Protests against the Donald Trump administration appear poised to spread after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) shooting in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
On the 8th (local time), the AP and others reported that people angered by the previous day's incident in which an ICE agent in Minneapolis shot white woman Renee Nicole Good, 37, in the head and killed her gathered early that morning in front of a federal building to protest. The building is a major ICE hub.
As the protest continued, agents with the Department of Homeland Security's Border Patrol fired pepper spray and tear gas to push the crowd across the street from the building. After that, more than 100 agents in tactical gear held the scene, many wearing gas masks or ski masks.
City education authorities, citing safety concerns, ordered all public schools closed and said the order would remain in effect through the 9th. There were also reports that Border Patrol agents were involved in a clash at a high school about 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) from the shooting scene the previous day.
The AP said protests against immigration enforcement are being held or are expected to be held not only in Minneapolis but also in New York City, Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., North Carolina, Seattle, Los Angeles, and New Orleans.
Earlier the previous morning, Renee Nicole Good, a woman who was blocking the road while in the driver's seat of a vehicle on a Minneapolis street, refused ICE agents' demands to open the car door and tried to move the car, then was shot and killed by an ICE agent.
The Department of Homeland Security said, "One of the violent rioters tried to run over and kill the agents with a car, so an ICE agent fired in defense," but backlash intensified as video spread that did not show the woman threatening an ICE agent immediately before she was shot.
State authorities are also at odds with federal officials. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) publicly protested that federal agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), were blocking Minnesota investigators' access to evidence in the case. The BCA said the FBI reversed an initial agreement to conduct a joint investigation.
Minneapolis, where this incident occurred, is where the "George Floyd death" took place during Trump's first term, sparking intense protests across the United States. With expectations rising that resistance to excessive use of state power could flare up, the U.S. political world is on high alert.