Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman confirmed on Sunday that he donated $10,000 to a GoFundMe campaign supporting the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent accused of fatally shooting Renee Good during a federal immigration operation in Minneapolis last week, which touched off a fierce national debate over the deadly encounter and the broader immigration enforcement strategy.

Ackman, the founder of Pershing Square Capital Management, took to X to acknowledge the contribution to a fundraiser for ICE agent Jonathan Ross, saying he was motivated by a belief in the legal principle that individuals are “innocent until proven guilty.”

Ackman also said he had intended to give to a separate fundraiser benefiting Good’s family, though that campaign had already closed after raising more than $1.5 million by the time he attempted to donate.

The GoFundMe for Ross was started by a supporter who argues that the officer “was 1000 percent justified in the shooting.”

Good, a 37-year-old Minneapolis mother of three, was shot and killed by Ross during an active ICE enforcement operation on January 7. The exact circumstances of the encounter have been sharply contested. Federal officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Vice President JD Vance, defended the agent’s actions as self-defense, alleging Good’s vehicle posed a threat to officers.

Local leaders and critics have disputed that narrative, pointing to video footage and eyewitness accounts that appear to show Good’s SUV turning away from agents before shots were fired. Minnesota officials have accused federal authorities of restricting local access to key evidence as the FBI leads a criminal investigation.

The shooting has ignited protests in Minneapolis and beyond, with demonstrators decrying what they view as excessive use of force amid a broader surge in ICE activity in the Twin Cities.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)