John Mulaney Postpones Minneapolis Shows Following ICE Killing of Renee Nicole Good: ‘What’s Happening in Your City Is Heartbreaking’

Comedian John Mulaney informed fans on Thursday (Jan. 8) that he was postponing his planned shows at the Armory in Minneapolis this weekend because it “doesn’t sit right” with him to put his audience at risk after the Trump administration surged 2,000 agents into the city as part of its nationwide immigration enforcement blitz.

“What’s happening in your city is heartbreaking,” wrote Mulaney, who is in the midst of his Mister Whatever comedy tour. “I hate to postpone shows in a town going through such awful challenges and such grief, because it feels unfair to the audience. Still, I don’t feel comfortable asking thousands of people each night to leave their homes, gather at the venue, and then make their way home when the situation is so unsafe.”

Mulaney appeared to be referring to the aftermath of the killing of U.S. citizen and mother of three Renee Nicole Good, 37, by an ICE agent who shot into her vehicle three times as she was driving away from an ICE enforcement operation on Wednesday (Jan. 7) morning in Minneapolis. According to the Associated Press, Good’s ex-husband said she had just dropped her six-year-old son off at his elementary school when she encountered the ICE agents.

In the aftermath of what the New York Times reported was at least the ninth shooting by an immigration office in the past four months in five states and Washington, D.C. — all of whom fired on victims in their vehicles with agents claiming they were acting in self-defense — Americans took to the streets from coast-to-coast on Thursday night to march in protest against the Trump administration’s aggressive enforcement policies.

“I am sorry to anyone who is disappointed,” said Mulaney. “I know a fun stand-up show could be a nice distraction, but it doesn’t sit right with me to put anyone at risk.” Mulaney said tickets for this weekend’s planned shows will be honored for re-scheduled gigs on April 10-12.

Describing the widely-seen video of the chaotic incident, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that agents taking part in an enforcement action were attempting to push their vehicle out of the snow when “a woman attacked them, and those surrounding them, and attempted to run them over and ram them with her vehicle.” In a statement, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin added that “rioters” were attempting to block ICE officers when “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.”

Those claims were contradicted by Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey in a press conference on Thursday, when he said the administration was “already trying to spin this as an action of self-defense. Having seen the video myself, I want to tell everybody directly, that is bulls–t. This was an agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying, getting killed,” adding that ICE should “get the f–k out of Minneapolis.”

Just hours after the incident, Trump told Times reporters that Good was at fault because she tried to “run over” the officer, despite the paper reporting that a detailed analysis of the footage from three camera angles clearly showed Good was driving away from, not towards, the officer who fatally shot her. “She behaved horribly,” Trump said. “And then she ran him over. She didn’t try to run him over. She ran him over.”

Then, however, an aide brought over a laptop so Trump could screen the footage and the paper reported that the president seemed at a loss to explain the video that does not show the officer being run over or injured in any fashion; in an earlier social post featuring the video, Trump claimed it was “hard to believe [the officer] is alive.”

When reporters pointed out that the video posted by Trump didn’t appear to support his theory, the Times reported that Trump struggled to explain the discrepancy. “Well… I… the way I look at it… it’s a terrible scene. I think it’s horrible to watch. No, I hate to see it.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz asked the federal government to “leave Minnesota alone” on Thursday while state officials conduct an investigation into the incident. “It feels very, very difficult that we will get a fair outcome, and I say that only because people in positions of power have already passed judgment, from the president, to the vice president, to [Secretary of Homeland Security] Kristi Noem,” Walz added of the apparent rush to point fingers by the administration before a thorough investigation.

Also on Thursday, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension — initially tapped to conduct a joint investigation with the FBI — released a statement saying that the agency had been removed from the probe and denied access to case materials, scene evidence or investigative interviews in favor of an investigation that will be conducted “solely” by the FBI.

This article was first published by Billboard U.S.