W.Va. Pastor ‘Very Scared’ Following ICE Shooting In Minneapolis

Thirty-seven-year-old Renee Good was shot and killed by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Minneapolis, Minnesota Wednesday as she attempted to drive past agents gathered on the street. 

The shooting struck a nerve 900 miles away with the Rev. Eric Miller, pastor at Charleston’s St. John’s Episcopal Church. From the video and reports he’s seen, Miller said, Good wasn’t being combative or putting the agent’s life in danger.

It leaves him “very scared,” he said, for the direction our country is going in, “that there are people in power and in control who feel like that is okay, that it is acceptable for ICE agents to go in and to remove people, sometimes quite violently, with little to no proof of their identity and to take them away.”

As a pastor, he said, “Jesus was all about seeking out and being present with those who are on the margins of society. And so I and my fellow Christians with St. John’s are very frustrated with ICE and with people taken from the security of their homes and their families.”

Miller planned a prayer vigil at his church Thursday in honor of Good and in support of those feeling frightened in the surrounding community.

“What we are trying to do is to show a sign of solidarity for all those who are living in fear that they will be abducted and will be taken away,” Miller said.

The vigil was prompted, he said, by ”the fear and the anxiety and the grief that many of us are feeling about the direction that the United States has gone with ICE and I want to have a safe space where we can be present with one another, hold a vigil, offer prayers to God and to be a support for one another.” 

Miller said the church has resources for those concerned about their rights and how best to interact with any ICE agents they may encounter.