross already stepping away from the SUV’s line of travel at the moment he fired, a sequence that conflicts with that narrative.

Vance shared the new video online, writing that it verifies the administration's position that the shooting was self-defense.

Related: Feds freeze Minnesota officials out of probe around killing of Renee Nicole Good

Related: Federal immigration agents shoot two more people, this time in Oregon

In her first public statements since the killing, Becca Good described her wife as a woman guided by gentleness and faith, who had stopped that morning to check on neighbors amid the federal operation. “We had whistles. They had guns,” she said, rejecting the administration’s portrayal of Renee as violent or dangerous.

Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin and ICE did not immediately respond to The Advocate’s requests for comment.