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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

Outrage After ICE Agent Kills Woman In Minneapolis; Trump Administration Outlines Plan For Venezuelan Oil. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired January 08, 2026 - 04:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[04:00:30]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN HOST: Welcome to our viewers joining us from the US and all around the world, I'm Rahel Solomon. It is Thursday, January 8th, 4:00 AM here in New York.

It's 3:00 AM in Minneapolis where protests have been mostly peaceful after an immigration agent shot and killed a US citizen. Crowds gathered late Wednesday and into the overnight hours for a vigil. Now we're going to play for you two videos of the shooting and what happened before. From different angles, you can decide for yourself what you see.

The Trump administration is calling it self-defense against an act of domestic terrorism. Democratic mayor of Minneapolis calls that explanation BS. Now, the first video is chaotic, it's confusing. You will see the shots being fired, but the woman is not visible inside her SUV. First, a warning, though, that this video is tough to watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, no. Shame. Shame. Oh my God. What the (bleep.) What the (bleep). You just (bleep). What the did you do?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: OK. Once more, this time in slow motion. So you see one officer walk over to the vehicle. Let's play this video for you again. The car's reverse lights come on. You see the officer there start to pull at the handle with his right hand while reaching inside the open window with now his left hand.

Another officer is now in front of her car and you see her reverse lights go out. When the car begins to move forward, the officer draws his weapon. He fires once towards her windshield, a second time at her open window and a third shot immediately afterwards.

The car goes careening down the street and the officer reholsters his weapon. Now we've also obtained a second video recorded from the other side of the incident.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(INAUDIBLE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: All right. Once more in slow motion to assess the officer's location in relation to the vehicle. So the officer is on the right side of your screen. Eventually, he backs up a step or two and it appears that the forward moving vehicle comes into contact with him. He fires three shots.

Now this other video we recently got shows another important detail. Authorities say that the woman was blocking ICE agents with her vehicle, that's what they say. But you can see several other cars driving around her just before the shooting. The FBI now investigating exactly what happened in Minneapolis.

CNN's chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst John Miller explains what they'll be looking into.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: The first question is it appears when the vehicle and the agent make contact, he has already opened fire on the vehicle and the vehicle is attempting to escape. There's a bunch of issues here. One is, it is against pretty much all tactical policy of major law enforcement agencies to place yourself in front of a moving vehicle and draw your weapon.

The DHS policy is not to shoot at a moving vehicle. It limits what can be done about shooting at fleeing felons because it endangers the other people around, something that jumps out at me. And Chuck Ramsey brought this up earlier, the former police commissioner, that as he's firing at the woman who is in the driver's seat, he's firing literally a little more than a foot away from two of his partners who are standing in that same place in that line of fire.

So it raises a number of tactical concerns, and that's how it's going to be looked at. What were the tactical issues here? What were the policy issues here? But most important, what were the legal issues here?

Was that agent legally justified? How will he articulate why he thought he was legally justified? And key to that is, how will that be measured against what a reasonable agent with similar training would have done in the same circumstance. So is the car coming towards him to run him over or to escape, should he have stepped aside to get off the X and deescalate the situation in that they could arrest that person later? Or should he be fired at a fleeing felon? And if so, what was the felony?

[04:05:04] So far, the woman who ended up being killed in this had not committed a specific crime other than interfering with the agents by having her car in the street. So a lot of questions that are going to needed to be answered.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: CNN's Whitney Wild has more on the developments from Minneapolis. But first, a warning, her report does contain strong language and disturbing video.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JACOB FREY, MINNEAPOLIS MAYOR: Get the fuck out of Minneapolis.

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: The mayor's strong message to ICE as protests are growing along with outrage following the death of a 37-year-old US citizen named by officials as Renee Nicole Good, who was shot in the head by an ICE officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Wednesday.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Shame. Shame. Oh my (bleep) God.

WILD: Several shots are heard as she appears to drive away from the middle of the street at the site of an immigration enforcement operation.

TREVOR HEITCAMP, EYEWITNESS TO SHOOTING: I was standing parallel to the car on the sidewalk, maybe 10-15ft away and it was moving slowly and I believe they overreacted in a way that cost somebody their life.

WILD: Minnesota's governor saying he feared recent ICE operations would lead to tragedy.

TIM WALZ, MINNESOTA GOVERNOR: So preventable, so unnecessary. Do you have no decency?

WILD: The Department of Homeland Security says she had tried to use her vehicle as a weapon against officers.

FREY: That is bullshit. This was an agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They just killed that lady right there in that car, y'all.

WILD: The mayor lashing out at ICE and saying federal units were removed from the scene to create calm after protesters were shoved, sprayed and forcibly knocked to the ground by members of a Border Patrol Tactical Unit.

FREY: What they are doing is causing chaos and distrust. Your stated reason for being in this city is to create some kind of safety and you are doing exactly the opposite.

BRIAN O'HARA, MINNEAPOLIS POLICE DEPARTMENT CHIEF: The preliminary information that we have indicates that this woman was in her vehicle and was blocking the roadway. A federal law enforcement officer approached her on foot and the vehicle began to drive off. At least two shots were fired.

WILD: The mayor and police chief's description of the events that led up to the shooting are in stark contrast to the accounts from DHS and Secretary Kristi Noem.

KRISTI NOEM, DHS SECRETARY: She had been stalking and impeding their work all throughout the day. ICE agents repeatedly ordered her to get out of the car and to stop obstructing law enforcement, but she refused to obey their commands. She then proceeded to weaponize her vehicle and she attempted to run a law enforcement officer over.

WILD: The deadly conflict comes one day after around 2,000 federal agents, including DHS Secretary Noem, descended on the Minneapolis area Tuesday in an immigration crackdown in the city. Noem blamed protesters for the violence.

NOEM: These vehicle rammings are domestic acts of terrorism.

WILD: The scene of the shooting now filled with protesters is just four blocks from where George Floyd was killed in 2020, very little is known about the victim.

O'HARA: She appears to be a middle-aged white woman. There is nothing to indicate that this woman was the target of any law enforcement investigation.

WILD: Local law enforcement is now calling for full transparency and the governor has put the Minnesota National Guard on alert.

And let me leave you with the most striking scene we've seen all day here. This is where that woman lost her life. This started with a small vigil, just a few flowers. Then we have seen it grow. And we now see dozens of candles, dozens of bouquets of flowers.

And we're seeing at least a hundred people or more come out to pay their respects to a woman they very likely did not even know. Whitney Wild, CNN, Minneapolis.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLOMON: President Donald Trump is echoing homeland security's explanation of the shooting, saying that the agent who opened fire was acting in self-defense. He also blamed what he calls the radical left. CNN's Kristen Holmes has more from the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: As the situation in Minneapolis grows more tense and more politically divided, President Trump has also weighed in blaming radical left Democrats for what happened in Minneapolis after a woman was shot and killed by an ICE agent. On Truth Social, he posted this. I have just viewed the clip of the event which took place in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was a horrible thing to watch. The woman screaming was obviously a professional agitator and the woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully and viciously ran over the ICE officer who seems to have shot her in self-defense. Based on the attacked clip, it is hard to believe he is alive, but he is now recovering in the hospital.

The situation is being studied in its entirety, but the reasons for these incidents happening is because of the radical left or because the radical left is threatening, assaulting and targeting our law enforcement officers and ICE agents on a daily basis. They are just trying to do the job of making America safe.

[04:10:13]

We need to stand by and protect our law enforcement officers from this radical left movement of violence and hate. So just a couple of things to note here, we have seen the video. It will be up to the viewer to decide if the woman in the car was disorderly, obstructing and resisting as President Trump says. And I do also want to note that President Trump says that the woman screaming, who you can hear in the video we have played was obviously a professional agitator.

That is not something that we have any reporting on or that we have confirmed in any way or that there's even any evidence of at this time. But one thing is clear, President Trump is standing by this ICE agent. And one thing to note is that the agents that are there on the ground are part of President Trump's agenda.

They are there at the behest of President Trump as he has been trying to enforce this immigration crackdown. So, of course, here we see him standing by, one of the officers, saying that this was a shot done in self-defense, that he himself, through the Department of Homeland Security, has put on the ground.

One thing to note, this situation, we've been talking to our reporters on the ground, talking to sources on the ground, is only growing more tense by the moment. We have spoken to some officials who hope that everyone will start tone down the rhetoric. Kristen Holmes, CNN, the White House.

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SOLOMON: All right. Joining us now is Neama Rahmani. He's a former Federal Prosecutor and President of West Coast Trial Lawyers. We appreciate you being with us this morning, especially early on the West Coast.

Neama, we just played the video there from different angles, multiple videos. The White House, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, they all say that it was self-defense. State and local officials strongly dispute that. When you look at the video legally, what do you see?

NEAMA RAHMANI, PRESIDENT, WEST COAST TRIAL LAWYERS: Rahel, I'm trying to separate the politics from the law here. And first, I understand that our nation's immigration laws, they're unpopular, but ICE absolutely had a right to be there. And I'm going to assume for the sake of argument that good was obstructing. That means agents can detain her temporarily.

And if she did strike them with her vehicle, well, that's felony assault. But to use deadly force, you have to be at imminent risk of death or serious bodily injury. And the use of force must be both objective, reasonable, and also proportionate, I don't believe the use of force in this case was justified. And this is why.

There's clear evidence that she's backing her vehicle up. She's turning the wheels to the right. I don't believe that this agent was at imminent risk of death or serious bodily injury. I believe that this was an overreaction.

This was criminally negligent. We're certainly going to see a civil lawsuit. We may even see murder charges under Minnesota State Law.

SOLOMON: And we also don't see in this video the agent involved get out of the way of the car or attempt to get out of the way of the car. I mean, is he required to before using this kind of force? I mean, what types of actions are required before you pull your weapon?

RAHMANI: Well, Rahel, there's no duty to retreat, so that's not necessary. But the question is, was this criminally reckless? If you're a law enforcement officer, doesn't matter if you're local police or you're a federal agent, should you be approaching a vehicle from the front of the vehicle and putting yourself in dangers way?

Now, obviously, that's not an excuse or a justification to accelerate into an officer. But again, does that require the use of deadly force? It appears to me what's happening here is, the ICE agent wants to prevent someone from fleeing.

Well, the law is clear. You cannot shoot someone simply because they're fleeing. Even if they are fleeing felon, you have to use non- lethal tactics to detain them. That's exactly what should have been done here. And if so, good may have been in custody and been alive instead of the tragedy that we've all seen.

SOLOMON: And you said that you might expect to see murder charges, perhaps a civil case in a trial like this, in a case like this. You've been on both sides of the courtroom, Neama. What might you expect to hear as a potential defense?

I mean, self-defense is already sort of out there in the ether but walk me through what you might expect to hear, especially since there appears to be so much video that we've already seen in just the last few hours.

RAHMANI: Well, there's no question we're going to get to see a civil lawsuit by the victim's family, that's coming. But in terms of the criminal cases basis, there's the possibility of federal and state charges. We know federal charges are not happening in this political climate. There's no chance that Pam Bondi and the Department of Justice charges this ICE agent. So it's going to be up to Minnesota's attorney general, Ellison, or local prosecutors there to charge the agent with either murder or manslaughter. And he absolutely can be charged under state law even though he's a federal agent. So there's really three degrees of murder under Minnesota law, and there's actually two degrees of manslaughter.

[04:15:04]

So it can get a little bit complicated. But it's important to know that under both the civil and criminal cases, if the self-defense is perfected, that means if it was objective, if it was reasonable, the jurors do believe that the agent was at that imminent risk of death or serious bodily injury. That is a complete defense.

But if the self-defense is not perfected and jurors believe that this agent was shooting someone who was fleeing, the federal government is going to have to pay a lot of money and this ICE agent will likely be convicted. I can tell you a recent case I handled, jurors do not like officers who shoot people just because they're fleeing.

Two weeks ago, that is $13 million verdict in a similar case where someone attacked a police officer, tried to run away, and was shot in the back four times. So that's the type of thing jurors don't like because they expect their police officers to follow the law.

SOLOMON: How does the fact that, I mean, there were other people outside, there were other agents outside. I mean, how does that play into ultimately what happened here, that there were other people potentially in danger as this agent opened his open fire?

RAHMANI: Well, it's critically important. So one thing we've seen is video is the best evidence. And a lot of people are drawing parallels to George Floyd. Obviously that also happened in Minnesota, close to the scene of this tragic killing. But I think they're very different cases because obviously this was a split second decision.

And in the Derek Chauvin case, you had someone who killed an innocent man over the span of eight minutes. But in addition to the video, and I think, Rahel, the most important video is going to be the shooting agent's body cam footage. That angle is the most important.

I mean, we're seeing the front side angle here from a distance. Obviously we've all seen the angle from the back, but it's really the agent's angle that matters the most because he is in the position to make the decision whether to use deadly force or not. And his angle is the one that's going to be dispositive.

But as was reported, the fact that there are other agents presence and none of them decide to use any force whatsoever. They're trying to pull the steering wheel, they're giving verbal commands. And you have one agent that decides on his own to use the most lethal force. And not just one gunshot, Rahel, and we see the one in the front, but three.

Was the second and third necessary? I think those are going to be very difficult questions for both this ICE agent who will be named individually in the lawsuit as a plaintiff, and the federal government to answer because I don't expect them to settle this case. So I expect to see parallel prosecutions both on the civil side and as well as by state prosecutors here.

SOLOMON: Yes, certainly a lot to watch here. Neama Rahmani, we appreciate your time this morning. Thank you.

RAHMANI: Of course. Thanks for having me, as always.

SOLOMON: And the family of the woman killed by a US ICE agent says that their daughter was an amazing human being. How they're remembering her coming up next. Plus, a live report on plans for Venezuela's oil as the US military captures another two oil tankers. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:22:26]

SOLOMON: Welcome back. We are learning more about Renee Nicole Good, the woman killed by an ice agent in Minneapolis on Wednesday. Minnesota officials say that she was a mother to a six-year-old and had stuffed animals in her car that belonged to her child. Her mother spoke with the Minnesota Star Tribune saying, "Renee was one of the kindest people I've ever known. She was extremely compassionate. She's taken care of people all her life. She was loving, forgiving and affectionate. She was an amazing human being."

And her father, speaking to the Washington Post, said in part, "She had a good life but a hard life. She was a wonderful person. She was caught in a bad situation today, but we don't know the facts."

State and local officials, meantime, are calling for justice and transparency in the investigation into the fatal shooting. Crowds gathered for a vigil late Wednesday near where the shooting happened. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claims that Good tried to run over the ICE officer, but witnesses say that she was trying to drive away when the officer shot her.

Minnesota's lieutenant governor became emotional when she spoke to CNN about the victim.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PEGGY FLANAGAN, MINNESOTA LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR: Folks are angry. They are incredibly upset. They're sad that a mother has been killed by ICE agents. And what we see tonight is people who are showing up in the way that they should show up in vigil with, you know, non-violent resistance. That's the most important tool in our toolbox right now.

And so, what we're seeing on the ground with people expressing just sadness and anger, and lament, but doing so peacefully, that's what I think you can expect from Minnesotans tonight. But I also just want to be really, really clear that Renee Nicole Good should be alive. She was killed by an ICE agent. And the video footage that we have seen with our own eyes was a very different story from what we're hearing from Kristi Noem and Donald Trump.

She was a mother of a six-year old. She had stuffed animals in her vehicle for her child. This is outrageous and we all should be incredibly upset by what we witnessed today and expect so much more from leaders at the national level like Donald Trump and Kristi Noemi.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: Now to another major story we're following. President Trump told the New York Times that the US could have oversight of Venezuela for a long time. This comes as the US Senate prepares to vote on a measure that would limit his war powers in the South American country.

[04:25:04]

Just yesterday, Congress was briefed on the operation to capture President Nicolas Maduro. Republican Senator Eric Schmitt applauded what he called a successful mission.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ERIC SCHMITT (R-MO): I think it sends a very powerful message to folks around the world, our adversaries around the world, the capabilities of the US military in support of this law enforcement operation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: Democrats left Wednesday's briefing apparently unimpressed. They accused the Trump administration of having no plan for what comes next in Venezuela.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): This is an insane plan. They are talking about stealing the Venezuelan oil at gunpoint for a period of time undefined as leverage to micromanage the country.

SEN. PETER WELCH (D-VT): Everyone is in great admiration of the capacity of our military. But there is no answer about what comes next.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY) This is fraught with peril.

SEN. TIM KAINE (D-VA): About what's next. Is Greenland next? Is Colombia or Mexico, or Cuba next? We've got to get this discussion out of the skiff and into the public before it's too late.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: Meanwhile, the death toll is growing from the US raid last weekend during the capture of Nicolas Maduro. The interior minister now says that the strikes killed at least 100 people. We're told that a similar number were injured. This comes as the Trump administration is outlining its plans for Venezuela's oil.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, US SECRETARY OF STATE: Step one is the stabilization of the country. We don't want it descending into chaos. Part of that stabilization and the reason why we understand and believe that we have the strongest leverage possible is our quarantine. As you've seen today, two more ships were seized.

We are in the midst right now and, in fact, about to execute on a deal to take all the oil, they have oil that is stuck in Venezuela. They can't move it because of our quarantine and because it's sanctioned. We are going to take between 30 and 50 million barrels of oil. We are going to sell it in the marketplace at market rates, not at the discounts Venezuela was getting.

That money will then be handled in such a way that we will control how it is dispersed in a way that benefits the Venezuelan people, not corruption, not the regime. So we have a lot of leverage to move on the stabilization front.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: Those two ships mentioned by Secretary Marco Rubio were oil tankers. The US had been following one of them for weeks before seizing it south of Iceland. Let's bring in now CNN's Nada Bashir who joins us live from London? Nada, good morning to you.

This oil tanker that was seized, it was sanctioned by the US in 2024, what's the latest here? What are you hearing?

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. It was originally sanctioned in 2024 for transporting, attempts to transport illicit Iranian oil. And since then we are known that the US has attempted, the US Coast Guard has attempted previously to board the ship to seize the tanker and failed in the past.

In fact, just last month the ship's crew refused to be boarded. But on Wednesday it was, in fact, seized, as we know, about 190 miles off the southern coast of Ireland. According to marine traffic website, it made a sharp turn south before it was board. And we've heard from the Russian Transport Ministry saying that it lost contact with the crew on board at around 7:00 AM Eastern time when it was boarded.

We've heard from two individuals who were briefed on the operation who have said that it was boarded by US military teams, including US Navy SEALs, who are among the forces that boarded and seized that tank. Now, what we also know at this stage is that there was support provided by the United Kingdom on that operation.

We've heard from the UK Defense Ministry saying and confirming that it did provide support following a request for assistance from the United States. We also know that the United States had been bolstering up its military presence around the UK in the days prior to the seizing of this tank, including military aircraft and gunships ahead of this repositioning those troops ahead of this planned operation.

Now, of course, we have heard from the White House since confirming that this tank has been seized, vowing to continue seizing further oil tankers, any sanctioned oil tankers operating in the area, despite of course, concerns that this may ratchet up tensions with both Russia and China. And of course, this has raised concern over the situation in Venezuela with regards to Venezuelan oil.

This tanker, of course, was linked to Venezuela, accused of going to Venezuela to pick up oil in the past as part of this shadow fleet operation. And of course there has been questions around what the future could look like in terms of the US' management, not only of oil transfers from Venezuela, but also of course, governance of Venezuela as well.

Take a listen to JD Vance's comments just yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JD VANCE, UNITED STATES VICE PRESIDENT: The way that we control Venezuela is we control the purse strings, we control the energy resources. And we tell the regime, you're allowed to sell the oil so long as you serve America's national interest. You're not allowed to sell it if you can't serve America's national interest.

And that's how we exert incredible pressure on that country without wasting a single American life, without endangering a single American citizen. That is called critical high quality diplomacy. We've done it. We've done it time and again, but we just did it in Venezuela.

(END VIDEO CLIP)