‘She was assassinated’: Tucsonans pour out in protest after ICE kills Minnesota woman

TUCSON – Dozens of protesters gathered in downtown Tucson Wednesday night to condemn the killing of Renee Nicole Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Minneapolis earlier that morning. 

Her killing was captured on video and shared across social media networks, sparking outrage and igniting demonstrations, protests and vigils in multiple cities across the U.S., including Tucson and Phoenix.

Those videos show ICE agents approaching Good’s vehicle, telling her to “get out of the f*king car” and reaching into her window. Good backs up, then drives away from the agents as one pulls out his weapon and shoots several times into the driver's window and another continues to pull on the door handle. The car then crashes into another car and a stoplight pole ahead, videos show.

Other videos show ICE agents telling a witness they’re not allowed to check for a pulse, despite the person identifying themselves as a physician. The agents start shouting at witnesses to back up and to “just relax.”

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem said the incident was an “act of domestic terrorism” against ICE officers, claiming Good “attacked them” and “attempted to run them over and rammed them with her vehicle.” Minnesota lawmakers claimed otherwise.

“Having seen the video myself, I want to tell everybody directly: that is bulls**t,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said before demanding ICE to “get the f*** out” of the city. Meanwhile, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz refuted the federal government’s claim, saying that Good’s killing was "preventable" and "unnecessary."

Despite nonstop rain all day in Tucson, dozens of organizers and residents gathered outside the federal immigration courthouse, holding both umbrellas and signs with messages, including  “ICE Kills,” “Chinga la migra” and “Honor Our Constitution.”

Protesters lined the sidewalk along Congress Street, one of Tucson’s busiest downtown roads, as cars drove westbound toward the freeway, some drivers honking in support. A couple of participants rang a bell as organizers chanted through a megaphone and the crowd repeated in a call and response.

“ICE out of Tucson!” 

“ICE out of everywhere!” 

“Abolish ICE!”

Just hours before the protest, an organizing group put out a call to the Defend Tucson/Tucson Se Defiende Coalition and local advocates began planning the emergency protest. By 5:30 p.m., coalition members had set up a tent with audio equipment and were handing out picket signs that read “Stop ICE terror now!” 

Lindsay Heimm’s anger was palpable as she stepped up to the microphone. Heimm is an organizer with the local protest group Lamplighters and with Defend Tucson.

Reading over her notes covered by a transparent folder and yelling at the top of her lungs, Heimm condemned the way DHS officials have described the immigrants they continue to detain and the way the Trump administration describes the actions of immigration agents. 

“This is a federal enforcement agency conducting mass raids in our neighborhoods, in our streets, in our workplaces, without meaningful civilian oversight, without any form of transparency, without accountability to the people, us, the people they claim to protect,” Heimm shouted. “Shame!”  

“Shame!” the voices in the crowd echoed. 

She said ICE does not represent public safety, even though it claims to act in the name of public safety.

“They tell us that terrorizing entire communities makes us safer, that profiling brown and Black bodies makes us safer,” she said, adding that officials try to paint those who dissent as people who don’t care about safety and as people who are soft on crime. 

“Safety without humanity is not safety. Security without accountability is not democracy, it’s authoritarianism,” Heimm said. “No agency that operates by fear, no force that relies on dehumanization, no system that treats entire communities as suspects when they have not committed any crime can ever be legitimate in a free society.”

She then asked the crowd to repeat the names of people who have been killed fleeing from immigration agents during ICE raids, detailing each of the deaths that occurred in 2025.

A farmworker in Southern California, Jaime Alanis Garcia died after falling during an ICE operation at his workplace in July. Jose Castro Rivera was struck and killed on a Virginia highway while attempting to flee immigration agents in October. Silverio Villegas Gonzales was fatally shot in September by an ICE agent in a suburb of Chicago. And Renee Nicole Good,  who was killed on Wednesday.

Her list did not include at least 20 people who died in ICE custody in 2025, the deadliest year since 2005, according to an NPR report.

In an interview with CALÓ News, Heimm said she felt devastated and heartbroken when she saw the news of Good’s death.  

“It shouldn't be a death sentence to get out, you know, to exercise your First Amendment right,” she said. “They have no right to kill somebody, to fatally… shoot somebody. Who are they? Judge, jury and executioner? Who the f*** are they?”

Heimm said she wasn’t surprised to see so many people show up despite the cold, rainy weather. She’s talked to people who have been increasingly angry and afraid at the actions of President Donald Trump’s administration. 

“But the fear isn't driving them inside,” she said. “It's driving them out. It's pulling them out, which is what I always hoped it would do.”

After several speakers took the mic, the diminishing crowd started marching east in a loop, closing the two main streets that make up downtown Tucson, Broadway Avenue and Congress Street. Marie Past walked in the front row using a cane and holding up a sign that read, “ICE is Immoral.” Her husband walked alongside her and held up his own sign: “Reclaim Our Democracy.” 

Marie and Larry Past moved to Tucson from Minnesota about a month ago. When they saw that morning’s news, Marie started looking for calls to action, she said. 

“This is bulls**t,” Marie said as she walked to her car after the protest and march. “We looked at the videos from both sides that the witnesses took, and…” 

“She was assassinated,” Larry said, finishing Marie’s thought as she agreed with him. 

The Pasts said they would like to see the ICE agent who shot Good be held responsible for his actions. They said Noem has falsely called Good and other observers in Minneapolis terrorists. 

Leslie Pike held up a sign that read, “Red alert, who’s next?” on one side and on the other side: “We Rise Up! We Speak Up! We Defend Democracy,” with a fist drawn in the middle. 

“Today, a woman lost her life because she wanted to resist against ICE occupation in her neighborhood, and she wanted to help her neighbors,” Pike said.

Born in Minneapolis, Pike said protesting against ICE actions was the least she could do.

“Citizens have a right to protect their neighbors,” she said. “Citizens have a right to speak up without fear of being shot.”