An expert has revealed what could happen to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer who fatally shot Renee Good last week.
The mother-of-three, 37 was shot dead by federal agent Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis, US while officers were 'doing an enforcement operation' on Wednesday (7 January).
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said at a news conference that agents called for others to help remove a car from the snow, when protesters were 'preventing them from leaving the scene'.
Footage posted by Alpha News and the Department of Homeland Security showed Ross approach Good’s vehicle in the middle of the road while Good’s wife, who was also was recording the encounter, was walking around the vehicle and approaching the officer.
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Following a confrontation, Ross approaches the front driver side of the vehicle, and when Good reverses briefly and turns the steering wheel toward the passenger side, she drives ahead and Ross opens fire.
Noem said the ICE agent feared for his life and 'fired defensive shots'.
Donald Trump also said Ross was acting in 'self-defence' from an 'act of terrorism', while eyewitnesses thought Good wasn't doing anything wrong.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said: “They're already trying to spin this as an action of self-defence. Having seen the video myself, I want to tell everybody directly - that is bulls**t.”
On what could happen next, lawyer Andrew McCarthy said in a column for National Review that 'if the woman — who was allegedly blocking ICE agents with her car — was merely trying to flee rather than run the agent over, she should be understood as a murder victim rather than a criminal engaged in a dangerous act that justified the use of lethal force by law enforcement'.
He explained that 'if the assault or intimidation is carried out with a deadly or dangerous weapon, the penalty is up to 20 years’ imprisonment'.
However, McCarthy wrote: "Here, I believe the driver was in the act of committing a dangerous assault when the agent opened fire.
"And the driver’s reckless operation of the vehicle, coupled with the fact that she was heedless of harming armed law enforcement agents as they were carrying out their official duties, underscores that it was reasonable to believe she posed a serious threat to the agents and others."
The attorney predicts that Ross won't be 'charged and convicted' which 'doesn’t lessen the tragedy' and 'won’t stop Democrats from encouraging civil unrest'.
Rebecca Good, her wife, said in a statement to Minnesota Public Radio that they stopped to 'support our neighbours'.
"We had whistles. They had guns," she said.
"We were raising our son to believe that no matter where you come from or what you look like, all of us deserve compassion and kindness.
"Renee lived this belief every day. She is pure love. She is pure joy. She is pure sunshine."
Topics: US News, Politics, Donald Trump
Anish Vij