A New York woman claims she was visited by two agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement who warned her to take down her Instagram account because it identified the ICE agent who fatally shot Renee Good.
Paigelynne Gonyea told Syracuse.com that she was working as a poll worker in Syracuse on Tuesday when the agents arrived and said they were investigating threats made by her against ICE personnel.
They held copies of her social media posts, her driver’s license, and handed her a form to sign that warned that she may have violated federal law by threatening a federal official or their family through her account, she told the local news outlet.
“They tried to scare me into signing it while I was working,” she said.
The post she believes is at issue, she said, was one she made in January that identified by name the ICE agent who fatally shot Good on Jan. 7 while she was driving in a Minneapolis neighborhood.
“I think today is a great day for Jonathan to be indicted,” she wrote on Jan. 8 of Jonathan Ross, who as of Thursday has not been indicted in Good’s death. Gonyea cited a news report in her post for Ross’ identification. Ross’ name is otherwise public information and today widely known.
While Gonyea wrote on Instagram Wednesday that the agents were questioning her about “when I stupidly doxxed Jonathan Ross,” she denied having doxxed him in her interview with Syracuse.com, saying she does not consider it doxxing to quote a news story and call for an indictment.
“I didn’t dox his personal information, such as address, phone number,” she said.
Doxxing is typically considered sharing someone’s home address or personal contact information with malicious intent.
Gonyea also shared a photo on Instagram of the form she claimed she was asked to sign. The paper seems to identify her Instagram account by name and says there’s “reason to believe” that it violated a federal law that prohibits threatening physical harm to a federal official, or publicizing their restricted personal information with the intent to threaten, intimidate, or facilitate a violent crime.
She also shared a voicemail from someone allegedly identifying themselves as an agent with Homeland Security. The person requests to discuss with her an Instagram post “where you doxed an ICE agent,” according to the recording.
Gonyea and representatives with Homeland Security and ICE did not immediately respond to JS’s requests for comment on Thursday.