Locals gather for candlelight vigil for woman killed in ICE shooting
The gathering was in honor of Renee Nicole Good of Minneapolis who was fatally shot by an Immigration Customs Enforcement officer on Jan. 7.
As protests and vigils took place in cities across the nation Thursday following the fatal shooting of a woman in Minneapolis by an Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer, 695 miles away, dozens of locals gathered in Oxford’s Uptown Parks in her memory.
Renee Nicole Good, 37, a writer and mother of three children, was shot by an ICE agent on Jan. 7 while in her car, according to reporting by the Associated Press.
Marina Young, who helped organize the Oxford vigil online, told the Oxford Free Press she felt a “somber” candlelight vigil was appropriate for a life that was lost “recklessly and needlessly.”
“She should still be alive today,” Young said of Good.
Young said there have been many events happening nationwide which she believes were “building up” to the shooting in Minneapolis.
“We all knew this was almost inevitable,” Young said. “This is why we call for ICE to be out of our cities and stop terrorizing our communities.”
Kathie Brinkman, co-president of the Oxford League of Women Voters (LWV), said her organization was in support of the Thursday night vigil. She added Oxford LWV is opposed to the Butler County Jail’s contract with ICE, which allows the jail to be used as a detainment center, according to reporting from the Journal-News.
“We’re opposed to people being gunned down in the street. We’re opposed to the way the administration is handling immigration,” she said.
Cory Driver, an Oxford local who was the summer interim pastor at Faith Lutheran Church, showed up to the vigil with a sign listing four Bible passages in reference to “foreigners,” including “Show your love to the foreigner,” from Deuteronomy 10:19.
“The killing of Renee Good is shocking,” Driver said. “In a year and a couple years that have already been quite shocking, the murder of somebody in broad daylight by officers is unconscionable. … We can’t be a peaceful democracy that welcomes neighbors and have killing of witnesses.”
