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The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who shot and killed a 37-year-old woman in Minneapolis on Wednesday, Jan. 7, appears to have violated accepted law enforcement standards, including by shooting at a moving vehicle, according to a use-of-force expert who reviewed video taken by bystanders and widely shared online.
Chris Burbank, a former police chief in Salt Lake City who worked in law enforcement for 25 years, tells PEOPLE he does not believe the agent — who has since been identified by multiple news sources as Jonathan Ross — was in immediate danger when he fired his weapon at Renee Nicole Good, a mother of three.
“In order to use deadly force in this country, your life or someone else’s life must be in immediate danger,” Burbank says.
Burbank, who is also a consultant for the Center for Policing Equity, which helps law enforcement agencies reduce the use of force, say he finds it tragic that for the last 20 or 30 years, “we have tried to develop policy that protects the officers and protects the public.”
“What we saw in this video is a violation of what I view as pretty plain and clear police tactics,” Burbank says.
Federal officials have defended the agent. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said at a Wednesday news conference that the agent “is an experienced officer who followed his training.”
Noem further claimed Good refused commands to get out of her vehicle and then tried to run over federal agents, saying her actions amounted to a “domestic act of terrorism.”
In an interview with The New York Times on Wednesday after the shooting, President Donald Trump also claimed Good had tried to “run over” the officer.
“I want to see nobody get shot,” Trump told the outlet. “I want to see nobody screaming and trying to run over policemen either.”
He showed Times reporters video that he said proved his point — even as the reporters told him his assertion was not clearly supported by the video.
State and local officials have rejected federal accounts of the shooting. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz posted on social media, “Don’t believe this propaganda machine.” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called ICE’s characterization of events “bulls—.”
Geoffrey Alpert, an expert on police use of force at the University of South Carolina, along with Burbank, both said it appears Good was turning her vehicle away from the agent when she was shot.
Referencing the positioning of the agent in front of Good’s vehicle, Alpert says: “Why would you put yourself in a more dangerous situation? That is a question that needs to be answered.”
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Alpert added: “We have no idea whether this was a justified shooting. We have a lot of questions and the videos raise issues that a thorough and transparent investigation should answer.”
Burbank also questioned why officers had drawn their guns on the woman in the first place.
“They’re drawing guns on someone that I don’t think needs to have a firearm pointed at them, that is not the subject of investigation, that has not committed a criminal act,” Burbank says. “The argument of blocking the roadway, well, that’s a traffic violation. That’s not a crime.”
Noem said at a news conference Thursday, Jan. 8, that the officer who shot and killed Good had been treated at a hospital and released. In videos from the scene, the officer could be seen walking around after shooting Good.
