Hundreds gathered outside the Celebrezze Federal Building in Downtown Cleveland Thursday night to call for the accountability and abolishment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement after an ICE officer shot and killed protester Renee Good in Minneapolis Wednesday.
Greg Levy, a Socialist candidate for Senate and Akron native, first held a moment of silence for Good before addressing the crowd.
"She took it upon herself to advocate, to be a witness, to be sure that the laws were properly enforced," Levy said.
Levy called Good's death a shame and called on fellow protesters to be accountable for change.
"We are responsible. We are responsible for the society we allow to exist," he said.
Several supporters honked their car horns on a busy East Ninth Street during the demonstration. Local protests are also taking place in Akron and Stow. A vigil for Good is scheduled to take place in Akron on Friday. In Minneapolis, protesters clashed with police following the shooting Wednesday.
Several organizations came together to organize the rally, including the Cleveland Peace Action, whose president Don Bryant said ICE is abusing its authority and is not being held accountable.
Simon Mastri from the Ohio chapter of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, which also helped organize the demonstration, touted Cleveland’s immigration roots when he said it was important for Clevelanders to stand up against ICE and show solidarity for the protesters in Minneapolis.
“A person killed on the streets in one place is a person killed on the streets in every place. If we allow this to continue as it continues, it is only so long before they’re here doing the same to us,” Mastri said.
Clevelander Zizwe Tchiguka joined the protest and said Wednesday’s event in Minneapolis was “one of many incidents of fascism” by ICE.
“The people got to unify to fight against this fascist state, or else we will be victims of something more worse than Nazi Germany ever could have been,” Tchiguka said.
Good, 37, was shot in her car by an ICE officer in Minneapolis, sparking national outcry after video of the shooting circulated on social media. Competing narratives of the shooting quickly surfaced from witnesses, Minneapolis officials and the federal government.
A witness told Minneapolis Public Radio that agents gave Good conflicting orders as she attempted to drive her car through the scene, where ICE officers had been met by citizens protesting their presence.
Video showed two officers approach Good's vehicle from the left side. As one officer grabbed for the driver side door, a third officer who had circled to the front of the car from the opposite side drew his gun. As Good started to drive away, the officer fired into her car, NPR reported.
NPR identified the ICE agent who fired the gun as Jonathan Ross. The federal government said Ross acted in self-defense, claiming Good drove her car at him.
Good was a U.S. citizen and mother of three, the Associated Press reported.
Officials on Wednesday said the FBI and Minnesota's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension would investigate the shooting, but reversed course Thursday when the state BCA issued a statement claiming it had been blocked from evidence and witnesses, and would give way to the federal government to handle the investigation, NPR reported.
