An American hedge fund billionaire who previously drew attention in Australia for a near-$100,000 donation to Bondi hero Ahmed Al-Ahmed has made another large contribution, this time to a fundraiser supporting the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer who fatally shot Renee Nicole Good.
Bill Ackman confirmed on Monday that he had “supported” an online fundraiser for the ICE agent involved in the Minnesota shooting and said he had also intended to donate to a campaign established for Good’s family but was unable to do so because it had already closed.
The top donor on the officer’s fundraiser was an individual named William Ackman who contributed $10,000.
“I am big believer in our legal principal (sic) that one is innocent until proven guilty. To that end, I supported the GoFundMe for Jonathan Ross and intended to similarly support the GoFundMe for Renee Good’s family (her GoFundMe was closed by the time I attempted to provide support),” Ackman wrote on X.
“The whole situation is a tragedy.
“An officer doing his best to do his job, and a protester who likely did not intend to kill the officer but whose actions in a split second led to her death.
“Our country is stronger if we work together to resolve the complex issues that are tearing us apart.”
The donation follows Ackman’s recent contribution of $99,999 to a fundraiser supporting Al-Ahmed, who intervened during the Bondi terror attack by tackling and disarming a gunman.
“The willingness to step forward and put yourself in danger, very few people are going to do so,” Ackman, who is reportedly worth more than $9 billion, said last week.
“He could have minded his own business. No one would ever know that he chose not to intervene.
“So I think that in the hierarchy of heroes, a person that is willing to risk his own life for the benefit of people that he does not know, where he takes on someone who is armed with a weapon and he has done, is an amazing thing.”
Minnesota’s Democratic leadership and the administration of US President Donald Trump have provided very different accounts of the circumstances surrounding Good’s death.
State officials said the shooting was unjustified, citing bystander video which they say shows Good’s vehicle turning away from the agent at the time shots were fired.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, has maintained the officer acted in self-defence, stating Good drove toward the agent after another officer approached the driver’s side and told her to get out of the car.
The shooting has sparked widespread protest, with tens of thousands of people marching in recent days following Good’s death on Wednesday. The demonstrations came shortly after approximately 2000 federal officers were deployed to the Minneapolis–St Paul area in what DHS described as its largest operation to date, intensifying tensions between the federal government and Democratic leaders in the state.
Good was a volunteer with a community organisation that monitors and documents ICE operations in Minneapolis.
Federal-state tensions escalated further on Thursday when a US Border Patrol agent in Portland, Oregon, shot and wounded a man and a woman in their vehicle following an attempted traffic stop.
Images: GoFundMe / X (Formerly Twitter)
