‘We had whistles. They had guns.’ Protesters rally in the aftermath of Minnesota killing

Citizens gather to warn communities of the arrival of heavily armed and masked immigration agents

- Charlotte McDonald-Gibson Minneapolis

Becca Good, the wife of the woman killed by ICE agents in Minneapolis on Wednesday, said that when the couple spoke with the officers in their neighbourhood “we had whistles - they had guns”.

It’s a message many in the city have taken to heart: at a growing shrine to Renee Nicole Good at the site of her death, a small box of whistles sits amid the candles, flowers and soft toys. “Whistles (take one)” people oblige.

Elsewhere in southwest Minneapolis, the potency of these small objects was on display on Friday afternoon as a convoy of 10 ICE vehicles rolled up outside the Karmel Mall, a shopping centre serving the African community in Minneapolis.

At first, there were a couple of shrill bursts from a volunteer observer in a yellow vest, raising the alarm that ICE agents were nearby. It’s a code that many in the city have become wearily familiar with: a long blow would indicate someone is being detained.

Within seconds, half a dozen heavily armed and masked ICE agents jumped out of the dark, unmarked vehicles and started interrogating a business owner on the street.

By then, the community call-and-response was in full swing. Dozens more people emerged from the shops; cameras and whistles appeared and the shrill noises filled the air as the crowd started following the agents.

Car horns honked, some people yelled expletives, and the air was thick with the fury of a community under siege. Eventually, after circling the mall, the convoy left.

“I just came out of the clinic for my lunch hour and I heard the whistling two blocks away, so I just grabbed my whistle and headed in that direction,’ said Sacha Peterson, 57, who works in a health clinic nearby.

She had just been trained by volunteer monitoring group the Immigrant Defense Network the previous evening, desperate to do something to protect her community.