Witnesses to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent fatally shooting Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on Wednesday say federal officers impeded the response of emergency medical personnel to the scene, blocking the road with their vehicles.
Emily Heller, a witness who lives near the intersection of 34th Street and Portland Avenue, recorded the scene as it unfolded. She told NBC News that agents blocked people from approaching Good’s vehicle. Her video shows a man who identified himself as a physician asking to check for a pulse and being rebuffed.
“We have our own medics,” bystanders were told. No evidence of medical support assigned to ICE or homeland security on the scene has emerged. The first responders to the scene came from Hennepin EMS, tied to Hennepin county medical center.
Video from the scene does not show federal agents rendering aid to Good.
The Department of Homeland Security establishes an affirmative duty for federal law enforcement officers to render medical aid in its policies. “As soon as practicable following a use of force and the end of any perceived public safety threat, DHS LEOs shall obtain appropriate medical assistance for any subject who has visible or apparent injuries, complains of being injured, or requests medical attention,” the agency policy states. “This may include rendering first aid if properly trained and equipped to do so, requesting emergency medical services, and/or arranging transportation to an appropriate medical facility.”
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Heller said from what she saw, Good would not have been likely to survive the close-range shots to the head by the ICE agent. But it took 15 minutes for an ambulance to arrive because vehicles were blocking the street, she said.
Hennepin county medical center is an eight-minute drive north of the shooting scene.
“When they did arrive, they couldn’t get through with the ambulance,” Heller told Hallie Jackson on NBC News. “So they just came on foot and then examined her for a few minutes, maybe five minutes, and then they carried her out by her limbs like a sack of potatoes. There was no stretcher. They had to walk her to the corner to get closer to the ambulance.”
A spokesperson for Hennepin county medical center said that the response to the shooting was a matter of investigation and could not confirm Heller’s account.
The best public interest journalism relies on first-hand accounts from people in the know.
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