STEVE INSKEEP, BYLINE: We've called Minnesota state Senator Zaynab Mohamed, who represents the state's 63rd District, which is right next to where the shooting took place. And she was there yesterday afternoon. Senator, good morning.
ZAYNAB MOHAMED: Good morning. Thank you for having me.
INSKEEP: What did you see when you arrived at the scene afterward?
MOHAMED: When I got there, it was right - a few minutes after the shooting, and people were sort of trickling into the area. And there were people who were already there, who had seen what had taken place. Very sad. You can just feel people feeling hopeless and are like, what exactly just happened? What did I experience? How did this happen in our community? This felt very avoidable. And I was there, and throughout the day, many people kept coming in. And I think last night, when I left, there were about 200 people. But before that, there were about maybe, like, close to a thousand people on the scene. And folks are angry, rightfully so, and they're mourning and grieving the loss of a community member. And they feel that this was avoidable and unnecessary murder that took place in our streets.
INSKEEP: What did you hear about Renee Nicole Good - 37 years old - the woman who was killed?
MOHAMED: Yeah. She was a young woman, 37 years old, a mom. Her neighbors were there, and they said that she was a kind woman, somebody who was just taking her child to school that morning, a family member, a community member. And it could have been any of us. We've been training people - thousands of people - to become legal observers so that they can protect the constitutional rights of their immigrant neighbors. And I think this goes against everything that should be happening in this country and in this state.
INSKEEP: You spoke to the neighbors. We have to be very careful about our facts at this point. But was it...
MOHAMED: Correct.
INSKEEP: ...Your understanding from the people you talked with that she was there - in that role as a legal observer, she was there because ICE was there. She was keeping an eye on them in some sense, according to the neighbors. Is that your understanding?
MOHAMED: That is my understanding. I did not directly, obviously, speak with her family or herself.
INSKEEP: Yeah.
MOHAMED: But to my understanding, she was a legal observer.
INSKEEP: OK.
MOHAMED: A trained one.
INSKEEP: What do you want people in your community to do now?
MOHAMED: I think our community is doing what they know how to do best, which is taking it to the streets and demanding justice for Renee. They also rightfully don't trust the federal government to investigate this case thoroughly. And I think people are asking for local law enforcement and investigators to take a - more of a serious role in investigating this case and for there to be accountability for the officer who killed Renee.
INSKEEP: Do you think it is even possible for state authorities to all but overrule federal authorities here and even press charges against a federal agent?
MOHAMED: I think we don't know yet. FBI got there much earlier - a few hours before the BCA got there. But we know that they're now co-investigating. We don't know - obviously, majority of the case lies with the FBI. They have all the evidence. And we don't know what will come out of it. The question is, will the federal government actually comply and allow local law enforcement to co-investigate with them in an honest and a thorough way? No. Personally, I don't believe they will. I don't trust this. I don't trust Kash Patel or Pam Bondi or Kristi Noem to do it. We saw yesterday they did a press conference where they completely spinned the story as if people didn't see this video. And I think that's where the lack of trust for a community is. There is - all we needed is for the head of Homeland Security to go out there and say, we will investigate. We will let you know what's happening. But that didn't happen. They went out there and they said this was OK. And I think that's really sad.
INSKEEP: Minnesota state Senator Zaynab Mohamed. Thank you so much for your time - really appreciate it.
MOHAMED: Thank you for having me this morning.
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