Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, both Democrats, have been on the warpath since 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good was fatally shot.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were making arrests in the area when "rioters began blocking ICE officers and one of these violent rioters weaponized her vehicle."
The New York Post reports that Good was a trained anti-ICE "warrior," an activist who worked to "document and resist" the federal immigration crackdown in Minnesota.
On Wednesday, she ignored orders to stop her vehicle as she approached Jonathan Ross, an agent who was seriously injured in a traffic stop last summer when he was dragged the length of a football field in 12 seconds by the vehicle of a fleeing suspect.
"If you look at the video, the woman was clearly trying to ram an agent," notes Washington Times columnist Robert Knight. "If she'd survived, she would have been charged with attempted murder, but that doesn't seem to matter to the Democrats in Minnesota who circled the wagons that are defending their corrupt regime."
Federal officials have defended Ross, an Iraq War veteran who has served for nearly two decades in the Border Patrol and ICE. They recognize that in both cases, he was simply doing his job. He is said to have acted according to his training.
Mayor Frey, however, has labeled the self-defense claims as "garbage" and used foul language to lambast the DHS for sending ICE agents to the city.
"You have the mayor of Minneapolis, who presided over the George Floyd riots and watched as a Minneapolis police station burned down before he did anything, using the f-word to denounce ICE officials," Knight relays.
Gov. Walz has threatened to call out the National Guard to confront ICE and "ensure public safety." He has also repeatedly called for Minnesota state investigators to be allowed to participate in the federal probe into Good's death, arguing that excluding state officials undermines public trust and makes it "very, very difficult" for Minnesotans to believe the outcome will be fair without their involvement.
Amid the child-care fraud scandal in his state, Walz recently announced that he is not seeking a third term as governor.
