Minneapolis Mayor Again Thrust Into The National Spotlight Over Shooting

Minneapolis has been thrust back in the center of a national political convulsion following the fatal shooting of a local woman by an ICE official — and its mayor has been returned to the heart of the storm.

Just hours after an ICE agent shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Good, Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey had an expletive-laden message for the federal government: “Get the fuck out of Minneapolis.” He called the Department of Homeland Security’s characterization of the events leading up to the shooting “bullshit,” taking an adversarial stance against the administration and vowing to pursue justice in the case.

For Frey, who oversaw Minneapolis during the George Floyd killing in 2020 and subsequent weeks of protests and riots over police brutality, the ICE killing stands as the latest moment that will define his leadership.

“The mayor is channeling the universal anger of this city and it mirrors what we’re seeing across the country,” said former Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, also a Democrat. “This isn’t a debatable issue. It is deeply, deeply wrong. I don’t fault him for showing that rage. It simply reflects what most of us would feel.”

A spokesperson for Frey did not offer further comment beyond his past public statements, including that the agent who shot Good was “recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying, getting killed."

Frey, who last year was elected to his third and final term, drew some criticism in the aftermath of the Floyd murder, which fueled the Black Lives Matter movement and set off calls from activists across the nation to slash public resources for law enforcement.

He was elected in 2018 on a platform promising to reform policing and mend the relationship between the community and law enforcement. But after Floyd’s death, he was attacked from the left for his refusal to defund the Minneapolis police department, including by members of the Minneapolis city council, while conservatives blasted him for not responding more forcefully to restore order in the city. Frey instead sought structural changes with the police department, like banning chokeholds and requiring officers to step in when they see another officer applying improper force, and last year, he promised to continue following a federal consent decree mandating police reforms despite it being dropped by the Trump administration.

Last August, Frey and Minneapolis were both back in the national spotlight. After a shooter opened fire on a Catholic mass, leaving two children dead, Frey called for gun control while criticizing those who tied the shooting to transgender issues because federal officials said the shooter was trans. “Anybody who is using this as an opportunity to villainize our trans community or any other community out there has lost their sense of common humanity,” Frey said at the time.

His handling of police issues played a big part in two tough elections — he bested another Democrat who ran to his left in an all-party general election in 2021, and held on for a 6-point win just last November over state Sen. Omar Fateh, a Democratic socialist, who campaigned on overhauling the police department and reducing homelessness.

Abou Amara, a Minneapolis civil rights attorney, said that Frey’s handling of the ICE shooting has given him an opportunity to win over some of his progressive critics, who have failed to oust him despite multiple attempts.

“There's a recognition within the city, even from his detractors and others, that he has met the moment,” Amara said. “He has been able to bridge that divide between the left flank and him on this issue and demonstrate the ability to reach a consensus with folks all across the political spectrum in the city.”

While the ICE shooting — and potential for widescale protests to resemble the Floyd outrage and unrest — similarly tests Frey’s leadership in a moment of crisis, he’s facing a different type of opponent with President Donald Trump and not his own police department, said Gregg Peppin, a Minnesota-based GOP strategist.

“Because the protagonist is Trump and ICE, it was easy for him to go on offense,” Peppin said. “Maybe it showed some learning from George Floyd. We need to show a strong leader and not dilly dally.”

Nationwide the incident is emerging as a boiling point for critics of the Trump administration's aggressive immigration agenda in which the federal government has sent thousands of ICE agents into large cities to arrest suspected undocumented immigrants, against the fierce objections of local leaders. Trump officials have claimed the operations are intended to target violent criminals, but undocumented immigrants without criminal records as well as legal residents have been caught up in the raids.

And it makes Frey a proxy for other Democratic mayors dealing with the unwelcome intrusion of federal law enforcement onto their streets. From Chicago to Nashville to New Orleans, mayors leading those cities have been propelled into confrontations with the federal government over immigration — pushing them to choose how aggressively to combat the Trump administration.

Tensions remain high in the city. Thousands of residents attended a vigil for Good on Wednesday evening and hit the streets to protest ICE under the Trump administration, with more actions scheduled for Thursday. School is canceled for Minneapolis children the rest of the week.

The ICE shooting also comes as Minnesota is facing a federal probe into a massive welfare scandal, a controversy that contributed to Gov. Tim Walz announcing this week he will not seek reelection for a third term. The Department of Homeland Security deployed as many as 2,000 troops into the Minneapolis area this week in part to crack down on alleged fraud by Somali residents.

Hours after the shooting, Walz on Wednesday said he was readying the National Guard for possible deployment, swift action in contrast to his handling of the Floyd shooting where he was criticized for waiting too long to dispatch state resources to contain protests that led to property damage in downtown Minneapolis. Walz and Frey later traded blame over the deployment’s timing.

“Some are cheering for more protests, more signs that the big metropolitan areas, the cities like Minneapolis, are out of control and lawless, but they're not,” said DFL State Sen. Nick Frentz. “They're actually propelled by a number of very committed Minnesotans and Americans who love the city and who want it to succeed and prosper and don't want to have people shot in their streets for no good reason.”