The mood was somber during a candlelight vigil at the Hook Mill in East Hampton Village Thursday evening, one day after a woman was shot and killed by a federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis amid the growing chaos of the Trump administration's deportation operations around the United States.
Rene Nicole Good, 37, was inside her vehicle when an ICE officer fired three shots, killing her. Within hours, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem labeled Ms. Good a domestic terrorist who had attempted to "run a law enforcement officer over." President Trump went further, falsely asserting that Good had "violently, willfully, and viciously run over the ICE officer." Their statements are contradicted by video footage.
Thirty-two people died in ICE custody in 2025. Since August 2025, federal officers have fatally shot at least three other people while trying to apprehend them, according to the Marshall Project, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization. On Thursday, a U.S. Border Patrol agent shot two people in Portland, Ore., during a traffic stop.
Between 40 and 50 people gathered at the Hook Mill, most holding candles or flashlights. As the group formed a circle, the event quickly became both a vigil to remember the killing of Ms. Good and the death, the previous day, of Barbara Burnside of Springs, who had organized the "No Kings" rallies at East Hampton Town Hall in 2025.
Those gathered were "standing up in the community for compassionate democracy and against cruelty," Alyson Follenius, an organizer of weekly "Beacon for Democracy" gatherings that have taken place at the Hook Mill since April 2025, said to the group. It was "an act of courage for us to be standing here during this time," she said, "especially after the things that we witnessed yesterday."
East Hampton Town Councilwoman Cate Rogers, who held a sign bearing the message "liberty and justice for all," told The Star that in the hours after the shooting she had heard many "sternly worded statements in opposition to what happened in Minneapolis from elected officials at the federal level, on every level. I'm no longer comforted by strongly worded statements," she said. "I implore our elected officials who are charged and have the responsibility to ensure that we have a democracy to do their jobs. They have to do something. Sternly worded statements are not of any use."
"This is a moment that no one can turn themselves away from," said Minerva Perez, executive director of Organización Latino Americana of Eastern Long Island, or OLA. "What I'm hoping that we can do right now is show to our leaders of every respect — houses of faith, elected leaders, all leaders — that this is about public safety, and that it's not a political conversation anymore. Anything that's going to contribute or create chaos and fear is going to lead to injury, and it's going to lead to death. It's inevitable. The tragic passing of this woman who was doing what she felt was right in a nonviolent fashion shows you what can come from these kinds of actions that are lawless and are meant to create chaos. If we believe in our communities, which we should here in East Hampton and across the entire region, we should do everything we can to stop these actions from happening. They are lawless. This is what we need to do right now."
Ms. Burnside, Ms. Rogers told the gathering, "first brought the idea of coming out together and standing up for our democracy to us, and led the 'No Kings' rallies that we've had at the Town Hall all this time. She also was a gardener and volunteered many hours at the ChangeHampton garden that you see outside of Town Hall."
"Barbara not only started these actions, but every week would come to weed in the garden," said Paul McIsaac, a member of ChangeHampton who lives in Sagaponack. He described her as "the kind of leader that will get on your hands and knees and get in the dirt. I want to remember that."
Mr. McIsaac told The Star that his participation in the vigil was "about ICE and this administration and how it's just brutally treating people" as well as to honor Ms. Burnside, "who was always here for this event, and who started the actions at East Hampton Town Hall. . . . I'm very moved. We have these two women that we lost, one from being killed by ICE and the other from cancer. That's what brought me."
Francesca Rheannon of Springs told The Star that "it's so important for us to shine our light against the darkness, and to show that light is still here. It's hard for us to see it, which is why we gather together. But it is in gathering together and in connection that we stand against the evil of disconnection, and the cruelty. Compassion versus cruelty, and love will win," she said. "I truly believe it."
The president and his administration "want us to be afraid," she said. Pointing to growing street protests in Iran, she said that if citizens of that country "can come out against brutal dictatorship of decades and decades, and come out the way they're coming out, we can do it too."
"The wise Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. taught us that, 'Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter,' " Ms. Follenius told The Star after the vigil. "I believe every person deserves compassion, consideration, and to be treated with dignity, regardless of where they were born or where they currently reside. This administration and their cosplaying 'Call of Duty' team of ICE agents are the antithesis of those values. Staying at home sitting comfortably on our couches means we acquiesce and by default allow this horrendous behavior to continue. So, it is important that we are visible, that we show up and call out the atrocities we are witnessing daily."
Amid the remembrances of their deceased colleague, she led a spontaneous cheer for Ms. Burnside, who told The Star after a June 2025 rally outside East Hampton Town Hall that that event "sent a message to all of us that we're well supported, and definitely not outliers in this community. There are a lot of people really fed up with what's going on. That's a really important message, about fear. We don't have to be afraid. We won't be silenced."
