Vice President JD Vance is forcefully attacking what he calls a false narrative by the press that the deadly shooting of a woman in Minneapolis by an ICE agent was reckless.

“The idea that this was not justified is absurd,” Mr. Vance said at a White House news conference Thursday afternoon.

“I’ve never seen a case so misrepresented and misreported when you have a guy who was defending himself and is now being treated as some sort of federal assassin,” Mr. Vance added.

ICE officers have flooded the city in recent days in show of force, and Homeland Security officials say they were carrying out “targeted operations” on Wednesday when the confrontation played out that left Renee Nicole Macklin Good, 37, dead.

Video captured Macklin Good’s SUV turned sideways 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 Macklin Good quickly backed her vehicle up a few feet and 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 driver’s side window as she tried to drive away. One of the witnesses is heard screaming “no” as the gunfire rang out.

The vehicle crashed into another vehicle and a power pole on the other side of the street and Macklin Good died behind the wheel.

“I don’t know what was in her heart and what was in her head but I know she violated the law and I know that officer was acting in self-defense,” Mr. Vance said. Vance called Macklin Good “brainwashed” and “radicalized” by the left.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is threatening to send more federal agents to Minneapolis in the aftermath of the shooting. “We have thousands of officers there and I’m not opposed to sending more to keep people safe,” Ms. Noem said at an unrelated news conference in New York City.

Ms. Noem repeated claims that Macklin Good was a “domestic terrorist” who was among a group of protesters who “surrounded and assaulted and blocked in” ICE agents trying to free a car stuck in the snow, a narrative that is not supported by the video circulating on social media.

“These individuals had followed our officers all day, had blocked them in, and they were impeding our law enforcement operations, which is against the law, and when they demanded and commanded her to get out of her vehicle several times, she did not.”

But Macklin Good’s ex-husband — who asked the Associated Press not to be identified — disputes that characterization of Macklin Good. He said Macklin Good had just dropped off her 6-year-old son at school and was driving home with her current partner when they encountered ICE agents.

Macklin Good was a Colorado native who had recently moved to Minneapolis from Kansas City, her ex-husband said. He added that she was a devoted Christian and not an activist. She had never participated in a protest, as far as he knew.

“Renee was one of the kindest people I’ve ever known,” her mother, Donna Ganger, told the Minnesota Star Tribune. “She was extremely compassionate. She’s taken care of people all her life. She was loving, forgiving and affectionate.”

Minnesota law enforcement officials say that the Trump administration is blocking it from accessing evidence in connection with the investigation into the shooting.

The superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, Drew Evans, says shortly after Wednesday’s shooting, it was decided that the bureau would conduct a joint investigation with the FBI.

State authorities responded to the scene and began coordinating with the investigation, but Mr. Evans says the Justice Department reversed course in the afternoon and informed the state that the FBI would solely lead the investigation.

“Without complete access to the evidence, witnesses and information collected, we cannot meet the investigative standards that Minnesota law and the public demands,” Mr. Evans said in a statement.

“The FBI must work with the professionals at the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to conduct a thorough and transparent investigation of the shooting of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE officer yesterday,” Senator Amy Klobuchar said in an X post. “This has to be about justice, not politics.”

“They haven’t been cut out, they don’t have any jurisdiction in this investigation,” Ms. Noem said of the state’s role.

There are limits over whether state charges can be filed against federal agents under a doctrine known as Supremacy Clause immunity. The constitutional principle does not allow states to undermine federal policy with criminal prosecutions.

There are, however, exceptions, a staff attorney at the University of Wisconsin Law School, Bryna Godar notes in a paper on the topic. They include instances when federal officials act beyond the scope of their duties, violate federal law, or behave in an egregious or unwarranted manner.

Protesters clashed with law enforcement outside a Minneapolis immigration court on Thursday. Governor Tim Walz repeated a call to remain peaceful. On Wednesday he sent a warning to the state’s National Guard to be ready for a deployment if the unrest grows.

Other demonstrations over the shooting were taking place Thursday in New York and other cities across the country.