ICE Agents Quick to Fire Pepper Balls at Minneapolis Protesters Thursday Morning

Hundreds of peaceful protesters gathered outside the Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis on Thursday morning to continue protesting the killing of 37-year-old U.S. citizen Renee Good on Wednesday. Despite large peaceful protests across the city the night before, ICE agents outside the building quickly grew aggressive.

Reports from local stations describe ICE agents deploying pepper balls and mace into the growing crowd, while videos and photos circulating on social media show ICE agents aggressively pushing, shoving, dragging, and arresting protesters—who began gathering outside the building around 7 a.m.

Corinne Perkins, the North America Editor for Reuters Pictures, tweeted photos of two arrests and one horrifying photo—particularly in light of Wednesday’s killing—of a masked officer seemingly reaching for his gun.

A member of the Special Response Team (SRT) holds his weapons at a protest against the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent, during a rally outside the Whipple Building in Minneapolis. Photo by Tim Evans pic.twitter.com/22IJ6UErnb

— corinne_perkins (@corinne_perkins) January 8, 2026

“They identified somebody they wanted in this crowd, they aggressively went after them, they pushed their way in, now they’re shooting pepper balls towards the crowd,” CNN’s senior national correspondent, Ryan Young, reported from the protest. “We don’t know why they decided to go after this gentleman. There were a bunch of people standing still, and then all of a sudden, they ran in and tried to grab him.”

The protesters on Thursday morning chanted “Nazis out,” “No ICE, no KKK, no fascist USA,” and told ICE agents, “You did this, you killed her,” according to local news reports and videos. Young also reported that several ICE agents were shoving women to the ground, which made more of the men “push back.” Seconds after Young said, “At least they’ve stopped shooting pepper balls at this point,” he reports that agents started firing more pepper balls.

Trump’s goons are already pepper spraying and roughing up people in the Twin Cities this morning pic.twitter.com/rgprDGWBBy

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 8, 2026

During an immigration raid early Wednesday, an ICE agent shot and killed a 37-year-old woman in her car as she was trying to drive away from another ICE agent attempting to open her driver door. Eyewitnesses have since told authorities that the woman received conflicting instructions from ICE agents, with a few telling her to “move, move, move”—which is what she was seemingly trying to do by driving away.

Despite multiple videos from various angles of the incident, DHS is attempting to spin the incident and claim the agent merely acted in self-defense. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem went even further, claiming the woman “attacked” ICE Agents and described her actions as an “act of domestic terrorism.”

Another protest is planned for 5:30 p.m. Thursday at Lake Street and Chicago Avenue, as Minneapolis leaders warned that ICE’s presence is inflaming an already volatile situation. Mayor Jacob Frey told ICE to “get the fuck out” of the city on Wednesday, while Governor Tim Walz warned that “Trump wants a show” and urged residents not to give it to him. Minneapolis Public Schools canceled classes for the rest of the week, citing safety concerns as tensions continue to rise.

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