Vigil, protests set for Saturday after fatal ICE shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis and Keith Porter Jr. in Northridge

SANTA ANA, Calif. () — Relatives of a man who was fatally shot by an off-duty Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Northridge and civil rights advocates are scheduled to conduct a candlelight vigil in his memory Saturday in Carson and to honor the life of a woman killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis.

Najee Ali, the director of Project Islamic Hope and one of the vigil’s organizers, said the shootings of Renee Good on Wednesday and Keith Porter Jr. on New Year’s Eve “are not isolated incidents.

“They reflect a dangerous pattern of excessive force, poor judgment, and a lack of accountability that is costing innocent people their lives,” Ali said in a statement. “We are coming together to mourn, to demand truth and to call for justice”

The vigil is set for 5 p.m. in Carson Park. It is also organized by Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE Justice), which bills itself as bringing “together clergy and lay leaders of all faiths with the marginalized, the unheard, and the least protected — low-wage workers and immigrants — in strategic campaigns for dignity, justice, and a more sacred and just society.”

Good, 37, was killed by an ICE agent who fired into her moving Honda Pilot SUV during an immigration operation.

The events leading up to the shooting are in dispute.

“This latest footage corroborates what DHS has stated all along,” Tricia McLaughlin, the Department of Homeland Security’s assistant secretary for public affairs, wrote on social media Friday. “This individual was impeding law enforcement and weaponized her vehicle against @ICEgov.

“The officer dutifully acted in self-defense.”

Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, which includes Los Angeles County, wrote on social media, “Federal agents are justified in using deadly force to defend their lives. A vehicle is considered a deadly weapon. Do not drive at an officer. It’s dangerous and you will also be charged with a felony.”

Porter, 43, was fatally shot shortly after 11:30 p.m. Dec. 31 in the 17700 block of Roscoe Boulevard, near White Oak Avenue, by an unidentified ICE agent. The DHS issued a statement saying the agent “bravely responded to an active shooter situation” and “exchanged gunfire with” Porter.

Local activists, however, said Porter was not an active shooter, although he was firing a weapon into the air to celebrate New Year’s Eve — a practice routinely condemned by law enforcement officials.

During Friday’s Los Angeles City Council meeting, Councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez introduced Porter’s mother, Franceola Armstrong, who described her son as a man with a wonderful soul and big heart.

“He didn’t deserve this,” Armstrong said. “He was on his way back. He didn’t even get to pop the Champagne. He didn’t get to say goodbye. I just want to touch my baby one last time, kiss his face and hold him. I don’t have him. His life was snatched from us. Lord, please, I just wish you could get justice for my child.”

San Gabriel Foothills Indivisible at 10 a.m. will conduct a protest on the corner of Garfield Avenue and Colorado Boulevard across from The Paseo open-air shopping center in Pasadena as part of a what is being called “ICE Out For Good.”

Similar actions will be led on the northeast corner of Topanga Canyon and Victory boulevards in Woodland Hills at 10 a.m., while Indivisible Westside Los Angeles is expected to conduct a protest starting at 2:30 p.m. near the Palms Boulevard overpass of the San Diego (405) Freeway in Palms.

Indivisible describes itself as “a grassroots movement of thousands of local Indivisible groups with a mission to elect progressive leaders, rebuild our democracy, and defeat the Trump agenda.”

A rally against both Good’s shooting and the Trump administration’s involvement in Venezuela is set for 2 p.m. in Pershing Square.