Fire At Renee Good Memorial Site In South Minneapolis Under Investigation

MINNEAPOLIS, MN — Police are investigating after a fire was set at the memorial site for Renee Good, the Minneapolis woman who was fatally shot by a federal immigration agent last month.

Minneapolis police were first notified about the fire at the memorial site at 34th Street and Portland Avenue around 8:45 p.m. Tuesday, an agency spokesperson told Patch.

Police said someone set a pile of wood near the memorial on fire, and a Minneapolis Star Tribune report said gasoline was poured on the wood before it was set ablaze.

Police said the fire was extinguished before officers arrived. No one was injured, but several items at the memorial site were damaged in the blaze.

In an interview with the Star Tribune, Photojournalist Ryan Vizzions said neighbors who live in an apartment building near Good’s memorial used two fire extinguishers to put out the blaze. Community members had previously covered the site with a tarp to protect it from the rain.

Vizzions shared a video of the scene on his Instagram account.

Good, 37, was killed on Jan. 7 when an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fired into her vehicle as the agency was conducting enforcement operations in Minneapolis. Later in the month, Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, was also shot multiple times by ICE agents during a confrontation on a Minneapolis street. Their deaths sparked widespread daily protests in the Twin Cities.

Piles of flowers, signs and artwork swiftly formed to commemorate the lives of Good and Pretti at the locations where they were shot. The memorials are the site of candlelight vigils and musical performances and draw a regular stream of visitors.

The residential street where Good died remains open, but orange traffic cones offer a narrow walkway for those paying their respects, and a small band of volunteers watches over the mound of tributes that have amassed between the sidewalk and the street.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.