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The Story Is with Elex Michaelson

I.C.E. Agent Shoots And Kills Woman In Minneapolis; U.S. Seizes Russian-Flagged Oil Tanker Linked to Venezuela; ICE Agent Shoots and Kills Woman in Minneapolis; Rebuilding One Year after Devastating California Fires. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired January 08, 2026 - 01:00   ET

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

[01:00:49]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: CNN's breaking news coverage continues right now. Welcome to a special edition of The Story Is. I'm Elex Michaelson live in Los Angeles.

And tonight The Story Is outrage and mourning in Minneapolis over a fatal shooting of a U.S. citizen by an immigration officer. A big vigil underway at this hour for 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good. She was not a target of the immigration crackdown happening in that city with 2,000 agents now stationed there. We're going to play for you two videos of the shooting and what happened before it from different angles and you can decide for yourself what you see. A lot of people see these videos very differently.

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. No. Shame. Shame. Oh my (BLEEP) God.

What the (BLEEP). What the (BLEEP). You just (BLEEP). What the (BLEEP) did you do?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: So we're going to show it to you once more, this time in slow motion. You see one officer walks over to the car. The car's reverse lights go on. The officer pulls on the door handle with his right hand while eventually reaching inside the open window with his left hand. Another officer is now in front of her car and her reverse lights go out.

The car begins to move forward. The officer draws his weapon. He fires once towards her windshield, a second time at her open window. A third shot immediately afterwards. The car goes careening down the street. The officer reholsters his weapon. That officer eventually walks away. So we have obtained a second video recorded from the other side of the incident. In it, the officer who fires the shots is in the middle of the right side of your screen. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my (BLEEP) God.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: So let's at look at that once more in slow motion to assess the officer's location in relation to the vehicle. The officer is on the right side of your screen you see there. Eventually he backs up a step or two and it appears that the forward moving vehicle comes into contact with him. That is key. He then fires three shots.

That driver was pronounced dead at the hospital a short time later. State and local officials in Minnesota are now slamming claims from the Trump administration that the ICE agent was acting in self- defense. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey wants ICE out of his city and condemned the agency for sowing chaos and distrust. Some pretty sharp language.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACOB FREY, MINNEAPOLIS MAYOR: They are already trying to spin this as an action of self-defense. Having seen the video of myself I want to tell everybody directly that is bullshit. This was an agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying getting killed.

And I have a message for ICE. To ICE, get the fuck out of Minneapolis. We do not want you here. Your stated reason for being in this city is to create some kind of safety and you are doing exactly the opposite.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[01:05:09]

MICHAELSON: So U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is defending ICE and says the immigration officer feared for his life. She accused the victim of committing what she calls an act of domestic terrorism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTI NOEM, U.S. HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: ICE officers and agents approached the vehicle of the individual in question, who was blocking the officers in with her vehicle, and 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 instructing 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. It -- this appears as an attempt to kill or to cause bodily harm to agents, an act of domestic terrorism.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: President Trump echoed Homeland Security's explanation of the shooting. He also blamed what he calls the radical left for, quote, "threatening, assaulting and targeting our law enforcement officers and ICE agents on a daily basis." Minnesota's governor, Tim Walz, says his administration will, quote, "stop at nothing to seek accountability and justice in the ICE shooting." The Democrat spoke at a news conference after the shooting and said he's ordered the state's National Guard to be ready for possible deployment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. TIM WALZ, (D) MINNESOTA: To Donald Trump and Kristi Noem, you've done enough. There's nothing more important than Minnesotan safety. I've issued a warning order to prepare the Minnesota National Guard. We have soldiers in training and prepared to be deployed if necessary. I remind you, a warning order is a heads up for folks.

And these National Guard troops are our National Guard troops. They're teachers in your community, they're business owners, they're construction professionals, they are Minnesotans. We have activated dozens of members of the State Patrol's mobile response team. And from here on, I have a very simple message, we do not need any further help from the federal government.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Joining me now live from Minneapolis is Laura Coates, CNN's Chief Legal Analyst, host of "Laura Coates Live."

Laura, it is now after midnight there. What's happening behind you?

LAURA COATES, CNN CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: You know, there's a continued presence of community members who have gathered here throughout the day. I've been out here for hours and hours watching the community response unfold. At times, very congested. Gathering behind me a few yards away is actually the site of the vigil. It started with a couple flowers.

Now it's hundreds of candles and flowers and a huge presence around it. People gave speeches. They were talking, they were chanting. They're very angry, Elex. They're angry at the presence of ICE they're angry that somebody has been killed.

They're frustrated by the fact that they believe that the Minneapolis Police Department and law enforcement more broadly is in somehow, if not complicit, at least supportive of trying to clear the area when they wanted to make sure the investigation would continue. Some I've talked to have been angered about the overall response from the administration, the president's statements and Secretary Kristi Noem fueling further distrust. And just to orient you right now, we're a few blocks away from where George Floyd was killed. This community very well versed, sadly, in conversations about use of force and officers. But it's a very somber occasion as well. People realizing their life has been lost as questions still swirl around the two competing narratives, justified use of force and murder.

MICHAELSON: Well, and you're a prosecutor who's used to looking at this sort of thing, so obviously there's the court of public opinion, that's one thing. But for the actual court, what would need to be done in terms of a criminal prosecution or even a civil case against this ICE officer?

COATES: Well, for there to be a prosecution in the criminal context has to be the will and the appetite from prosecutors. And I don't know that there is that in terms of the federal government, given the statements of Kristi Noem and the president of the United States. However, there is still that opportunity in the future, possibly the civil side, either use of force or color of law, civil rights violations can be done by the family of the deceased as well. But overall, you're going to think about and hear this phrase, and it might surprise people, the reasonableness standard. What that means is you're going to judge the officer's use of force not by how you and I would interpret it, but by what another reasonable officer in a similar circumstance would have judged whether the use of force, lethal force, was warranted.

Now, here is what I look for as a prosecutor here, the presence of other officers on the scene. So you go away from the hypothetical other officer viewing it to the real officers on the scene in real time. And that is going to create a big part of this investigation, because the other officers on the scene did not appear to draw their weapons or fire. So that will be judged and questioned here.

[01:10:11]

Also, the training of the officers will be very important. Noem has said that he followed training. The next question is what was that training for how long and is it actually applicable to the use of force that was used here? But you're right, there's the court of public opinion and everyone has an opinion of what has transpired here and also the actual viewing of the videos.

And you've got the discussion about an investigation. Who leads it? Can you trust its objective? And of course, this area was cleared out pretty quickly. And so there's no body camera, we're told, at this junction -- juncture.

So without those two things, you have to wonder about whether the investigators will be having to recreate what in some scenarios they could have continued to investigate in real time.

MICHAELSON: Well, and Laura, also, obviously there's not going to be any sort of prosecution against the driver who lost her life here, but if she hadn't, would there be criminal charges against her for the -- for leaving a scene and for being in a car and potentially hitting an officer?

COATES: It's a very interesting question. On the one hand, it's interesting because sometimes officers have been confronted by a vehicle and they move out of the way, they take down the information, they pursue that person criminally at a later time, either by a violation in traffic on court or of course, in terms of what they may have posed as a threat that was not afforded here. The other reason that question is very interesting, of course, Elex, is because you have to think about the ramifications of what's happened here and what will transpire in the future. Because a lot of prosecution is also about deterrence, using somebody's prosecution as an example to others not to engage in similar behavior that could be impactful or violent. And so this will likely be used as part of additional training.

But also keep in mind the statements of Noem and the president of the Unites States and others who might be speaking about this, it will instruct and inform the ICE officers, but also those citizens and concerned community members who will come across ICE agents and how they themselves ought to conduct their own behavior. This will have far reaching and long lasting consequences here behind me, but also across the entire country about those interactions.

MICHAELSON: Well, and when we saw ICE agents targeting us here in Southern California, in Los Angeles, we spoke with the U.S. attorney at the time who went out of his way to prosecute people who were potentially impeding --

COATES: Yes.

MICHAELSON: -- with law enforcement to send that very message. And we know that the Trump administration has done that repeatedly throughout this year. And it'll be interesting to see if they continue to do that. Probably will going forward. Obviously not in this particular case.

Such a tragedy. But glad to see that it is mostly peaceful behind you. And we do not have a repeat of some of those riots that we saw after the George Floyd incident.

Laura Coates in Minneapolis, great work all day on a long day on a cold night. We appreciate your insights. Thank you so much.

COATES: Thank you.

MICHAELSON: For more now, we are joined live by CNN National Security Analyst Juliette Kayyem.

Juliette, thank you so much for being with us. Talk to us about what kind of relationship Minneapolis PD has with ICE and how that impacts all of this.

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: So it very much impacts, it may have impacted what happened today and it's very much impacting tonight. What we've seen in the past, we certainly saw it in LA and Chicago, NDC actually is police chiefs in these local jurisdictions, police basically saying publicly, we have no idea what is -- what this federal footprint is, whether it was an ICE deployment or a National Guard deployment. That's not safe -- public safety planning. That's not effective public safety planning. And you also worry about, you know, lack of organization, lack of crowd control, lack of an understanding of a neighborhood.

What you saw after the shooting of Good was you really saw the state step in with the National Guard, the state police, the city, the city police chief, and basically take over the crowd control issues that we're seeing tonight, which is exactly right. And what's happened with these ICE deployments is they've pitted law enforcement against a community, right. And you can, you know, fill in the blank what community could be a immigrant community, it could a liberal community, it could be a community that's grieving after a killing like this. And that is why I think you really did see the governor and the state apparatus say, you know, we're going to forward position National Guard. We are -- we are your neighbors. we are not the outsiders in terms of law enforcement.

[01:15:24]

MICHAELSON: And of course, the Trump administration's argument to that would be we wish that they would work with us in some of these --

KAYYEM: Yes.

MICHAELSON: -- communities that are so called sanctuary cities. If they would talk with us, we'd communicate with them, but they're not. We have a responsibility to pursue law enforcement. If they're not going to work with us, we're going to go forward with them or without them. That's been the Trump administration's perspective.

KAYYEM: Yes. And I'll respond to it. That -- we've had immigration enforcement since ICE was created in a different form, in a different mechanism for decades. There's no theory of the deployment of federal law enforcement assets that would put them at war. In other words, no disclosure of what the action is, because that's what -- that's what's happening with these ICE deployments.

No disclosure of who the targets are, no pre-positioning of crowd control or law enforcement. So, I hear when I hear the department say that, say, well, we want their help, they're actually not asking for it. This deployment, as we know from yesterday, Noem showed up, announced that they were deploying 3,000 personnel, ICE personnel, no preplanning with local law enforcement, community leaders, people in criminal law enforcement who might be able to find or help assist in these kinds of arrests. So it would make someone like me suspicious of the purpose of these deployments. And I think the 3,000 people coming in overnight, which resulted in this tragedy is sort of proof that it may not be public safety that is -- that animating this.

And I think that's a -- I think it's a fair criticism of the White House.

MICHAELSON: So when Republicans passed what they call the Big Beautiful Bill, one of the big aspects --

KAYYEM: Yes.

MICHAELSON: -- of that was a massive expansion of ICE. And they have now hired 12,000 new ICE agents this year, growing the agency from 10,000 to 22,000 in a year. And some wonder about what kind of training can you do for everybody. You got a whole lot of people that don't have a lot of experience, haven't been through these things. How does that potentially impact what we're going to see? Maybe not necessarily specifically this particular incident, but for larger community relations with ICE, you know, in that context.

KAYYEM: I think it's a great question. And we don't know the name or where this specific ICE agent -- where he was. So let me just explain to the audience the pools of what is an ICE agent when we say that because this is a very, very important point. All people in Immigration and Customs Enforcement are guided by rules of engagement and rules of force. Most none of them, let's put it this way, simply because you feel under threat does not necessarily lead to a death sentence of the person who's threatening you.

Law enforcement is trained to deescalate. So the three pools of people that were look at ICE agents and we don't know where we are -- who the person is, is a legacy ICE agent, someone who got trained for months, six to seven months in the past has been in ICE. The changes by the Trump administration were -- didn't impact them. The second pool is other law enforcement agencies. So I've been doing a lot of work and studying this to the extent that ICE is pulling from DEA, FBI, other law enforcement activities.

And those people are being absorbed with ICE. They are not trained immigration enforcement agents, but they are law enforcement agents. The third pool is the one that you mentioned, the -- an acute ode to Donald Trump. They limited the number of months of training. It was about six to eight months down to 47 as the number of president he is 47 days.

And those people are the ones that have had limited training, limited experience, changes to their qualifications, both physical and age in terms of recruitment. These are just the facts. People can say whether this was right or wrong and deconstruct the videos. But the surge of agents into ICE by DHS's own admissions altered who was coming in the age, the physical capacity and of course the judgment and training. We -- and that's just -- that's going to exist for a long time whether it's relevant about what happened today.

[01:20:23]

MICHAELSON: And again, we don't know the specifics in terms of --

KAYYEM: That's right.

MICHAELSON: -- this particular agent. But you just think about any organization or any business if you hired 50 percent more people in just a few months that those people would not necessarily have the training or the institutional knowledge of other people who have been there for a long time.

KAYYEM: You know, I'm glad --

MICHAELSON: And so we'll see. And last point real quickly.

KAYYEM: I'm glad you say -- oh, yes, no, very quickly, I'm glad you say this because, you know, CNN has been running what this neighbor said and it really did ring true to me as a national security expert. She said they look like children that didn't know what to do, that -- the ICE agents. And it really made me think that this surge like we all assume that the driver that good, you know, that she heard or knew what she was supposed to do. But we also were hearing that she was told to get out of the car, but she was also told to move the car. And I think it's, you know, it's very likely she may have been confused about what ICE wanted from her.

And that I think is important to mention is not at all clear if she was evading. She may not have known what the -- what the directives are. And it's that lack of organization that comes from a massive untrained or a massive surge for any institution.

MICHAELSON: And importantly, we don't know exactly what happened before those videos started.

KAYYEM: Yes. That's exactly right.

MICHAELSON: And it's also not clear if there was a body cam, which would tell us some of that.

Juliette, thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Really good insight. Thanks for staying up late for us. Really appreciate it.

We will continue our live breaking news coverage of the developments in Minneapolis. Still ahead, protesters hold a vigil for the woman who lost her life as President Trump points a finger. We've got analysis from a variety of perspectives, plus other news still to come.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:25:57]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TREVOR HEITKEMP, WITNESS/RECORDED VIDEO INCIDENT: It does not appear aggressive to me. I think that if they felt like they were in any danger, they could have stepped two feet backwards. I think in my opinion, that this was an unnecessary use of force in a reaction to imagine danger.

EMILY HELLER, WITNESS: I knew that this would be twisted and it would be self-defense. And that's absolutely not what happened. But it's just my life is forever changed from having witnessed this. And I just can't let this narrative that it was self-defense go any further because it's absolutely not what it was.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Those are witnesses to the deadly shooting of a woman by an ICE officer in Minneapolis speaking to CNN earlier. President Trump sees it very differently, blaming what he called the radical left for allegedly targeting ICE agents on a daily basis. In a social media post, he claimed that, quote, "The woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, then violently, willfully and viciously ran over an ICE officer who seems to have shot her in self- defense." And those are the words of the president.

CNN's Omar Jimenez is on the ground for us.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A lot of pain and anger in this community not too far removed from this ICE shooting. This is the vigil that's been growing over the course of Wednesday and beyond here in Minneapolis to remember Renee Good, 37 years old, shot and killed in this incident here where you see the flowers, see the candles, you see the signs as well. Now this is the neighborhood and community where everything really unfolded. There are multiple videos really of what happened. One of the first videos that started to circulate was from the ground level where you see her SUV backing up.

You see sort of the ICE officers surrounding the vehicle. One tries to pull on the driver's side door. And then when those wheels start turning to the right, there's an officer that appears to be in front of that vehicle. That is when the shooting starts. And that officer moves to the side of the vehicle and the shooting then continues.

There's another video as well that comes from a much higher angle that shows that there was actually contact made with the officer as that vehicle was sort of turning to the right and as those gunshots began. But there were gunshots and that we know then killed Renee Good as that car then careened into what became its final resting place here at this vigil.

Now, as you can imagine, a lot of pain in the community, as I've talked about, has emanated from this event in particular and a lot of questions over what comes next. The Department of Homeland Security was very quickly to come out and claim that this was domestic terrorism, that the officer feared for their life. Well, the mayor of Minneapolis and the governor here in Minnesota pushed back on that significantly, saying that was not the case and that they plan to move forward and do everything in their power to make sure that this is investigated properly. But bottom line is moving forward, there are many in this community who did not want ICE here to begin with. They're now even more angered that an incident like this ended the way that it did.

Omar Jimenez, CNN, Minneapolis.

MICHAELSON: Omar, thank you.

We'll have more coverage from Minneapolis just ahead. Plus, we're following developments from Venezuela and word that the U.S. has seized an oil tanker linked to them and to Russia. One of our region's top Venezuela expert live with me on set next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:33:20]

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: A top story we are watching.

The U.S. has captured a Russian-flagged oil tanker linked to Venezuela. After following it for weeks, the U.S. seized the ship south of Iceland. Sources say Navy SEALs were part of that operation.

Russia claimed the tanker was under its protection, even sending a submarine and other naval assets to defend it, according to an official. It's unclear how close those Russian forces were at the time of the capture.

The Bella 1 tanker was spotted in international waters near Venezuela last month when it tried to evade the U.S. blockade. It had been sanctioned for transporting illegal oil.

Then a week ago, the tanker reappeared as the Marinera, and not spelled the way for the Italian dressing, and a Russian flag was painted on its side.

The Trump administration says it is not afraid to keep seizing sanctioned oil tankers despite concerns it could raise tensions with Russia. And the move is getting some bipartisan support.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-PA): I love it, I love it. Calling, calling (EXPLETIVE DELETED) on the Russians, you know, and the dirty Russians. Absolutely. Finally standing up and pushing back on Russia.

REP. TIM BURCHETT (R-TN): This morning with the seizure of the tankers, there's been a lot of blowback on that. And I think that's misdirected because they're using -- obviously they're using the oil to fund our enemies. I think that's pretty apparent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[01:34:51]

MICHAELSON: Meanwhile, Venezuela's interior minister says the death toll from the U.S. attack has now risen to at least 100.

With me now, Marco Aponte-Moreno. He's a professor of international negotiations at the USC Marshall School of Business.

Welcome to THE STORY IS for the first time.

MARCO APONTE MORENO, PROFESSOR OF INTERNATIONAL NEGOTIATIONS, USC MARSHALL SCHOOL OF BUSINESS: Thank you for having me.

MICHAELSON: So Russia being targeted here, we have not seen that. Weve seen plenty of the Venezuelan tankers. Why is that significant and how does that potentially change the game here?

APONTE-MORENO: Sure. So, Venezuela has been in oil blockade for a while from the U.S. It's a dictatorship. So part of the strategy to put pressure on the dictatorship is to stop the flow of money.

Venezuela is an oil-producing country. Most of the money comes from oil. So all these vessels have been sanctioned because it's not in the interest of the U.S. For this oil to go to Russia.

So the -- two weeks ago or three weeks ago when the vessel was spotted and close to Venezuela, it disappeared and now its spotted over there. So, it's just all part of the strategy to stop the flow of money into the country.

MICHAELSON: And do you think Russia heard the message?

APONTE-MORENO: Well, I'm sure they know what happened. Yes, yes.

MICHAELSON: Talk more broadly. As a Venezuelan native yourself, you know, we've seen all these different tankers that have been captured. Who gets that oil now and who gets the money from that oil?

APONTE-MORENO: Yes. So it's going to be the U.S. The strategy, the -- because in Venezuela, there's a dictatorship. So -- and the Trump administration has decided that they have to put a lot of pressure on the country hoping there's going to be a regime change.

At the beginning, the argument was that the government is involved in drug trafficking and that is true. But I think it's more than that. It's so that to provoke a regime change in Venezuela.

So three things have been done. The first one, the most important one and most impressive one was when they actually took the dictator Maduro on Saturday captured him and took him to the U.S.

The second one is putting -- there's an army displayed in the northern -- in the southern Caribbean, in front of Venezuela. And that's it -- that increases the leverage of the U.S. to dictate what should happen in the country.

And then the final one is stopping the flow of money.

MICHAELSON: And when you say an army, really it's the Navy, right? The U.S. Navy.

APONTE-MORENO: Yes.

MICHAELSON: It's like that is out at sea.

(CROSSTALKING)

APONTE-MORENO: And basically a military display.

MICHAELSON: Yes.

APONTE-MORENO: Correct.

MICHAELSON: And that's really important because not necessarily boots on the ground --

APONTE-MORENO: That's right.

MICHAELSON: -- but it's the Navy out there.

APONTE-MORENO: Yes.

MICHAELSON: And so lastly you've been in touch with so many people in Venezuela. This is where you come from. What are you hearing from your sources on the ground?

APONTE-MORENO: Well, people are very happy with what happened to the dictator on Saturday, of course. You know, it's a dictatorship that lasted 26 years.

At the same time, now people are concerned because there is a lot of uncertainty what's going to happen. The person who took over now is Maduro's vice president.

MICHAELSON: Right.

APONTE-MORENO: So the regime is still there. People aren't celebrating on the streets because there's a lot of fear that the regime will retaliate against them if they celebrate that the dictator was taken out.

So uncertainty. People are watching and people are, I think, happy.

MICHAELSON: Marco Aponte-Moreno, professor at the University of Southern California, my alma mater. Great to have you in here. Thank you so much for sharing your perspective.

(CROSSTALKING)

APONTE-MORENO: Yes. Thank you. Thank you for having me.

MICHAELSON: As we like to say at USC, fight on.

APONTE-MORENO: Yes. Fight on.

MICHAELSON: All right. Still to come, the mother of the woman killed by a U.S. ICE agent says her daughter was an amazing human being. How she remembers her daughter, next as our breaking news coverage continues.

[01:38:51]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELSON: We're learning more about Renee Nicole Good, the woman killed by an ice agent in Minneapolis on Wednesday after she was driving her vehicle towards them. Minnesota officials say she was a mother to a 6-year-old and had stuffed animals in her car that belonged to her kid.

Her mother spoke with the "Minnesota Star Tribune, saying, quote, "Renee was one of the kindest people I've ever known. She was extremely compassionate. She's taken care of people all of her life. She was loving, forgiving and affectionate. She was an amazing human being."

Civil rights attorney and legal affairs commentator Areva Martin joins us live here on set. Areva, your big reaction to seeing this video.

AREVA MARTIN, LEGAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: So tragic and hearing it again that this is a mother who recently lost her partner, so there's a 6-year-old child now who is an orphan that doesn't have a mother or a father.

And then hearing some of the comments coming out of the Trump administration, the way they are so callously talking about this 37- year-old U.S. citizen, unarmed, who is shot.

And you even, Elex, in your lead in said she was driving her car towards them. I'm not so sure. The witnesses that have come forward and talked about what they saw said that she was trying to get away. She was trying to leave. She was fleeing the scene.

MICHAELSON: But isn't -- but isn't that itself illegal? I mean, if a law enforcement officer comes to you says, stop, don't you have to stop? I mean, you can't just drive your car away from them.

MARTIN: It may be illegal, but it should not be a death sentence.

MICHAELSON: So that's an important distinction.

MARTIN: That's a huge distinction. So yes, if a law enforcement officer has probable cause, and there is a legal, justifiable basis for them stopping you, then yes, I would agree, you probably should obey the orders.

[01:44:49]

MARTIN: But in this case, if you look at those videos, there seems to be contradictory orders being shouted at this woman from get out of here, drive your car to stop, let me pull you out of the car.

So there's chaos. There isn't de-escalation. There isn't calm. There isn't control which is what you would expect from federal law enforcement officers who, according to Kristi Noem, are so well- trained.

We didn't see well-trained officers. You saw one officer pull their gun and shoot three times into a moving vehicle. None of the other officers pulled their guns.

I think that's going to be a big point in this case as the investigation goes forward. How much of danger was this one officer, you know, did he really believe he was in imminent danger, that there was a threat of his life being taken, or the life of someone else being taken if no one else in his orbit, none of these other trained officers, so-called trained officers, didn't draw their guns. That's very disturbing.

MICHAELSON: I mean, the Trump administration says if you've got a moving vehicle coming at you, you're afraid for your life that you're going to get run over.

I mean, is there a case of self-defense, or at least enough of a case of self-defense that a criminal prosecution and conviction would be very difficult?

Well, let's be clear, in 2018, Trump and under the Trump administration, his first administration had a policy -- Homeland Security had a policy that you are not to shoot at fleeing vehicles. 25 major cities across this country have similar policies that prevent law enforcement agents from shooting at fleeing vehicles, because what happened today is very predictable when you shoot at a fleeing vehicle.

And again, if someone has violated a traffic law, should the punishment be death? Should you be judge, jury and executioner because you are disobeying what could be a lawful order?

Couldn't there have been another method used? You got the license plate, can you, you know, go after the person. Can you find this person?

And in this case, we learned that this woman was not the subject of any ICE investigation. She was not being targeted by ICE. She literally was a person who had her car parked in a street.

MICHAELSON: And they say that she was following them and harassing them. But we'll learn more. We don't know. We don't --

(CROSSTALKING)

MARTIN: We haven't seen any of that on video.

MICHAELSON: We don't know the video. We've not seen the video from what happened before all of this happened either.

But we do see radically different reactions to this from the two political parties in their bases. We know immigration divides this country like no other issue. Immigration enforcement divides this country like no different issue.

I want to show reactions from two leaders of the different parties -- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democratic Progressive, Democratic Socialist from New York; and then Kristi Noem, the Secretary of Homeland Security. Look at the different words that both of them use.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): This has now turned into what our greatest fear is and has been for a long time around ICE, that this will be used as an anti-civilian force that has no accountability.

At the end of the day, what we saw today is a murder. And murders in cold blood need to be prosecuted. I think what we saw today was a manifestation of every American's worst nightmare, which is their government turning into a tyranny. KRISTI NOEM, SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: This appears as an

attempt to kill or to cause bodily harm to agents, an act of domestic terrorism. The ICE officer, fearing for his life and the other officers around him, in the safety of the public fired defensive shots. He used his training to save his own life and that of his colleagues.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: I mean, those are totally different words.

MARTIN: But so disturbing for the Homeland Security deputy or --

MICHAELSON: Secretary.

MARTIN: -- cabinet secretary member to come out and say he was fearing for his life. Has there been an investigation? Has she interviewed this officer? Do we have those facts or is this just her parroting what we've heard this department say in so many of these cases?

There are reports of nine, maybe as many as 14 shootings involving ICE federal agents just since September. So when you look at the number of people that have been shot by ICE agents, it is startling. It's shocking. And we hear it over and over again.

Many of these involve people who are fleeing. Many of these involved individuals who have not committed any crimes.

MICHAELSON: Yes.

MARTIN: And yet we hear this self-defense almost as if it's robotic, without investigation, without facts, without evidence. We already have a determination by the secretary that this is a legitimate shooting.

MICHAELSON: And I think it would be good for everybody whenever there's one of these incidents, to not just go into their camps and make assumptions, but maybe take a beat and actually learn the facts and wait for the investigation to go forward.

MARTIN: The person that's responsible for providing the training for these officers, what message does it send to other officers? If you can shoot in a car, a fleeing vehicle, and your boss without investigation is going to come to your defense and say that what you did is legitimate before there's even an investigation.

[01:49:53]

MICHAELSON: Areva Martin, thanks so much for coming in and sharing your views. Appreciate it.

MARTIN: Thanks, Elex.

MICHAELSON: More on our breaking news coverage after the break.

Plus, the rebuilding effort one year after the deadly and destructive Palisades and Eaton fires in California. I spent the day out in Altadena talking to survivors. My look at that, next.

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MICHAELSON: Late tonight, residents in Altadena coming together to mark one year since the Eaton fire. The Eaton fire and the nearby Palisades fire raged at the same time. In all, killing 31 people.

A year ago at this exact time, I was anchoring local news coverage for 12 hours straight, watching as so many of my friends' homes and businesses burned to the ground live on the air.

[01:54:46]

MICHAELSON: Today I headed out to Altadena and found resilience and hope.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the kitchen.

MICHAELSON: Justin Ricard is rebuilding what was once his mom's Altadena home, which burned during the fire.

JUSTIN RICARD, REBUILDING MOM'S HOME: We had a lot of fun here and we weren't really ready to let that go.

MICHAELSON: More than 16,000 structures burned in California's wildfires that started on January 7th, 2025. A year later, the fire survivor network says 70 percent of victims are still not back in their homes.

What does all this construction symbolize to you?

RICARD: Hope.

MICHAELSON: Justin is in the construction business and personally overseeing his mom's rebuild. The new home will feature fire-resistant materials.

RICARD: They're going to be better homes, and they're going to be more homes that people can feel safer in. We have a fabulous architect.

MICHAELSON: On this day, Justin is meeting with his architect and with L.A. County supervisor Kathryn Barger, who's in charge of the county's fire response.

When you see construction, what does that represent to you?

KATHRYN BARGER, L.A. COUNTY SUPERVISOR: That represents that were doing our job.

MICHAELSON: Barger, the lone Republican on the board, worked closely with Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom and Republican President Donald Trump in the early days of the response. She credits the Trump administration for removing debris at a record pace. BARGER: Cleanup was phenomenal, and that is thanks to President Trump.

MICHAELSON: Now, Governor Newsom and California's entire bipartisan congressional delegation is sending President Trump this letter asking for more federal funding for fire victims.

BARGER: So to the president I say, I'm willing to roll up my sleeves and work with the administration and if you want to bypass state, just send it right to the county. Make the strings attached so that when we sign the back of that check, we have to account for every penny.

I'll do it because at the end of the day, the survivors expect and deserve no less.

MICHAELSON: Barger takes us on an exclusive tour of the region, including Fair Oaks Burgers. Optimism is on the menu at this restaurant co-owned by Christie Lee that somehow did not burn during the fires.

CHRISTIE LEE, FAIR OAKS BURGERS OWNER: I think it was a sign -- it was a calling for us to open up this place to the community.

MICHAELSON: The restaurant itself sustained smoke damage, and so it had to be closed for about six months. But during that time, they opened up the parking lot for food distribution.

A year later, it's still open and there's still need.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You got it.

MICHAELSON: This sense of connection, key to this community's comeback long term.

LEE: We love you and we'll always be here for you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAELSON: We are thinking of all those survivors as well. We will have more on the fires, plus continuing breaking news coverage out of Minneapolis.

We have a special extra hour of THE STORY IS, which begins after a quick break.

[01:57:37]

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