About 35 Chico-area residents gathered at City Plaza this evening in a vigil for Renee Nicole Good, the woman who was killed earlier in the day by an immigration officer in Minneapolis.
The demonstrators gathered with candles and alternately sang and spoke about the need to organize and protest in the wake of the killing by an officer from Immigration, Customs & Enforcement (ICE). Good, who was 37, and according to reports was a U.S. citizen, was driving a maroon-colored SUV when she was approached by officers and then shot.
Video shows her steering her car away from officers who were pulling on the driver’s side door handle. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Good was killed during an “act of domestic terrorism,” and the Trump administration has said the officer acted in self-defense.
Bill Bynum, a demonstrator from the Defenders of Democracy Coalition, said he watched the video and doesn’t believe that ICE acted in self-defense.
“I am outraged,” Bynum said. “It’s murder, in my opinion. She was approached, and the guy said, ‘Get the fuck out of your car.’ She was scared to death in my opinion.”
Another Chico demonstrator, Lupe Arim-Law, said she had been deeply upset by the killing.
“She’s a mother, she’s a young woman and she’s white,” Arim-Law pointed out. “They’re coming for all us that don’t agree with them. We need to keep coming out and we need to keep showing up.”
Thank you Chico Sol for showing we care and we showed up