At least one person was knocked down by a vehicle and several were pepper-sprayed after two vehicles drove out of a federal building’s parking garage and into a crowd during a vigil for Renee Good in Hartford on Thursday evening.
Good was shot and killed by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis on Wednesday.
The vigil in Hartford was taking place on the west side of the Abraham Ribicoff Court House on Main Street after 6 p.m. when the disruption occurred at the back of the court house, along South Prospect Street.
It is unclear who provoked the confrontation, but witnesses saw two vehicles, a gray sedan and a white van, emerge from the garage. A number of people got in front of the gray sedan, under the impression that a detainee was being taken away, witnesses said. The sedan pushed through the group. One woman was knocked over by the vehicle.
A sedan drives towards protesters as they attempt to block it from leaving the federal courthouse parking lot on South Prospect Street while a vigil for Renee Good was taking place at the front of the building. (Shahrzad Rasekh/CT Mirror)
“I had to, like, pick her up to prevent her from getting run over,” Arjun Patel told the CT Mirror.
One witness said they were pepper-sprayed by a masked person who had been behind the vehicle.
A white van with New Hampshire license plates then drove out of the garage. A protester threw an object at the van, which broke the left-rear window. The van stopped, shifted into reverse and accelerated, scattering some protesters, then drove north on Prospect Street.
At least half a dozen people were pepper-sprayed during the confrontation.
Attempts to reach federal officials with the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security were unsuccessful.
People tend to a protester who was pepper sprayed by a masked officer behind the federal courthouse parking lot on South Prospect Street on Jan. 8, 2026, while a vigil for Renee Good was taking place at the front of the building. (Shahrzad Rasekh/CT Mirror)
A Hartford Police official said agents with either ICE or Federal Protective Services, a law enforcement agency within DHS, were driving the vehicles. The official said the person knocked down by the vehicle declined medical treatment.
No one was arrested, he said.
Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam released a statement on Thursday night about the incident.
“What happened at tonight’s vigil in Hartford is the direct result of the lawlessness and recklessness cultivated by the Trump administration over the past year, which culminated in the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis this week,” Arulampalam said in the statement.
“It is imperative that anyone protesting do so peacefully and safely,” he added. “We cannot give this administration the chaos it craves. But let no one mistake the cause of tonight’s conflict: federal agents have acted with impunity and a clear intent to antagonize local communities across our country. When you govern by brutality, you incite unrest.”
Arulampalam said he was directing the Hartford Police Department to investigate the vehicle strike as they would “any incident where a driver strikes a pedestrian. My administration will work diligently with the department, and have more information to share as it becomes available. Unlike the Trump administration, we believe in laws, facts and due process.”
Sally Grossman came to the vigil Thursday night from Windsor, expecting it to be peaceful. When she heard shouts from the other side of the building from protesters calling for support, she ran to help. She was standing in front of one of the vehicles when she was pepper-sprayed, she said.
Grossman said she was shocked at how the night turned out. “I brought my 8-year-old daughter with me, and my mom. I’ve never been to a violent protest at all,” she said, while struggling to keep her eyes open. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Shahrzad Rasekh/CT Mirror
The vigil continued on the west side of the courthouse, where leaders of numerous civil rights groups gave speeches. Several hundred people attended the vigil.
Dan Piper, a teacher who spoke at the vigil, told those gathered that the federal officials are hoping to silence dissent.
“Their only hope is that the most unspeakable brutality that they commit will scare us into going home and being quiet,” he said. “Will we rise to the challenge? I believe we will. You have convinced me we will, as have many millions across this country.”
Constanza Segovia, one of the leaders of Hartford Deportation Defense, was in the crowd and said that the death of Renee Good was terrifying and demonstrates the capacity of ICE to act violently.
“I think something like this happening really calls for a clear decision from leaders. We are not where we’ve been,” she said.
Many of the event’s attendees were confused about — or ignorant of — what had occurred on the other side of the court house.
Hartford Councilman Josh Michtom holds his 6-year-old daughter Mailén as they listen to a speaker at a vigil for Renee Good in front of the Abraham Ribicoff U.S. Court House on Jan, 8, 2026. (Shahrzad Rasekh/CT Mirror)
Sen. Matt Lesser, D-Middletown, attended the vigil but did not see the disturbance at the rear of the building.
“I still don’t know a lot about what happened here tonight other than, obviously, there were some protesters who were looking to be more confrontational. But the vast majority of people here were looking to express their concerns peacefully,” he said. “I just don’t know yet what happened, and I don’t feel equipped to comment on it, but I hope everyone is safe.”
“The question that’s going through my mind is, what can we do to protect people in Connecticut and make sure that our cities are safe and we’re not going to have something like (the Renee Good shooting) happen here?” he said.
Lesser said that he is looking to work on legislation this session to give Connecticut residents more protections from violations of their constitutional rights.
CT Mirror reporter Emilia Otte contributed to this story.
Laura Tillman, Shahrzad Rasekh and Dave Altimari are reporters for The Connecticut Mirror (https://ctmirror.org/ ). Copyright 2024 © The Connecticut Mirror.