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Americans have been protesting all night long and for over two days in Minneapolis, expressing outrage over the death of Renee Nicole Good.
But for ESPN host Stephen A. Smith, the shooting was “completely justified.”
The 37-year-old mother of three was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer on Wednesday morning.
- Stephen A. Smith called the shooting of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE officer “completely justified” from a legal standpoint.
- Smith criticized the officer’s decision, suggesting shooting the tires instead of fatally shooting Good to de-escalate.
- Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was shot after allegedly trying to drive away from ICE officers during protests.
ESPN host Stephen A. Smith called the shooting of Renee Good ‘completely justified’
Image credits: Stephen A. Smith/YouTube
The ICE agent who shot Good, a U.S. citizen, alleged she tried to run him over with her car. The incident has sparked widespread protests and increased scrutiny over the actions of the Trump administration.
Smith defended the incident in a video uploaded on YouTube, calling the shooting “completely justified” from a legal perspective.
“I saw the video on numerous occasions and seeing what transpired from a lawful perspective as it pertains to a law enforcement official, don’t expect him to be prosecuted. He was completely justified,” Smith said.
He questioned the ICE agent’s decision to take such an extreme measure.
“From a humanitarian perspective, however, why did you have to do that? If you could move out the way, that means you could have shot the tires,” Smith said. “That means you could have got a few feet away after you shot the tires. And if you were unsuccessful in doing that, you could have got her down the road.”
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Smith added, “You didn’t have to do that. She wasn’t driving down the road coming at you 90 miles an hour. She was parked in the middle of the street, and rather than get out the car, she wrongfully tried to drive off and wrongfully disregarded a law enforcement official, which is exactly what ICE is, and, as a result, lost her life because of it.”
The second part of Smith’s opinion echoes that of former Minneapolis police chief Medaria Arradondo, who told CNN that the ICE agent could have de-escalated the situation.
“You’re also trained to do what you can as a law enforcement officer to eliminate your risk and to eliminate the public’s risk,” Arradondo said.
Similar to Smith, he said the agent could have gotten “out of the way of the car.”
Considering Good was not the immediate target of the operation, ICE agents could have let her go and revisited her case later, he said.
Social media users reacted strongly to Smith’s opinion. “Your dumbest take yet,” said one X user.
Another said, “This is what happens when we give ego maniac dumba***s a mic they think we give a s**t about their opinion.”
Your dumbest take yet.
— G Money (@R1ghtinGA) January 8, 2026
Many users refuted Smith’s claim that the agent should have shot the car’s tire. “You literally said ‘shoot the tires.’ This isn’t Hollywood, smoothbrain,” a user said.
A third user defended Good, saying, “Bro, that was flat out murder!! He was not in danger. He stepped in front of the car, she was not trying to run him over.”
ICE officer trainees typically had to complete the basic 13-week academy training. However, this time was cut in half in 2025, with the academy training reduced to 47 days.
Critics have long warned that this approach could worsen longstanding issues of accountability and violence within ICE.
Both President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the ICE agent who fired the fatal shot suffered injuries during the encounter.
Noem defended the agent, saying Good had been “stalking and impeding” the agency’s “lawful operations” throughout the day before the shooting.
Smith said the agent could have shot the tires of the car rather than taking Good’s life
Image credits: Alex Brandon/Getty Images
Calling it “an act of domestic terrorism,” Noem said Good drove her vehicle toward an ICE car that was stuck in the snow and surrounded by “a mob of agitators that were harassing them all day.”
When ICE officers ordered her to move the vehicle, Noem alleged that Good chose to “weaponize her vehicle” in an “attempt to kill or to cause bodily harm to agents.”
She added, “He is an experienced officer; he has been in situations like this before, and he certainly went out and used his training today.”
However, this account has been refuted by an eyewitness and neighbor, who told MPR News that Good “posed absolutely no threat to any of these agents.” The incident took place during an ongoing protest in the neighborhood.
The eyewitness, Betsy, said she came home to the sight of a maroon SUV and a cluster of vehicles, along with federal officers.
“She [Good] appeared to me to be trying to move her vehicle south on Portland Avenue to kind of get out of the way of the activity that was happening, and the officer was on the driver’s side of the car, like near the driver’s window,” Betsy said.
It has since been revealed that Good was part of a network aimed at disrupting ICE activity across the city. She linked up with other activists at her 6-year-old son’s school.
She was allegedly given specialized training after joining a group called ICE Watch.
WARNING: This video contains graphic scenes. Viewer discretion is strongly advised.
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She added, “He was yelling at her and as she started to accelerate her vehicle to kind of go south on Portland, he reached his arm into the driver’s side of the car and fired multiple shots.”
Betsy added that the neighbors wanted to provide aid to the woman but were told to back up by ICE officers. “From what I could tell, it looked like she was attempting to leave,” she said.
Smith continued his commentary, claiming that the officer who fired the shots will not be prosecuted. Federal officials have already said that he was acting in self-defense.
“From a legal perspective, don’t expect this ICE officer to be prosecuted, I’m telling you right now. She was in the car, protesting, blocking off the street, an officer got in front of the car, another on the side, and she tried to take off,” Smith said.
“And in their eyes… other folks, on the right, are saying no, they consider it an act of domestic terrorism because she tried to run over an ICE officer. Not gonna be prosecuted.”
“My point is, let’s not focus on that for a second, okay?” Smith continued. “She was wrong to drive off, she shouldn’t have done that. Or she should have asked the officer, ‘I am pulling over, can you move out of the way, please?’ instead of trying to disregard him totally to the point where you are gonna take off and potentially hit him, and he moves out the way and draws his gun and shoots through the front windshield and takes her out.”
“But it wasn’t necessary. You could have arrested her; you could have spared the woman’s life. You didn’t have to kill her,” Smith said.
Smith also commented on the state of the U.S. “We’re living in a country now where some people more often than not are becoming lawless and law enforcement officials are not only about enforcing the law while serving and protecting, but they are also taking lives.”
“At least in this case, I believe it was totally unnecessary,” he said.
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