Bystanders film a federal immigration officer in their car Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)2026-01-12T05:02:20Z Five years ago, video images from a Minneapolis street showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd as his life slipped away ignited a social movement.Now, videos from another Minneapolis street showing the last moments of Renee Goods life are central to another debate about law enforcement in America. Theyve slipped out day by day since ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot Good last Wednesday in her maroon SUV. Yet compared to 2020, the story these pictures tell is murkier, subject to manipulation both within the image itself and the way it is interpreted.This time, too, the Trump administration and its supporters went to work establishing their own public view of the event before the inevitable imagery appeared. But half a decade later, so many things are not the same from cultural attitudes to rapidly evolving technology around all kinds of imagery. We are in a different time, said Francesca Dillman Carpentier, a University of North Carolina journalism professor and expert on the medias impact on audiences. Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel. Follow on Imagery can change attitudesNo one who saw the searing video of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin with his knee on Floyds neck for more than nine minutes on May 25, 2020, is likely to forget it and Chauvins impassive face Floyd insisted he couldnt breathe. United in revulsion, demonstrators began one of the nations largest-ever social movements. Chauvin was convicted of murder.The footage caused many individuals to experience an epiphany about racism, specifically cultural racism, in the United States, legal scholar Angela Onwuachi-Willig wrote in a Houston Law Review study that examined whether white Americans experienced a collective cultural trauma.She eventually concluded that didnt happen and that the impact diminished with time. The rollback of diversity programs with the second Trump administration offers evidence for her argument. The people who are writing the cultural narrative of the Good shooting took notes from the Floyd killing and are managing this narrative differently, said Kelly McBride, an expert on media ethics for the Poynter Institute. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem labeled Good, who was demonstrating in opposition to ICE enforcement of immigration laws, a domestic terrorist an interpretation that Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey dismissed with an expletive. Both President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance suggested the shooting was justified because Good was trying to run Ross down with her vehicle.On the night of the killing, White House border czar Tom Homan was cautious in an interview with the CBS Evening News when anchor Tony Dokoupil showed him the most widely distributed video of the incident, taken by a bystander and posted by a reporter for the Minnesota Reformer. The veteran law enforcement official said it would be unprofessional for him to prejudge before an investigation.Later that evening, Homan issued a statement calling the shooting another example of the results of the hateful rhetoric and violent attacks against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol officers. Video allows both sides to interpretVideo of the incident has been generally inconclusive about whether Goods vehicle actually hit Ross before he opened fire. Even if she did, many experts question whether that represented grounds for firing his weapon. Clearly, however, that would bolster public sympathy for the officer.These ICE videos do present irrefutable facts a woman drove her car and then she was shot dead by an ICE agent, said Duy Linh Tu, a documentarian and professor at the Columbia University journalism school. What the videos cant show is the intent of the woman or the officer. And thats the tricky part.Good, obviously, cant speak to what motivated her to put her SUV in drive and move on Portland Avenue South.Several news organizations have carefully examined the forensic evidence that has emerged. The Associated Press wrote that it was unclear if Goods car made contact with Ross. The Washington Post wrote that videos examined by The Post, including one shared on Truth Social by Trump, do not clearly show whether the agent is struck or how close the front of the vehicle comes to striking him. The New York Times said that in one video, it looks like the agent is being struck by the SUV. But when we synchronize it with the first clip, we can see the agent is not being run over.Video that emerged Friday from the Minnesota site Alpha News showed the incident from Ross perspective. It, too, left many questions and no shortage of people willing to answer them.Vance linked to the video online and wrote: Many of you have been told this law enforcement officer wasnt hit by a car, wasnt being harassed and murdered an innocent woman. The reality is that his life was endangered and he fired in self-defense.Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer wrote online that how could anyone on the planet watch this video and conclude what JD Vance says? Schumer said the administration is lying to you. Do more angles provide more clarity?When one online commentator wrote that Good did not deserve to be shot in the face, conservative media figure Megyn Kelly responded, Yes, she did. She hit and almost ran over a cop.Poynters McBride said the media has generally done a good and careful job outlining the evidence that is circulating around in the public. But the administration has also been effective in spreading its interpretation, she said.There are more camera angles available now than there was with Floyd, but I dont know if that adds clarity or more fog to this case, Tu said. I think that people will see what they want to see. Or, rather, theyll pick the angle that aligns with what they already believe.That nagging sense of uncertainty left by the videos leaves experts like Tu and Carpentier to conclude they will pale in impact compared to the Floyd case. With each passing year, the public is becoming more desensitized to images of violence as the online spread of footage showing Republican activist Charlie Kirk illustrated, she said.The spread of AI-enhanced fake images is also teaching the public to question what it sees, she said. Before Ross was identified, BBC Verify said false images were being spread online speculating about what the masked agent looked like, and fake video of a Minneapolis demonstration spread.Now you cant believe what youre seeing, Carpentier said. You dont know if what youre seeing is the real video or if it has been doctored. I dont think AI is being a friend in this case at all.___David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social. DAVID BAUDER Bauder is the APs national media writer, covering the intersection of news, politics and entertainment. He is based in New York. twitter mailto