MINNEAPOLIS—For months, crisis after crisis has battered this Midwestern city and state. The killing of a state legislator and her husband. A mass shooting of Catholic school children. A sprawling fraud scandal that scuttled the governor’s re-election hopes and made the area the new center of President Trump’s immigration crackdown.
On Thursday, residents awoke to the aftermath of another painful—and polarizing—event that is drawing worldwide attention: an ICE agent’s fatal shooting Wednesday of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, a mother of three , in a middle-class neighborhood.
For many here, an overwhelming sense of déjà vu took hold as media and law enforcement again flooded the city. Schools closed. Vigils and protests erupted, with demonstrators standing on snowbanks throughout an unusually temperate January day.
Local clergy and others gathered at the site of the shooting, struggling to make sense of the tragedy.
The incident played out just a few blocks from where George Floyd was killed in May 2020, a flashpoint that sparked unrest Minneapolis has spent years overcoming.
“It feels like there’s some PTSD because there’s a similar trauma that comes with this,” said Rev. Nathan Melcher, a United Methodist Pastor whose parish is nearby. He stood in the wide street near where Good was killed.
That street, Portland Avenue, is lined with typical Minneapolis homes with screened-in front porches and decorations in the front yard. Now it has become a memorial for Good. Impromptu barricades block off both ends of the block. People play music and stoke fires for warmth. Flowers and candles lie in front of the telephone pole where her Honda Pilot crashed.
As in the rest of America, questions are pulsing through the community over who bears blame, who should investigate and what comes next.
“I think probably I’m not alone in wondering how I feel—like I think a lot of people are in that same place,” said David Wehde, 53 years old, who lives about a block away from where Good died and was out walking his two dogs Thursday afternoon.
David Wehde lives near the site of the shooting. Bridget Bennett for WSJ
A memorial for Renee Nicole Good. Bridget Bennett for WSJ
Homeland Security said the agent fired in self-defense after Good attempted to run over officers, but state and city officials have disputed that version of events after seeing videos on social media that seemed to support witness accounts that Good was attempting to flee the scene rather than harm anyone.
Across Minneapolis, it felt like many knew someone connected somehow to the tragedy. At Modern Times, a neighborhood eatery, the owner, Dylan Alverson, said he didn’t know Good personally but he was sure she ate there.
Julie Young, a retired nurse practitioner, stood outside the Whipple Federal Building with a sign that read, “We Protect Our Neighbors and Their Children.” She said a lot of sadness hung over the city but also determination. “We’ve been through some really hard things as a community. We are amazingly resilient and welcoming, and I have great faith that we can affect the change that we know has to happen here.”
At times, the city’s varying crises intersected. When Gov. Tim Walz condemned the federal government’s decision to exclude state officials from the probe, Rep. Tom Emmer (R., Minn.), the House Republicans’ whip , invoked the sprawling fraud scandal involving Somali immigrants on Walz’s watch and wrote on X, “Please stay out of this, Timmy!”
Just after the shooting, Emmer and U.S. Rep. Angie Craig (D., Minn.) got into a shouting match on the House floor.
Walz has urged calm to avoid incidents that he said could trigger further federal crackdowns.
“Do not take the bait,” Walz said. “Do not allow them to deploy federal troops into here. Do not allow them to invoke the Insurrection Act. Do not allow them to declare martial law.”
Rep. Michelle Fischbach (R., Minn.) blamed Minnesota leadership for the surge of some 2,000 ICE personnel into the city and surrounding areas to conduct immigration arrests.
“Gov. Walz and Mayor Frey are more upset with ICE than the illegal criminals they’ve allowed to flood our streets,” she said on X.
Tensions ran high. Minneapolis schools closed through the week’s end, with all extracurricular activities postponed for safety.
People at the memorial site for Good. Bridget Bennett for WSJ
Someone had spray-painted “Viva Renee” at a bus stop in honor of Good. At the Whipple Federal Building, local ICE headquarters where dozens of protesters gathered, more than 100 heavily armed federal officers stretched along about 500 feet of the building’s parking lot.
Some demonstrators shouted through bullhorns while others confronted officers, telling them to go home.
Greg Bovino, a Border Patrol commander who has led militarized immigration operations in Los Angeles and Chicago , walked the line of officers, drawing shouts from protesters like Lauren Johnson, a 40-year-old designer from a Twin City suburb.
Lauren Johnson held up a sign outside of the Whipple Federal Building during a demonstration on Thursday. Michelle Gustafson for WSJ
“We’re losing everything, and I feel really hopeless,” said Johnson, who fought back tears. She held up a sign that read simply “Renee” in black marker.
Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino amid protests in Minneapolis on Thursday. Michelle Gustafson for WSJ
Later, reports emerged of counterprotesters arriving, sparking clashes. Federal authorities deployed tear gas and made some arrests.
Write to Joe Barrett at Joseph.Barrett@wsj.com
