Around 80 people gathered at Placita Olvera in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday evening, Jan. 7, to demonstrate against ICE after a federal immigration officer shot and killed a 37-year-old woman in Minneapolis earlier in the day.
The Los Angeles protest at the historic Mexican plaza was organized by the Party for Socialism & Liberation. Organizers called for the officer who shot Renee Nicole Good to be charged with murder. Protesters said Good was exercising her right to watch and observe ICE activity when the officer shot her.
Some participants carried signs reading “Stop ICE terror now!” and “ICE out of our communities.”
Maria and Mike, who asked not to be identified with their last names, said they gathered at Olvera to show protesters in Minneapolis that they aren’t alone in their anger and grief.
Mike added he worried that he and other community members were becoming used to immigration raids in Southern California and across the country.
“We don’t want to get desensitized,” Maria said.
The violence, Mike said, is hard for anyone to ignore this time, because there were videos circulating across social media of the shooting in broad daylight.
Maria hopes their efforts will help make the world a better place before her son is born in a few months. She said other branches of government should stand up to President Trump, so that he’s pressured to stop federal takeovers of Minneapolis, Chicago, L.A. and other cities across the country.
Organizers also reflected on the one-year anniversary of the devastating Eaton and Palisades fires that killed 31 people and burned thousands of homes and businesses. Community organizers reported ICE activity in Pasadena and across the metro area, something organizers said was ironic, given that immigrant workers stepped up to help Pasadena, Altadena and the Pacific Palisades clean and rebuild in the wake of the wildfires.
Shootings involving ICE earlier attracted attention in Southern California including:
An off-duty ICE officer killed a man whom activists identified as Keith Porter Jr. in Northridge on New Year’s Eve. Los Angeles police responded to the apartment complex at 17701 Roscoe Boulevard after reports of someone firing shots into the air. The off-duty ICE officer, who also lived at the complex, also responded and fatally shot the man.
— Carlos Jimenez, 25, of Ontario was charged with assaulting a federal officer in November after prosecutors said he reversed his car towards immigration officers and one of the officers shot and injured him. Jimenez’s lawyer said he was following commands from officers to drive away from the area and not trying to attack federal officials.
The shooting left Jimenez with a broken shoulder blade and a bullet still lodged in his shoulder, his lawyer said.
— Charges were dropped against TikTok creator Carlitos Ricardo Parias, whom an ICE officer shot during a traffic stop in October. Officers surrounded Parias’ vehicle and fired their weapons shortly after he left his home, striking his elbow. A ricocheting bullet also hit a U.S. deputy marshal in the hand. Parias remains in immigration custody.
— Immigration officers smashed Francisco Longoria’s driver’s side window and shot at him as he drove away during a standoff in August in San Bernardino. Later that month, immigration officials arrested Longoria at his home on suspicion of assaulting a federal officer, but a judge dismissed the case later that day, saying there wasn’t evidence to support the charge. Immigration officers then detained him outside a Riverside courthouse and put him in immigration detention.
“There is no accountability right now,” said Aida Ashouri, a lawyer running for L.A. City Attorney, of recent shootings by ICE officials.
Ashouri called on city officials in Southern California to do more to protect residents, rather than just point fingers at the Trump administration.
Minneapolis officials denied Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s characterization of events earlier in the day as an “act of domestic terrorism” against ICE officers. Noem said the officer shot the woman — identified by family as Good — in self defense and accused the woman of trying to hit federal officers with her vehicle.
After watching footage of the scene, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said the shooting wasn’t in self defense and called on federal officials to leave the metropolitan area amid the Trump administration’s most recent immigration crackdown in the Twin Cities, which federal authorities announced Tuesday, Jan. 6.
State and federal authorities are investigating the shooting.
Multiple local protests are scheduled in response to the Minneapolis shooting, including at 10 a.m. on Thursday, Jan. 8, at the Federal Building at 300 N. Los Angeles Street in Los Angeles and at 5 p.m. at Mariachi Plaza. Organizers of Wednesday’s protest said another demonstration would be held Saturday, Jan. 10, at 2 p.m. in Pershing Square.