People visit a memorial for Renee Nicole Good on January 7, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. | Scott Olson/Getty Images The events that led to a federal officer in Minneapolis killing Renee Nicole Good have not been universally interpreted. On a visit to Texas on Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem described the incident as an “act of domestic terrorism.” She said Good was attacking ICE officers and that she “attempted to run them over and rammed them with her vehicle.”  “Our officer followed his training, did exactly what he’s been taught to do in that situation,” Noem said later in the day at a press conference in Minneapolis.  Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called that “bullshit” and “garbage.” He demanded that ICE “get the fuck out of Minneapolis.”  “We do not want you here,” he said. “Your stated reason for being here in this city is to create some kind of safety, and you are doing exactly the opposite.” And when Frey was questioned about his remarks by CNN host Kaitlan Collins, saying some had called his remarks “divisive,” he said this: “I’m so sorry if I offended their Disney Princess ears. But here’s the thing. If we’re talking about what’s inflammatory, on the one hand, you got someone dropping the f-bomb. On the other hand, you got someone who killed somebody else.” So how did all of this get started? And how is it all going now? Today, Explained co-host Noel King wanted an on-the-ground perspective, and Max Nesterak, a reporter and editor for Minnesota Reformer, told her that Minnesotans are tired and full of pain.  Below is an excerpt of their conversation, edited for length and clarity. There’s much more in the full podcast, so listen to Today, Explained wherever you get podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and Spotify. Over the past couple of weeks, a fraud scandal in Minnesota has consumed the American right. That scandal led to the government deploying a bunch of ICE agents to Minneapolis. Yesterday, one of those officers shot and killed a woman. What do we know about that shooting?  So yesterday morning, around 10 am, ICE officers fatally shot a 37-year-old Minneapolis resident named Renee Nicole Good. I spoke with witnesses and received a video of the incident.  What we see and what the witness I talked to said [is that] she was out for a walk and saw an ICE vehicle stuck in the snow. And then more ICE vehicles arrived, and bystanders were blowing their whistles and protesting to get people’s attention as part of these patrols, “ICE watch,” that people throughout the Twin Cities are doing to document the arrests.  Then we see Good in her Honda Pilot parked perpendicular in the middle of the street. And an ICE agent — she waves one by, then another ICE agent pulls up, gets out of his car, and yells at her to get out of the car. We see her back up and then pull forward. And that’s when an officer, who’s near the front of the vehicle, fires three shots, fatally killing her.  Even though the video of this encounter is out there from multiple angles, people do not agree on what they’re seeing. President Donald Trump yesterday spoke first. What did he say happened?  He echoed what we heard at a news conference yesterday [in which] Kristi Noem accused Goode of stalking and impeding ICE operations. That is completely different than what many people see in the video. And what we’re hearing from Democratic leaders [is completely different]. US Rep. Ilhan Omar, who represents Minneapolis, accused ICE of terrorizing their neighborhoods. She called [ICE’s] actions reckless and callous, and [said] that ICE needs to be held accountable.  And your mayor, Jacob Frey, what has he had to say?  Well, he gave a very impassioned news conference, saying very bluntly for ICE to get out of Minneapolis. And that’s something that has been repeated by the governor and members of Minnesota’s congressional delegation: that they don’t want ICE conducting this enhanced enforcement operation in Minnesota.  A few weeks ago, DHS began ramping up immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota. And on Sunday, we received reports that about 2,000 more officers and agents were coming to the state in what DHS is calling its largest operation ever.  So this has really created a standoff between Democratic leaders who say they are not getting any coordination or communication from the Trump administration and federal agencies who are carrying out these operations.  As all of this is happening in the streets, Minnesota’s governor, Tim Walz, announced this week that he’s not going to run for reelection. That announcement was tied to the scandal that I mentioned. Can you explain what happened here?  This goes back a number of years with the prosecution of people for stealing funds intended to feed hungry children during the pandemic. The story has reached the national news and the Oval Office just in recent weeks, but it really began in 2022, when US Attorney Andy Luger, a Biden appointee, charged nearly 50 people with stealing $250 million from this pandemic-era program. This has been known as the Feeding Our Future scandal after one of the nonprofits at the center of it; it now includes more than 90 indictments across multiple social service programs. So the fraud is no longer contained just to this meals program, but to other programs aimed at serving the most vulnerable Minnesotans.  And there is a very important detail here, which is that a majority of the people charged and convicted are of Somali descent.  That’s right. Now we’re seeing the Trump administration use that to justify vicious attacks on the entire Somali American population in Minnesota of roughly 91,000, most of whom are American citizens.  If local media have been on this story since 2022, why did it boil over in late 2025? So Christopher Rufo, a conservative journalist, writes a piece in City Journal with this bombshell quote from a confidential source that the largest funder of Al-Shabaab is the Minnesota taxpayer. Al-Shabaab is a US-designated terrorist organization that runs parts of Somalia. Days later, President Trump calls Somali immigrants “garbage” and unleashes a torrent of other attacks on Somalis, and draws national attention to Minnesota.  I should note that prosecutors have said that greed has been the motivating factor for these fraudsters, not ideology. Prosecutors say they don’t have evidence of people intentionally funding terrorist groups. That said, Al-Shabaab controls parts of Somalia. So if people send money home, that money — likely, some of it ends up in the hands of Al-Shabaab, because they charge taxes, or rather, extort people.  So Chris Rufo, who is an activist journalist, went out on a limb with the funding terrorism claim. However, in his article, he points out that there was massive fraud and that local officials — most of whom, as I understand it, were Democrats — did not root it out. This happened on their watch. Yeah, that’s right. You know, Democrats have always condemned the fraud, and Gov. Tim Walz has said they take strong action against people accused, and [that] those people go to jail. But I have to say, the sheer scope of [the fraud] is really an indictment of the Walz administration’s ability to steward public resources. And I think it’s underscored that all of these social service programs have really been run on the belief that everyone is honest. I think that goes back to a tradition here in Minnesota of a Scandinavian-style, high tax, high services government that is trusting and doesn’t have the checks in place to prevent abuse.  How do we get from Chris Rufo’s exposé — which included some truths as well as some unproven stuff — to Tim Walz resigning?  Pressure has been mounting for months. The House Republicans created a committee, a fraud oversight committee. It became clear that Republicans were going to run on this issue. This was going to be their signature issue in trying to win back the governorship in 2026. The New York Times publishes a big piece in November that makes it even harder to ignore. And then it gets the attention of a young independent YouTuber named Nick Shirley, who posts a 40-minute video on December 26, showing himself going around to Somali-run daycares and demanding to see children, and not seeing any. He claims to uncover more than $100 million in fraud.  I should note: It’s maybe not so unusual that a random person with a video camera who demands to see children in a daycare doesn’t see any. I know at my child’s daycare, they have a passcode to get in. I would expect that my daycare center would not let in any random YouTuber off the street.  In the wake of this, reporters have been crawling all over Minnesota trying to fact-check Nick Shirley. Was any of what he reported accurate? I think we’re still trying to figure that out. There’s definitely problems with his reporting, not just the tactics, but the fact is that one [daycare] that he visited has been closed since 2022, according to state officials. State officials also visited and found nine operating normally with children. Still, four of them are the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Department of Children, Youth, and Families, according to the Star Tribune. Reporters at the Star Tribune also visited those 10 facilities [that Shirley visited] and were able to go inside four where they found children.  I should also note that local reporters have also made the connection that some of those daycare centers were also meal sites for Feeding Our Future, which was tied to that giant fraud. But, it’s important to note, the owners have not been charged in that case.  So here we sit on Thursday morning, and you may have seen some dark jokes circulating online about how everything happens in Minnesota: You guys had George Floyd’s murder in the summer of 2020. Tim Walz’s ups and downs. You had a Democratic lawmaker murdered in her home last summer. And now, again, you have the Twin Cities really on edge. How are people there doing?  I think all of us here are tired of feeling like everything happens in Minnesota.  I was at the vigil for Renee Good yesterday, and the atmosphere was just anguish at her killing, and certainly resolve: People saying, “We have to continue turning out to stand up for our neighbors.” So there’s a sense of defiance, but also just sadness. We’re all tired of Minnesota being the center of attention, but it doesn’t seem like it’s going to let up. The DHS says it’s running the largest operation ever in the state right now. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said yesterday that  ICE operations did not stop after the killing, that they will continue as planned. So there’s a sense on both sides that there’s a fight to be had here. I think people are digging in for a continued standoff between the state and federal government.