President Trump told CBS News he believes the woman who was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent last week was likely a “very, solid wonderful person,” but that her actions before she was killed were “pretty tough.”
Mr. Trump spoke with “CBS Evening News” anchor Tony Dokoupil in Michigan on Tuesday, less than a week after 37-year-old Renee Good was shot in Minneapolis while behind the wheel of her SUV.
Dokoupil asked if the president had a message for Good’s father, Timothy Ganger, a Trump supporter who spoke with Dokoupil last week and described his daughter as a warm and witty person who wrote poetry and taught English. Ganger told CBS News he’s heartbroken that the Trump administration quickly called Good “a domestic terrorist.”
Mr. Trump said: “I would bet you that she, under normal circumstances, was a very solid, wonderful person. But, you know, her actions were pretty tough.”
He defended ICE, which has surged agents to the Minneapolis area as part of the administration’s sweeping deportation campaign. The president said ICE is “working very hard” to arrest and deport people, but “their job is being made very, very difficult.”
The Trump administration has claimed the ICE agent acted in self-defense and accused Good of trying to ram the agent with her SUV. Mr. Trump had previously alleged Good was “very disorderly, obstructing and resisting.” But local officials have blasted ICE and called the shooting unjustified, and some law enforcement experts have criticized the agent for positioning himself in front of her vehicle.
Late last week, the Trump administration shared a cellphone video taken by the ICE officer who shot Good, showing the incident from his perspective. The agent appears to approach Good’s SUV and move to the front of the car, after which the video jerks away as the vehicle starts to move. Shots can then be heard.
Mr. Trump said of the videos from the scene: “When you look at that tape, it— it can be viewed two ways, I guess. But when you look at the way … that car was pulled away, there are a couple versions of that tape that are very, very bad.”