The clips are shot from different angles. Some are zoomed in and grainy to the point of being unreadable, while others are slowed down. Some are 20 seconds long, while others are longer, interspersed with comments from users on social media platforms such as X, Bluesky, Reddit, and TikTok. Each video depicting the moment an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot a woman in Minneapolis is slightly different, but the sound of gunshots and bystanders crying are the same.
The shooting occurred days after federal authorities announced they would send thousands of immigration workers to Minnesota after a YouTube video went viral alleging wrongdoing in social services. (The video showed little evidence for that claim.) Even before it became clear what happened in the shooting, federal authorities were preparing their own version of the incident. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called it an “act of domestic terrorism” by the woman who was shot. Noem claimed that as ICE agents tried to push her car out of the snow, the woman “attacked” her with her car and “tried to run her over.” Donald Trump claimed on Truth Social that the woman screaming in the video was a “professional agitator” and that the deceased driver, later identified as 37-year-old Renee Goode, “violently, intentionally and viciously ran over an ICE officer, who apparently shot her in self-defense.”
The video attached to Truth Social's post is a grainy 13-second clip that was thrown. It appears to have been taken from the ground, perhaps from a balcony or a second-story window, but a large tree blocks most of the frame. The footage was shot towards the passenger side of Good's car, with the ICE officer near the driver's side headlight. As Good's car starts and shots are fired, ICE agents move with the car, but it is unclear whether he was struck by the car or was reacting to the car's movement.
While there is no shortage of footage and photos of the murder scenes, one particular video shared by President Trump served as a clincher for the far right. Megyn Kelly shared a version of the same clip at least a dozen times on X, and the TikTok account Libs described it as “the video Democrats don't want you to see!” Even in the president's own social media posts, the clips include a watermark from a local TV station. This clip is initially low quality compared to other videos of the incident, but as it is reshared, screen recorded, edited, slowed down, cropped, and zoomed in, it starts to take on a fried quality, but it's fine. In an era of hyperpartisan media steeped in propaganda, where X-users eagerly tag non-consensual deepfake porn generators to ask if their claims are true, MAGA needs some proof to present as incontrovertible proof. They discovered it in a short, interrupted video of the killing.
Much of the footage of the moments leading up to Goode's murder refutes the Trump administration's version of events. A bystander's video taken from a different angle shows two other agents approaching Good's car, one of them pulling on the driver's side door handle and barking at Good to get out of the car. (The neighbor who recorded the incident said the agent told Good to leave.) Good put the car in reverse and began to turn away from the ICE agent near the front of the car. be new york times Analysis of the footage showed that the agent was not in the path of Good's car when he fired three shots at it. (In slow footage, the agent appears to film Good with her cell phone before she draws her weapon.) As the gunshots are fired, her car accelerates down the street and slams into a parked car. The investigator who shot Good walked slowly toward her crashed car and quickly drove away from the scene.
We've been concerned about how a world with AI embedded in everything will affect our shared sense of reality. As generative tools become widely available, deception may become entrenched, creating a post-truth era. Indeed, AI was involved in the aftermath of Goode's murder, particularly in X, where some users used Grok to try to “unmask” the ICE agent who shot her. (In the video, the agent wears a neck gaiter pulled up over his nose, obscuring half his face.) Fake AI reenactments of these shooters have appeared on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and other platforms, along with unidentified names that have somehow gone viral. But by confidently claiming that a blurry video shows evidence of domestic terrorism, the Trump administration is asking the public not to believe their eyes, despite mounting evidence to the contrary. Who needs AI operation when your favorite angle works just fine?
Five years ago, a mile away from where Good was shot, the public witnessed another video clip that went viral around the world. Police officer Derek Chauvin had his knee on George Floyd's neck. The footage of Floyd's killing was captured by 17-year-old Darnella Frazier, and the video sparked the largest protests in U.S. history. Chauvin was found guilty of Floyd's murder in 2021, but debate continued over the crime, including whether Floyd was a sufficiently innocent victim, whether it was justified to cause racial discrimination throughout American society as a result, and whether Floyd's death was treated with sufficient dignity.
In the surreal images captured by times During an hour-long conversation with President Trump this week, an aide held up a laptop with a grainy, MAGA-approved video of Mr. Goode's shooting. When pressed about the administration's claims, President Trump deflected. His base will see what they want.
