District Attorney Larry Krasner mourned a woman killed by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis this week, castigated President Donald Trump as the \u201ccriminal-in-chief\u201d and repeated his vow to prosecute any federal officers who commit crimes in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
He held a press conference in response to the shooting along with Sheriff Rochelle Bilal, City Council members and community group leaders on Thursday afternoon, a few hours before a protest and march against ICE was scheduled to begin outside of City Hall.<\/p>\n
Krasner said it appeared from a widely circulated video that the ICE officer\u2019s shooting of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on Wednesday was unlawful and the officer\u2019s behavior violated law enforcement protocols, and said it was important to speak up against wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
\u201cSilence will not protect us from people who trade in violence to achieve their fascist goals. Our voices will,\u201d he said. \u201cThe law must apply to everyone, and therefore we have to use our voices to call out people who commit terrible crimes or justify them. We have to use our voices to remind people that it\u2019s not just a question of what you can get away with. It\u2019s a question of right and wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
Krasner dismissed the argument that the ICE officer fired his weapon in self-defense, while repeating an expletive used by Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, and accused Trump and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem of lying about the incident.<\/p>\n
\u201cBlocking streets is something protesters, suffragettes have done forever. It\u2019s an incredibly minor offense,\u201d said Krasner, who represented civil rights activists before he became DA. \u201cThere is no justification whatsoever in the law for shooting to death someone who is leaving having blocked the street, if that\u2019s even what she did. No justification whatsoever under the Constitution, the U.S. Supreme Court, president or the law for doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said Philadelphia Police Department rules direct officers not to stand in front of vehicles, as the ICE officer did, and not to shoot into a car unless they\u2019re being shot at. He said \u201cthere\u2019s a lot of great people\u201d at federal law enforcement agencies, but they were being ordered to break the law by \u201ca bunch of thugs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Officers who commit such acts in Philadelphia won\u2019t \u201cget away\u201d with it, Krasner said, echoing his many past statements on the issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnybody who doubts that this administration will charge criminal homicide, well, I think we know that we have had a number of historic convictions of police officers for criminal homicide,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will charge any ICE agent who tries this nonsense here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dispute over courthouse arrests<\/p>\n
Among those who spoke at the press conference was Aniqa Raihan of the group No ICE Philly, which organized the rally scheduled for Thursday at 5 p.m., along with immigrant defense organizations, ethnic community groups and the ACLU of Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
The coalition is calling for ICE to be \u201ckicked out of Philly\u201d and for the city and state to institute \u201ctangible protections\u201d for immigrants. Raihan said the protest was being held in part to remember Good and 33 others who she said had died in ICE custody over the past year.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we will remember the hundreds of Philadelphians \u2026 who have been kidnapped by ICE since January of 2025, including over 100 human beings who have been kidnapped from outside the Criminal Justice Center, which is why we\u2019re gathering where we are,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n