Dave Matthews has weighed in forcefully on the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, directing sharp criticism at the Trump administration and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a lengthy Instagram video posted on Friday, January 9th.
The Dave Matthews Band frontman responded to the January 7 killing of Good, a 37 year old woman who was shot by an ICE officer during an operation in Minnesota.
Speaking while walking through his neighbourhood on his birthday, Matthews delivered an unfiltered message that rejected official explanations and questioned the role of federal enforcement in American cities.
“I don’t want my taxes to pay for ICE, to masked thugs to roam our streets and terrorize our communities and rip families apart,” Matthews said.
“We should be taking care of each other. We should be minding each other. We should be housing the homeless. We shouldn’t be, you know, throwing people to the ground.”
According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Good was shot while seated in her vehicle after allegedly attempting to “run over” an officer, video footage circulating online shows Good attempting to drive away moments before shots were fired.
Matthews addresses the situation
Matthews addressed those claims directly in his video:
“Which brings me to Renee Nicole Good,” he said. “Murdered in front of her fellow citizens in Minneapolis, murdered in the streets. And no matter what narrative this administration is trying to sell us, we can see the videos.”
He continued by analysing how the footage has been framed:
“Maybe if they show you one and they slow it down and they tell you where to look, you might think, maybe there’s a chance, maybe there’s a chance that the gunman was felt threatened. But from most angles, near and far, it looks like she was trying to get away, and he shot her three times in the head, murdered in cold blood.”
The shooting has sparked protests across Minneapolis, with residents rallying in Good’s memory and calling for ICE to leave the city, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has echoed those calls, stating that the incident involved a reckless use of authority that resulted in a death.
Matthews also expanded his criticism to U.S. foreign policy, condemning military operations in Venezuela and what he described as threats against other sovereign nations.
He closed the video with a grim conclusion, calling members of the Trump administration “deeply dishonest people,” before adding, “These are dark times. F—k ICE.”
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