By Harshitha Kothapalli – Editor-In-Chief

Renee Nicole Good was fatally shot in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Wednesday, January 7. 

She wasn’t killed by “migrant criminals” or “illegal monsters” or “killers” or “gang members” or by “the aliens poisoning our country.” But, instead, by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Officer Jonathan Ross. According to ABC News, Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Ross has more than 10 years of experience as an ICE deportation officer and was handpicked for ICE’s Special Response Team. 

ICE claims Good, who was shot three times directly in the head, attempted to hit agents with her car and deemed the gunshots “self-defense.” This was not an isolated tragedy, but an example of unchecked state violence being justified through dehumanizing rhetoric. Shortly after the shooting, hundreds of videos and photographs documenting the event surfaced across social media and news platforms.

This newly released evidence raised urgent questions: Was lethal force the only option? Could Ross have disabled the vehicle instead by shooting the tires? If he had taken one more second to think, would three children still have their mother? Had any of these considerations been made, Renee Nicole Good would still be alive.

One widely shared video shows a bystander pleading with armed officers to check Good’s pulse. After repeatedly identifying himself as a physician, he is told no, ordered to step back, and met with the words, “I don’t care.” Officers then instruct bystanders to “relax.” Relax. 

During this devastation, many citizens turn to the government for comfort, for change, for help. Our President, Donald J. Trump, posted this on Truth Social: “I have just viewed the clip of the event…the woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing, and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE officer, who seems to have shot her in self-defense…but the reason these incidents are happening is because the Radical Left is threatening, assaulting, and targeting our Law Enforcement Officers and ICE Agents on a daily basis. They are just trying to do the job of MAKING AMERICA SAFE. We need to stand by and protect our Law Enforcement Officers from this Radical Left Movement of Violence and Hate!”

If today’s definition of a “safe America” means countenancing abuse of power and normalizing systemic violence, then I reject the definition entirely. Ultimately, the shots were fired by a law enforcement officer, and a U.S. citizen was hit; the “Radical Left” did not pull the trigger. ICE agent and government employee Jonathan Ross shot Renee Nicole Good. A day later, on Thursday, January 8, ICE agents shot two people in Portland, Oregon. These shootings have created a troubling pattern that has exemplified what America has turned into.

Something must change to break this cycle – and violence should never be an acceptable option.