WATCH: Minnesota should play a role in investigation into ICE’s killing of Renee Judd, Walz says

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz insisted Thursday that Minnesota should play a role in the investigation into the shooting death of a Minneapolis woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, objecting to the Trump administration’s decision to keep the investigation solely in the hands of the federal government.

Watch Walz’s remarks in the video player above.

A day after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot Renee Judd in the head as she tried to drive away on a snow-covered Minneapolis street, tensions remained high, as dozens of protesters vented their anger outside a federal facility serving as the center of the administration’s latest immigration crackdown on a major city.

Read more: What we know so far about the Minneapolis shooting

“We should be terrified,” protester Shanta Hejmadi said, as demonstrators chanted “No more ice,” “Go home, Nazis” and other slogans in front of a line of Border Patrol officers, who responded with tear gas and pepper spray. “We should feel sad that our government is waging war on our citizens. We should come out and say no. What else can we do?”

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, President Donald Trump and others in his administration have called the shooting an act of self-defense and portrayed Judd as a villain, suggesting she used her car as a weapon to attack the officer who shot her.

Vice President J.D. Vance said Thursday that the shooting was justified and that Judd, a 37-year-old mother of three, was a “victim of leftist ideology.”

“I can believe that her death was a tragedy while also recognizing that it was a tragedy of my own making,” Vance said, noting that the officer who killed her was injured during her arrest last June.

But state and local officials and protesters rejected that characterization, with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey saying video of the shooting showed the self-defense argument was “garbage.”

The immigration crackdown quickly turns deadly

The shooting occurred on the second day of the Trump administration’s anti-immigration crackdown in Minneapolis and St. Paul, which the Department of Homeland Security said was the largest immigration enforcement operation ever. More than 2,000 officers are participating in this operation, and Noem said they have already made more than 1,500 arrests.

Read more: ICE shooting reinforces Minnesota’s grim role as a target for Trump

That sparked an immediate reaction in the city where police killed George Floyd in 2020, with hundreds of people showing up to the scene to vent their anger at ICE officers and the school district canceling classes for the rest of the week as a precaution.

Judd’s death — at least the fifth death linked to immigration crackdowns since Trump took office — resonated beyond Minneapolis, where protests broke out or were expected this week in several major American cities.

Who will investigate?

The Minnesota agency that investigates officer-involved shootings said Thursday it had been informed that the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice would no longer work with the department, effectively ending any role for the state in determining whether crimes were committed. Noem said the state had no jurisdiction.

Read more: Minnesota officials say they do not have access to evidence after the fatal ICE shooting and the FBI will not work jointly in the investigation

“Without full access to the evidence, witnesses and information gathered, we cannot meet the investigative standards demanded by Minnesota law and the public,” said Drew Evans, the office’s supervisor.

Walz has publicly called for the state to be allowed to participate, repeatedly asserting that it would be “very difficult for Minnesotans” to accept that an investigation that excludes the state could be fair.

Attendees hold signs during a news conference, following the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Judd by a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, January 8, 2026. Photo by Tyrone Siu/Reuters

He said Noem was “essentially judge, jury and executioner” during her public comments about the confrontation.

“People in positions of power have already made judgments, from the president to the vice president to Kristi Noem — they have stood up and told you things that are verifiably false, verifiably inaccurate,” the governor said.

“We want to make sure there is oversight over this department to ensure that this investigation is conducted for justice, not for a cover-up,” Frey, the city’s mayor, told The Associated Press.

A deadly confrontation from multiple angles

Many bystanders captured footage of Judd’s killing, which occurred in a neighborhood south of downtown.

Video clips show an officer approaching an SUV parked in the middle of the road, asking the driver to open the door and hold the handle. The Honda Pilot begins to move forward, and another ICE officer standing in front of it draws his weapon and immediately fires at least two shots at close range, then jumps back as the car moves toward him.

Read more: The woman killed by an ICE agent was a mother of three, a poet and new to Minneapolis

It’s not clear from the videos whether the vehicle made contact with the officer, and there is no indication whether the woman had interacted with ICE agents earlier. After the shooting, the SUV sped off, hitting two cars parked on the sidewalk before crashing and stopping.

The mayor said he is working with community leaders to try to keep any protests peaceful.

“The most important thing this Trump administration is looking for is an excuse to intervene with military force, to continue occupying our streets, to cause more chaos, and to ignite this kind of civil war on the streets of America in a city run by Democrats,” Frey told the Associated Press. “We can’t give them what they want.”

The officer was identified in court documents

Noem has not publicly named the officer who shot Judd. But a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman said her description of his injuries last summer referred to an incident in Bloomington, Minnesota, where court documents identified him as Jonathan Ross.

Ross had his arm stuck in the car window of a driver who was fleeing arrest for an immigration violation, and he was dragged about 100 yards (91 meters) before being released, records show.

He fired his Taser, but the spikes did not incapacitate the driver, according to prosecutors. Ross was taken to hospital where he received more than 50 stitches.

The jury found the driver guilty of assaulting a federal officer with a dangerous weapon.

The officer involved in the shooting worked for more than 10 years as a deportation officer and was selected for ICE’s Special Response Team, which includes a 30-hour test and additional training, said Tricia McLaughlin, Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security.

McLaughlin refused to confirm the officer’s identity as Ross. The AP could not immediately locate a phone number or address for Ross, and ICE no longer has a union that could comment on his behalf.

Associated Press reporters Steve Karnofsky, Giovanna Dell’Orto and Mark VanCleave in Minneapolis, Ed White in Detroit, Valerie Gonzalez in Brownsville, Texas, Graham Lee Brewer in Norman, Oklahoma, Michael Biesecker in Washington, Jim Mustan in New York, and Ryan Foley in Iowa City, Iowa, contributed.