President Trump says video of an ICE officer fatally shooting a woman — later identified as Renee Nicole Good, 37 — in Minneapolis on Wednesday morning is “a horrible thing to watch” but says the woman “viciously ran over the ICE officer,” a claim disputed by witnesses.

The mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, used a coarse expression to describe any claim of self-defense. ICE officers have flooded the city in recent days in show of force, and Homeland Security says they were carrying out “targeted operations” on Wednesday when the deadly confrontation played out.

Video showed a woman in a red SUV in the middle of the road in an apparent attempt to block ICE vehicles. A pickup drove up and masked ICE agents jumped out and quickly approached her vehicle. One of the agents tried to open the door and the woman quickly backed her vehicle up a few feet and then started to move forward to drive away.

The ICE officer let go of the door handle but another officer who had just approached from the front of the vehicle with his gun drawn fired three times, once into the windshield and twice into the front window as she tried to drive away. One of the witnesses is heard screaming “no” as the gunfire rang out.

The victim was identified by her mother as Good, The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.

In a social media post late Wednesday, President Trump insisted that the officer acted in self-defense. “Based on the attached clip, it is hard to believe he is alive, but is now recovering in the hospital,” Mr. Trump said in a post on his Truth Social account. Video from the scene following the incident showed the officer walking calmly to his vehicle and interacting with bystanders. He did not appear to be injured.

The vehicle crashed into another vehicle and a power pole on the other side of the street with the dying woman behind the wheel. A witness told KMSP-TV that a doctor was at the scene but ICE agents refused to let them near the woman. An ambulance arrived about 15 minutes later but was blocked by ICE vehicles. Witnesses told the news outlet the woman’s “limp body” was carried to the end of the street and loaded into the ambulance.

Protesters — one with a bullhorn — gathered at the shooting scene. They yelled at federal agents who had swarmed the area.

Governor Tim Walz urged for demonstrators to remain peaceful but issued a warning order to the Minnesota National Guard to be prepared to deploy if there is any unrest.

“They want a show. We can’t give it to them. We cannot,” Mr. Walz said of federal officials during a press conference. “If you protest and express your First Amendment rights, please do so peacefully.”

The Department of Homeland Security calls the shooting an act of self defense by an officer “fearing for his life.”

A department spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin, blamed the incident on “rioters” who were blocking ICE officers. “One of these violent rioters weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them — an act of domestic terrorism,” Ms. McLaughlin said in a statement.

“He used his training and saved his own life and that of his fellow officers,” Ms. McLaughlin added.

The mayor was not buying that explanation after watching a video of the shooting. Mr. Frey, at an afternoon news conference, said that ICE should get “out of Minneapolis.”

“We do not want you here,” the mayor said. “Your stated reason for being in this city is to create some kind of safety, and you are doing exactly the opposite.”

Mr. Frey added that the agent had acted “recklessly” and that resulted in someone being killed. The Minneapolis police chief, Brian O’Hara, said that the shooting would be investigated to see if the ICE agent had broken any laws with the shooting.

“If anyone broke the law in today’s act of violence, I will do all I can to ensure they are held accountable,” Minnesota’s attorney general, Keith Ellison, said in his own statement.

The homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem described the woman’s actions as a vehicle ramming. “It was an act of domestic terrorism,” Ms. Noem said at an unrelated news conference on border security in Texas.

Homeland Security announced the “largest ever” ICE operation in Minnesota this week. The federal surge came in the aftermath of a growing scandal involving welfare fraud tied to the Somali community in the state.

Wednesday’s shooting took place near the neighborhood where George Floyd died during an arrest in 2020. The aftermath of Floyd’s death at the hands of a police officer led to riots that spread to cities across the country.