By now, most people have seen January 7th footage of an ICE agent in Minneapolis shooting a woman to death behind the wheel of her car. Already, experienced firearms instructors and law enforcement professionals have broken down the video and exposed what should be obvious to any viewer: an armed masked man deliberately placing themselves in a situation to commit legal murder.

As someone who numerous times stood in similar places to that ICE agent, I have a unique perspective.

Between 2017 and 2020, I worked providing armed protection at numerous political events and marches where fascists often used vehicles to block and intimidate nonviolent protesters engaging in free speech actions. Charlottesville became the most famous example of right wing violence through weaponizing a vehicle but this soon spread nationally. So many chose this tactic, it even fostered legislation in several conservative states protecting drivers using vehicles to run over pedestrians if they felt threatened.

So, I know what it feels like when angry men in trucks yell threats while driving toward a group of people including children. As I’ve written before, they frequently brandish paintball guns or real firearms and in high stress situations, telling the difference can be difficult. However, I never drew my sidearm, worked with a team to deescalate individuals and every situation ended peacefully. Making the right call in such shoot/don’t shoot situations is crucial for anyone working in an armed capacity.

Right wing media outlets naturally claim Minneapolis was a justified shooting and, for a while, repeated Trump’s transparent lie that the officer was run over and seriously injured. Of course, arguments that an ICE agent with far more formal training than myself felt threatened enough by a slowly moving vehicle with its wheels turned sharply away from him to shoot the driver once through the windshield are absurd.

Anyone with eyes can see the officer paused and then casually changed position before firing twice more through the open driver’s side window. Instead of a screaming man threatening violence from inside a lifted pickup, as I have many times found myself confronting, the ICE agent killed a calm woman whose final words in the video are: “That’s fine dude, I’m not mad at you.”

Because the video evidence is so damning, right wing chatter largely relies on playing up the emotional toll that ICE agents allegedly suffer from citizens calling them rude names. They argue that any gray area exists because ICE has been so unfairly treated by the media and protesters that its officers can’t help but slip up occasionally and shoot a few people.

In my personal experience, that’s a laughable justification. Despite being verbally abused by fascists across the Pacific Northwest, having my children’s lives threatened, viewing countless videos of fascists weaponizing their vehicles and finally seeing the highest levels of US government label “antifa” a terrorist group一 I still somehow always refrained from firing into MAGA trucks with mouthy drivers and revved up engines. If antifascist can stay cool and deescalate tough situations, professional ICE operatives have zero excuses.