Washington: Twelve months of escalating tensions on the streets of various US cities have now led to a sad, predictable result: an American citizen shot dead by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.

Renee Nicole Good, 37, was described by her mother as “extremely compassionate” and “an amazing human being” in comments to a local paper, the Minnesota Star Tribune. But to the Trump administration, she was a “domestic terrorist”.

A police officer stands guard while emergency workers try to save the shot woman.Credit: AP

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said so just an hour or two after the shooting took place, claiming that Good attacked the ICE officers and tried to ram them with her vehicle. The agent shot Good “defensively”, Noem said.

That was an entirely different version of events from that given by Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and his police chief, Brian O’Hara, who described a scene where Good – who had been blocking the road in protest – began to drive away when she was shot.

Frey said the self-defence claim was “bullshit”. “That is not true. It has no truth,” he said, and called for ICE to “get the f--- out of Minneapolis” before more damage was done.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz described the federal government narrative as “propaganda”.

The two wildly divergent interpretations of the same incident reflect the two Americas of our time: one where this tragedy was inflicted upon a peaceful community by a federal........

© The Sydney Morning Herald