District Attorney Larry Krasner mourned a woman killed by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis this week, castigated President Donald Trump as the “criminal-in-chief” and repeated his vow to prosecute any federal officers who commit crimes in Philadelphia.
He held a press conference in response to the shooting along with Sheriff Rochelle Bilal, City Council members and community group leaders on Thursday afternoon, a few hours before a protest and march against ICE was scheduled to begin outside of City Hall.
Krasner said it appeared from a widely circulated video that the ICE officer’s shooting of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on Wednesday was unlawful and the officer’s behavior violated law enforcement protocols, and said it was important to speak up against wrongdoing.
“Silence will not protect us from people who trade in violence to achieve their fascist goals. Our voices will,” he said. “The law must apply to everyone, and therefore we have to use our voices to call out people who commit terrible crimes or justify them. We have to use our voices to remind people that it’s not just a question of what you can get away with. It’s a question of right and wrong.”
Krasner dismissed the argument that the ICE officer fired his weapon in self-defense, while repeating an expletive used by Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, and accused Trump and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem of lying about the incident.
“Blocking streets is something protesters, suffragettes have done forever. It’s an incredibly minor offense,” said Krasner, who represented civil rights activists before he became DA. “There is no justification whatsoever in the law for shooting to death someone who is leaving having blocked the street, if that’s even what she did. No justification whatsoever under the Constitution, the U.S. Supreme Court, president or the law for doing that.”
He said Philadelphia Police Department rules direct officers not to stand in front of vehicles, as the ICE officer did, and not to shoot into a car unless they’re being shot at. He said “there’s a lot of great people” at federal law enforcement agencies, but they were being ordered to break the law by “a bunch of thugs.”
Officers who commit such acts in Philadelphia won’t “get away” with it, Krasner said, echoing his many past statements on the issue.
“Anybody who doubts that this administration will charge criminal homicide, well, I think we know that we have had a number of historic convictions of police officers for criminal homicide,” he said. “We will charge any ICE agent who tries this nonsense here.”
Dispute over courthouse arrests
Among those who spoke at the press conference was Aniqa Raihan of the group No ICE Philly, which organized the rally scheduled for Thursday at 5 p.m., along with immigrant defense organizations, ethnic community groups and the ACLU of Pennsylvania.
The coalition is calling for ICE to be “kicked out of Philly” and for the city and state to institute “tangible protections” for immigrants. Raihan said the protest was being held in part to remember Good and 33 others who she said had died in ICE custody over the past year.
“And we will remember the hundreds of Philadelphians … who have been kidnapped by ICE since January of 2025, including over 100 human beings who have been kidnapped from outside the Criminal Justice Center, which is why we’re gathering where we are,” she said.
No ICE Philly has criticized Bilal over the arrests at the courthouse, arguing that she should be prohibiting ICE agents from entering the building. Bilal’s office has argued that only a judge could bar ICE, the Inquirer reported, and she has emphasized that her office does not “cooperate” with ICE, assist in its operations, or share information with the agency.
Separately, the city of Philadelphia also has an official policy of not cooperating with ICE. Under what’s sometimes called a “sanctuary policy,” police do not honor ICE immigration detainers, meaning they won’t delay release of people so ICE can come and pick them up.
At the press conference, Bilal criticized the ICE officer’s actions in Minneapolis and agents’ wearing of masks, called them “fake law enforcement,” and said she was “with the DA” on prosecuting federal agents that commit crimes in the city.
“Renee Good should be here today, and to her family, we are saying law enforcement professionals are not the ones here in this city that would do that,” Bilal said. “Law enforcement professionals around the country do their job, and we have been fighting for years to build that bridge between us and our communities. You have one negative nutcase that causes this problem, and now we all have to fight again to let people know law enforcement works with communities.”
Krasner said he will hold a press conference Monday about “ICE issues,” including the Criminal Justice Center, his ability to prosecute the “small number of serious cases where ICE is interfering,” and the harm that immigration enforcement is causing to public safety and law enforcement.
ICE “creating terror”
Other speakers included City Council’s progressive wing, consisting of councilmembers Jamie Gauthier, Kendra Brooks, Nicolas O’Rourke, and Rue Landau; Voffee Jabateh, CEO of ACANA, a group serving African and Caribbean immigrants; Imam Kenneth Nuriddin of the Philadelphia Masjid; and Rabbi Mordechai Liebling, a member of POWER Interfaith.
“ICE needs to get out of all cities that they are terrorizing daily, including Philadelphia,” Brooks said. “If I told you that masked agents were disappearing people and murdering civilians in any other country, what would you call it? That’s the definition of creating terror.”
Gauthier said she was “furious and heartbroken” over Good’s death. She said Good was killed because she “stood up for her neighbors when it mattered the most,” by serving as a legal observer of federal actions during ICE’s ramped-up immigration activity in Minneapolis.
“This was not random. This didn’t have to be inevitable, but this happened because this administration has normalized armed intimidation in our communities,” she said. “It happened because Donald Trump has turned immigration enforcement into a weapon — reckless, aggressive and deadly. Immigrants do not make us unsafe. ICE does.”
Landau said she herself has served as a legal observer and Americans have a constitutional right to protest without being attacked by law enforcement.
“Philadelphia is stronger because of our immigrant communities, from our small businesses and workplaces to our schools, houses of worship and neighborhoods. Philadelphia doesn’t want, need, and we certainly didn’t ask for ICE to come here or to be here,” she said. “And our message is loud and clear, do not come to Philadelphia.”
