Tensions between Minnesota and federal officials deepened on Thursday over a US Immigration agent's fatal shooting of a 37-year-old mother of three in Minneapolis, an incident that drew condemnation from local officials and sparked widespread protests in the state and beyond.

State and federal officials offered starkly different accounts of the shooting, in which an unidentified Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot US citizen Renee Nicole Good in a residential neighbourhood.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said on Thursday it had initially agreed with the FBI to conduct a joint investigation into the shooting, but that the federal agency had "reversed course" and taken sole control of the probe. The decision, according to the BCA's superintendent, Drew Evans, means the state bureau will no longer have access to the scene evidence, case materials or interviews.

"As a result, the BCA has reluctantly withdrawn from the investigation," Evans said.

Keith Ellison, the state's Democratic attorney general, told CNN that the FBI's decision was "deeply disturbing" and said state authorities could investigate with or without the cooperation of the federal government. He added that the evidence he has seen, including some that has not yet been made public, indicates that state charges are a possibility.

US Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told reporters in New York that the BCA was not "cut out" but did not have jurisdiction.

Democratic Minnesota Governor Tim ‍Walz said at a press conference that any federal investigation that proceeded without state involvement would likely be seen as a "whitewash."

"And I say that only because people in positions of power ... from the president ⁠to the vice president to Kristi Noem have already passed judgement and told you things that are verifiably false," he said.

The ICE agent who shot Good was among 2,000 federal officers that President ‍Donald Trump's administration had announced it was deploying to the Minneapolis area in what the Department of Homeland Security described as the "largest DHS operation ever."

DHS officials, including Noem, defended the shooting as self-defence and accused the woman of trying to ram agents in an act of "domestic terrorism." Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat, called that assertion "garbage" based on bystander videos taken of the incident that appeared to contradict the government's account.

Both Frey and Walz have called on Trump, a Republican, to withdraw federal agents from the city, saying their presence is sowing chaos in the streets.

But RTHK's Washington correspondent, Simon Marks, said that would be unlikely.

"Up against federal power, there are real limits in what Governor Walls and Mayor Frey can achieve," he told the Hong Kong Today programme.

"There is simply no way they're going to be able to achieve that, because the Trump administration is actually doubling down, saying that they are going to swell the number of agents on the streets of Minneapolis-St Paul in response to what took place there on Wednesday."

The New York Times reported that the administration was deploying more than 100 additional Customs and Border Patrol personnel from other cities in the wake of the shooting.

Vice President JD Vance doubled down on the government's narrative at a White House press briefing on Thursday, repeatedly calling Good's actions an "attack" on law enforcement and saying the agent deserved "a debt of gratitude."

He also dismissed the notion that a federal officer could face prosecution by state authorities.

The videos showed two masked officers approaching Good's car, which ‍was stopped at a perpendicular angle on a Minneapolis street. As one officer ordered Good out of the car and grabbed at her door handle, the car briefly reversed and then began driving forward, turning to the right in an apparent attempt to leave the scene.

A third officer, who had been filming the scene before walking to the front of her car, drew his gun and fired three times while jumping back, with the last shots aimed through the driver's window after the car's bumper appeared to have passed by his body.

It was unclear from the video whether the car came into contact with the officer, who stayed on his feet and could be seen walking after the incident. Noem said he was taken to a hospital and released the same day, while Trump said on social media that the ⁠woman "ran over the ICE Officer."

DHS did not immediately respond to questions about the identity of the agent involved in Wednesday's shooting.

But Vance said the same agent had been dragged by a car last year and suffered injuries that required 33 stitches.

The shooting has left the city on edge, with thousands taking to the streets in protest. Protests were also ongoing or planned in other cities, including New York, Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles and Philadelphia.

Walz has put the state's National Guard on alert, and Minneapolis public schools were closed on Thursday and Friday as a precautionary measure. (Reuters/RTHK)
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Last updated: 2026-01-09 HKT 10:00