A former US attorney says the public has "no confidence" in the federal investigation of the death of Renee Nicole Good.
The mother was shot dead by ICE agents in Minneapolis last week, causing outcry from members of the public and political commentators. Vance, who served as attorney for the Northern District of Alabama from 2009 to 2017, says the mood across the country is one of distrust in the investigation.
Writing in her Substack, Vance suggested the goal is not to figure out the truth but to "restore communities' trust" as was the case for similar situations which have occurred in recent years. Vance also denounced Kristi Noem's "political knee-jerk" response to the death of Good.
Noem claimed Good had "weaponized her vehicle" against officers "in an attempt to kill or cause bodily harm to agents, an act of domestic terrorism." The statement was ripped into by Vance, who says there is "no confidence" in the federal investigation.
She wrote, "Meticulous investigations have to be conducted before conclusions are reached. It was irresponsible for Noem to call it self-defense. Conclusions in a situation like this shouldn’t be political knee-jerks; they should be fact-based."
"If they aren’t, and let’s not fool ourselves here, even if there is a federal investigation, it won’t be unless something dramatic shifts, the public will have no confidence in the outcome. And in this case, where the very life of an American citizen is involved, it’s essential for the public to trust the outcome."
"That’s the goal federal prosecutors worked toward with their state and local counterparts so they could restore communities’ trust after George Floyd’s and Ahmaud Arbery’s murders, and in countless other situations."
Vance went on to suggest the defense options available to the ICE agent who shot and killed Good are limited. Vance has suggested it will depend on the coroner's report.
She wrote, "The first shot, with the agent in front of the vehicle, went through the windshield. But he also appears to fire two additional shots through the driver’s side window. We do not know which shot killed Good."
"The County Coroner will likely do the autopsy report that will have bearing on this, while the feds may have collected physical evidence from the scene involving the gun and the shots fired that could be important as well."
"If the case were to be indicted as a murder and go to trial, even if the first shot was legitimate self-defense (which it does not appear to me to be based on multiple video angles and what we know now), the last two clearly were not, as Good had already turned completely out of his path and was driving off."
"It would be hard for the agent to argue for qualified immunity and claim he was operating lawfully if one of those shots was responsible for her death. That’s all awfully inside baseball, and that’s the point."
