WorldNetDaily’s initial reaction to the death of Renee Good in Minneapolis was to peddle the government narrative about it, as shown in a Jan. 7 article by Joe Kovacs:
An ICE-involved shooting in Minneapolis on Wednesday has sparked local unrest, with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz urging residents to “remain calm.”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said: “Today, ICE officers in Minneapolis were conducting targeted operations when rioters began blocking ICE officers and one of these violent rioters weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them – an act of domestic terrorism.
“An ICE officer, fearing for his life, the lives of his fellow law enforcement and the safety of the public, fired defensive shots. He used his training and saved his own life and that of his fellow officers.”
“The alleged perpetrator was hit and is deceased. The ICE officers who were hurt are expected to make full recoveries.”
“This is the direct consequence of constant attacks and demonization of our officers by sanctuary politicians who fuel and encourage rampant assaults on our law enforcement who are facing 1,300% increase in assaults against them and an 8,000% increase in death threats.”
[…]President Donald Trump weighed in on the matter, saying: “I have just viewed the clip of the event which took place in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is a horrible thing to watch. The woman screaming was, obviously, a professional agitator, and the woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense.
“Based on the attached clip, it is hard to believe he is alive, but is now recovering in the hospital. The situation is being studied, in its entirety, but the reason these incidents are happening is because the Radical Left is threatening, assaulting, and targeting our Law Enforcement Officers and ICE Agents on a daily basis. They are just trying to do the job of MAKING AMERICA SAFE. We need to stand by and protect our Law Enforcement Officers from this Radical Left Movement of Violence and Hate!”
Former FBI Special Agent Nicole Parker told Fox News the circumstances in this case “absolutely justifies the use of deadly force.”
Kovacs followed with an article denigrating Good because she wasn’t heterosexual:
The woman fatally shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis Wednesday as she allegedly tried to run him down with her vehicle has now been identified as 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good.
Her identity was released by her mother, Donna Ganger, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune.
[…]Good’s Instagram account features a gay-pride flag, pronouns of “she/her” and describes her as a “poet and writer and wife and mom and sh*tty guitar strummer from Colorado; experiencing Minneapolis, MN.”
Video on X captured a woman speaking talking to an onlooker who claimed to be Good’s wife, saying she had a six-year-old child.
“That’s my wife, I don’t know what to do,” the onlooker cried.
The man recording the clip asked if the frantic woman was with the victim, and if she had any friends who could help.
“That’s my wife… [unintelligible] … I have a six-year-old at school … we’re new here, we don’t have anyone,” she responded.
Kovacs included an X post by Brandon Tatum calling Good a “domestic terrorist” and sneering: “Pride Flag/ Prounouns… every single time.”
But the government’s claims that Good was committing an act of “domestic terrorism” were overblown at best — prompting some govenmnt officials to worry about potential liability — so Kovacs had to reinforce his narrative, which he edid in a Jan. 11 article, complete with updated government narrative:
New video released by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Saturday shows additional footage and a different angle of events leading up to last week’s fatal shooting of anti-ICE activist Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis.
The clip is just over three and a half minutes long and stops right before the federal agent shoots Good inside her vehicle, which DHS says was weaponized against the officer.
“The media continues to fail the American people in their reporting on the events in Minneapolis,” said DHS.
“New evidence shows that the anti-ICE agitator was STALKING and IMPEDING a law enforcement operation over the course of the morning.
“The evidence speaks for itself. The legacy media has lost the trust of the American people.”
[…]White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt reacted to the new footage, saying: “Remember when the media called Abrego Garcia an innocent ‘Maryland Man,’ when he was actually an illegal alien, human trafficker, wife beater, and gang member?
“Minnesota is a different case, but the legacy media is running the same playbook.
[…]White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt reacted to the new footage, saying: “Remember when the media called Abrego Garcia an innocent ‘Maryland Man,’ when he was actually an illegal alien, human trafficker, wife beater, and gang member?
“Minnesota is a different case, but the legacy media is running the same playbook.
“This woman was not ‘an innocent mother dropping off her child at school.’ She was a leftist insurrectionist who was purposefully and illegally obstructing law enforcement operations.”
But the video didn’t show with the government, including Vice President J.D. Vance, claimed it did. Mediaite detailed:
Video of Renee Nicole Good’s killing by masked ICE agents in Minneapolis on Wednesday clearly reveals a vehicle turning away from officers as shots are fired. Vice President J.D. Vance has described the shooting as clear self-defense and has accused critics of “gaslighting.” His argument requires the public to disregard what the video documents.
[…]Even conservative legal analysts have acknowledged the distinction. Jonathan Turley, a pro-Trump Fox News contributor and George Washington University law professor, noted on Fox & Friends Thursday morning that while officers face genuine dangers, the legal standard for deadly force requires an imminent threat that cannot be avoided by other means. The video shows the officer created that avoidance before firing.
Even border czar Tom Homan distanced himself from the Department of Homeland Security’s initial statement blaming the victim. When pressed by The New York Times after viewing the video, President Donald Trump sidestepped follow-up questions — a notable departure for a figure known for doubling down.
It appears that Kovacs was gaslighting too.