White House border czar Tom Homan is worried the “hateful rhetoric” against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who fatally shot a Minnesota woman last week will lead to “more incidents” like it.
Speaking with NBC News host Kristen Welker on Sunday, Homan called for an end to the hateful rhetoric against law enforcement.
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“Saying this officer is a murderer is dangerous. It’s just ridiculous. It’s going to infuriate people more, which means there’s gonna be more incidents like this,” he said on NBC’s Meet the Press.
He added, “The hateful rhetoric is not only continuing. Now it’s tripling down and doubling down.”
Tensions have been increasingly high since Jonathan Ross, 43, killed Renee Nicole Good, 37, in Minneapolis on Wednesday after she accelerated her vehicle toward the ICE officer. In response, Ross shot and killed Good.
Homan believes the officer feared for his life when the car moved toward him.
“You got a woman behind the wheel of a 4,000-pound vehicle, revving her engine, going toward you,” he told Welker. “I truly believe this officer, in his mind, thought his life was in danger, which allows him to use lethal force.”
Newly released cellphone footage shot from the officer’s perspective shows Good reversing her vehicle and accelerating seemingly to escape the situation after a separate officer told her to get out of the car. Gunshots can be heard as it sounds like the vehicle made contact with Ross. Good crashed into another car parked on the street a short distance away.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem previously disclosed that the ICE officer in question sustained injuries from a separate vehicle-ramming incident last year. In the latest incident, the officer was briefly hospitalized after he appeared to have been hit by the car. Video footage showed him walking around the scene seemingly unharmed following the shooting.
ICE has reported a 1,300% increase in assaults against its officers and a 3,200% increase in vehicular attacks last year, according to the latest data published by the agency on Thursday.
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Numerous anti-ICE protests have been held across the nation, most notably in Minneapolis and throughout Minnesota, since last week’s shooting. Despite the public outcry, ICE continues to conduct immigration operations in a sign that it intends to maintain a strong presence in the blue state.
Another officer-involved shooting happened Thursday in Portland, Oregon, where a Border Patrol agent shot and wounded two people. The Department of Homeland Security alleged the victims were tied to the Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, to justify the agent’s actions. Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield’s office is currently investigating the shooting.
