Even though there is video footage showing how Nicole Macklin Good died, one version from the Right is the activist interfered with ICE agents, and made a fatal error, when she refused to exit her SUV and drove toward one of them.
"The reason this woman is dead," Vice President J.D. Vance, speaking to White House reporters Thursday, "is because she tried to ram someone with her car and that guy acted in self defense. That's why she lost her life."
The alternate version of that fatal shooting, from the Left, is a courageous and innocent mother of three was senselessly murdered by a heartless, Gestapo-like federal agent.
Indivisible, the far-left group behind the "No Kings" rallies, announced an "Emergency National Call" with its members after the fatal shooting. "Based on everything we've seen, this appears to be murder-plain and simple," the group's email to members reads.
Macklin Good had moved recently from Kansas City, Missouri to Minneapolis, where she lived with her lesbian partner, The Associated Press reports. She had just dropped off her 6-year-old son at school, and she was a self-described poet and writer.
Macklin Good is also being described in Democrat circles as a “legal observer," a reference to her following ICE agents around Minneapolis in their pursuit of illegal immigrants.
Even if she was observing the ICE agents, her actions behind the wheel were illegal, John Cardillo, a former New York City Police officer, told American Family Radio.
“This was a clear-cut, perfectly acceptable and within-policy use of deadly force. A vehicle is a weapon,” Cardillo told show host Jenna Ellis.
Amy Swearer, a legal fellow with conservative nonprofit Advancing American Freedom, reached the same conclusion.
“I've now watched the Minneapolis ICE shooting from three different angles, and there's no real question -- it was quite obviously a legally justified use of deadly force by a law enforcement officer,” she wrote on X.
Swearer presented the officer’s case this way:
“That officer faced an unknown subject who, while ignoring lawful commands, pointed a 3,000-pound car at him and evidenced an intent to continue driving that car.
“He shot the driver (1) after the driver made physical contact with his body and (2) through the front windshield. In reality, during those micro-seconds in real time, it's reasonable to presume that a driver ignoring your commands to stop is about to floor the gas pedal, turn the wheel into you, and run you over.”
Obama’s influence
The opposing interpretation of the fatal shooting is the flourishing growth of a “moronic narrative” planted during Barack Obama’s administration, Cardillo insisted.
"It’s been furthered by many modern-day Democrats, in this case government officials in Minnesota," Cardillo said. "Radical leftists like Jacob Frey, the mayor, and (Gov.) Tim Walz, and all of these lunatics that say it's okay to attack the police without consequence."
The exception to the rule is the Left’s response to the death of Ashli Babbitt, Cardillo said.
Babbitt, a supporter of President Donald Trump, was the only person shot and killed by law enforcement during the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Babbitt, who was fatally shot by Capitol Hill Police Lieutenant Michael Byrd, was attempting to climb through a barricaded window near the lobby of the Speaker of the House.
Considering the riot was labeled and "insurrection" by Democrats, and blamed on Donald Trump, the Biden Department of Justice predictably did not pursue charges against the officer.
Prosecutors said the following April that after reviewing video of the shooting, and considering statements from the officer, other officers and witnesses, they did not have enough evidence to move forward.
If you’re Ashli Babbit, “an unarmed woman climbing through a window, then you get shot in the neck and murdered by a police officer, and I use that term very loosely,” Cardillo said.
Lt. Byrd showed “zero firearms discipline, firing toward his own people," Cardillo argued.
Comparing the two incidents, Cardillo said Byrd was celebrated like a hero for shooting and killing Babbitt.
"But when you use deadly force appropriately to protect yourselves and other members of the community, as was done in Minneapolis, then you're demonized, you're villainized,” Cardillo said.
Unmentioned by Cardillo on the AFR show was Byrd should have never been wearing a police uniform. A congressional investigation revealed numerous disciplinary problems with Byrd going back several years. Yet the controversial cop, now a hero to the Left, was promoted to captain in 2023.
The unnamed ICE agent in Minneapolis, meanwhile, had been hit and dragged by an activist in June, according to Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem.
Amping up the rhetoric
Frey blasted ICE and its presence in Minneapolis in a profanity-laced tirade, arguing that their presence made things more dangerous than safe.
Walz echoed that concern, criticized the federal enforcement strategy as dangerous, and urged peaceful protest and readiness of the Minnesota National Guard.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the woman was in her vehicle and blocking the roadway on Portland Avenue when ICE agents approached.
Macklin Good should not be revered in death, Cardillo said.
“She’s not a hero at all. In every step of that process, from getting behind the wheel with the intent to block protests, and if need be, running down federal law enforcement officers, decisions she made were cognizant and intentional. So, everything leading up to her death was caused by her.”
