“She was extremely compassionate,” said her mother. “She’s taken care of people all her life. She was loving, forgiving and affectionate. She was an amazing human being”
The Minneapolis community – and Americans of conscience everywhere – are mourning the horrific killing of Renee Nicole Good, a local resident who was shot dead in her vehicle by a masked mass deportation agent this week. Good and her wife had just dropped off one of their children at school “when they encountered a group of ICE agents on a snowy street in Minneapolis, where they had moved last year from Kansas City, Missouri,” the Boston Globe reported.
Good, an award-winning poet who studied creative writing at Virginia’s Old Dominion University, was just 37. She leaves behind her wife, Becca, and three children, the youngest of whom is just six-years-old.
Renee Nicole Goode, a 37-year old mother and a U.S. citizen, was shot and killed by an ICE agent in broad daylight. This devastating tragedy could have been prevented. We demand justice, and an independent investigation into yesterday’s event.May Renee Nicole Goode rest in power.
— votolatino.bsky.social (@votolatino.bsky.social) 2026-01-08T15:08:36.016Z
“First, I want to extend my gratitude to all the people who have reached out from across the country and around the world to support our family,” said her wife, Becca Good. “This kindness of strangers is the most fitting tribute because if you ever encountered my wife, Renee Nicole Macklin Good, you know that above all else, she was kind. In fact, kindness radiated out of her.” Her mom, Donna Ganger, told the Minnesota Star Tribune that Good “was one of the kindest people I’ve ever known. She was extremely compassionate. She’s taken care of people all her life. She was loving, forgiving and affectionate. She was an amazing human being.” Tim Granger, Good’s father, called her “a wonderful person.” Local resident Megan Kocher said that while she had met Good and her wife only recently, she felt nothing but welcome. “She fed me tea and cookies at her house while we talked about school stuff,” she told the Star Tribune. “This is tragic beyond words.”
Further tributes poured in from all over the country – including fury from elected officials at unchecked violence under the chaotic policies of the federal government and its attempts to mislead the public about Good’s killing despite video evidence contradicting claims that the ICE agent was in Good’s path.
Jacob Frey: "To ICE — get the fuck out of Minneapolis"
The administration is “already trying to spin this as an action of self defense, having seen the video for myself, I want to tell everybody directly, that is bulls—,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey stated. “This was an agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody getting killed.” The mayor “also accused ICE of ‘causing chaos and distrust’ in the community,” PEOPLE reported. “‘They are ripping families apart, they’re sewing chaos on our streets and in this case quite literally killing people,’ he added.”
“Today’s deadly tragedy in Minneapolis is the direct result of the Trump administration’s reckless policy of violent overreach against immigrants and the American citizens who surround them,” said the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. “Before all the facts were even known, Secretary Noem was already accusing the victim of domestic terrorism. The preliminary video evidence tells a very different story, one where deadly violence could easily have been avoided.”
— Congressional Hispanic Caucus (@hispaniccaucus.bsky.social) 2026-01-07T20:01:15.488Z
“Several eye-witness videos of the shooting that have been shared online make it clear that the Department of Homeland Security’s claim that an agent shot in self-defense is a blatant lie,” echoed Rep. Veronica Escobar (TX-16), who has also called out ICE’s abuses against immigrant neighbors both in her state and around the country.
“Let me repeat: the Department of Homeland Security is lying to the American people about a shooting committed by one of their agents in broad daylight,” Rep. Escobar continued. “The Trump administration and Secretary Kristi Noem are treating U.S. citizens as disposable casualties in their lawless mass deportation campaign, and they are allowing – possibly encouraging – their untrained, under-qualified agents to act recklessly and cruelly in American communities. It must stop.”
— Rep. Veronica Escobar (@repescobar.bsky.social) 2026-01-07T19:51:25.941Z
“ICE just murdered a U.S. citizen,” said Rep. Jasmine Crockett (TX-30). “This is dangerous state-sanctioned violence.” Rep. Maxwell Frost (FL-10) said “ICE just murdered a woman in Minneapolis. This is the direct result of Trump’s dangerous weaponization of our immigration system.”
ICE just murdered a U.S. citizen.This violence is the direct result of racist rhetoric coming from Donald Trump and his allies. This is dangerous state-sanctioned violence. We will not stay silent while unqualified masked federal agents terrorize our communities.
— Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (@crockett.house.gov) 2026-01-07T19:52:55.197Z
ICE just murdered a woman in Minneapolis.This is the direct result of Trump's dangerous weaponization of our immigration system.The ICE agent must be immediately terminated and charged — and this administration needs to get ICE out of our communities.
— Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost (@frost.house.gov) 2026-01-07T19:47:35.354Z
Rep. Ilhan Omar (MN-05) mourned the death of her fellow Minnesotan, calling the shooting “unconscionable and reprehensible” and noting that the administration’s federal deployment to the Twin Cities “has spread fear, chaos, and violence across our state.” It must be remembered that federal agents weren’t deployed into Minnesota for any legitimate reason, but instead because the administration views Rep. Omar, Gov. Tim Walz, and the state’s Somali residents with disdain.
Had the administration not deployed taxpayer-funded officers into the state for political reasons, there’s plenty of reason to believe that Renee Nicole Good – poet, mother, and treasured neighbor in her Minneapolis community – might still be alive today.
“This administration has shown, yet again, that it does not care about the safety of Minnesotans,” Rep. Omar continued in her statement. “Instead of protecting our communities, they are unleashing violence–terrorizing neighborhoods and now killing a civilian. For weeks, ICE’s so-called ‘Operation Metro Surge’ has spread fear, chaos, and violence across our state. This is not law enforcement. It is state violence. It is simply indefensible, and ICE must be held accountable. That must include a full, comprehensive investigation and legal action against the agency.”
Noem “wreaked havoc in the Chicagoland area and has brought her reign of terror to Minneapolis,” said Rep. Robin Kelly (IL-02). “One of her rogue ICE agents shot and killed an innocent woman today. It must come to an end.” She has since introduced articles of impeachment against Noem:
I refuse to stay silent while Secretary Noem breaks the rule of law and terrorizes our communities. I am introducing Articles of Impeachment against her for violating the public trust, obstructing Congress, and self-dealing. Read my full statement: robinkelly.house.gov/media-center…
— Congresswoman Robin Kelly (@robinkelly.house.gov) 2026-01-08T00:00:53.610Z
AOC: What we saw today was a horrific act of violence. What we have seen and are now seeing is that ICE has not just become an anti-immigrant force—it is becoming an anti-civilian, paramilitary organization. People are being taken off the streets for exercising their free speech rights.
“ICE is not just becoming an anti-immigrant force in this country, it is becoming an anti-civilian paramilitary organization,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14) said in forceful remarks from the nation’s capital. “This has now turned into what our greatest fear is, and has been for a long time around ICE. This will be used as an anti-civilian force that has no accountability at the end of the day.”
Americans across the country also poured out into the streets to peacefully but passionately condemn the state-sanctioned violence that robbed a family of a loving parent, wife, daughter, sister, and treasured community member.
“We grieve with them as they grieve the loss of a neighbor and loved one,” said Rev. Eric Mailey of Nashville’s Edgehill United Methodist Church. “No matter where you are, everyone deserves to be safe.” Faith leaders also spoke out in Los Angeles, where clergy and community members held up photos of Good.
“We stand holding the fear and the terror and the sorrow, the deep grief that has transpired needlessly,” said Rev. Francisco Garcia. “Murder at the hands of our tax dollars. State sanctioned. This cannot be, this cannot stand, and we offer our continued witness to stand against these atrocities, against this evil.”
“Protests broke out across Central Texas Thursday night after the fatal shooting of a woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis, Minnesota,” CBS Austin reported. “Demonstrators gathered in Austin and Pflugerville, calling for ICE to leave local communities and saying they were standing in solidarity with Minneapolis. Protesters held signs reading ‘ICE out of Texas’ and ‘Justice for Renee Nicole Good’ as they filled sidewalks and street corners.”
In Indianapolis, community members said this has never been about public safety. “This is really, truly not about getting illegal immigrants or criminals out of our streets; this is just terror and hate. No, I wouldn’t say we’re scared. I’d say we’re more determined than ever,” ANSWER Indiana’s Lindsey Holtgrave told WRTV.
“ICE needs to get out of our cities,” she continued. “We don’t want them here; we don’t want the terror that they bring. We don’t welcome murderers in Indianapolis.”
In a statement Thursday, America’s Voice Executive Director Vanessa Cárdenas said she was “deeply angry that this tragedy was predictable and preventable and how it fits into a larger, unchecked pattern of abuse, violence and provocation under an administration intent on ripping us apart.”
“Minneapolis is the latest example of the Trump administration’s effort to normalize the massive domestic deployment of federal agents, and in some cases the U.S. military, against the will of those communities and their elected representatives,” she said. “In city after city over the past year, the targeting of the ‘enemy within,’ as Trump infamously phrased it, includes neighbors and friends; parents and children; and U.S. citizens and non-citizens alike. These deployments are deliberate provocations that trample on core democratic traditions, keep our nation divided and subvert core rights such as due process and First Amendment protections.”
These deliberate provocations have continued even after Good’s brutal murder. Religion News Service reports that Minneapolis clergy members who rushed to exercise their personal freedoms and protest her killing were again targeted by federal agents and shot at with pepper rounds and chemical agents. While the Rev. Susie Hayward, a United Church of Christ minister, told Religion News Service that she’s shaken by recent events, her faith compels her to continue speaking truth to power.
“I am going to continue to show up in multiple ways as a clergyperson,” she said, “because it’s part of my call to ministry to care for neighbor and to protect nonviolently my community.”
