Renee Nicole Good: What we know about the woman killed in Minneapolis ICE shooting – National
The fatal shooting marks the latest incident in U.S. President Donald Trump’s countrywide crackdown on migrants. It’s at least the fifth person killed in a handful of states since 2024, according to The Associated Press.
Good was a 37-year-old mother of three and a U.S. citizen born in Colorado, who had recently moved to Minnesota.
What happened?
Video taken by bystanders shows an officer approaching Good’s car, demanding she open the door and grabbing the handle. When she begins to pull forward, a different ICE officer standing near the vehicle pulls his weapon and fires at least two shots into the vehicle at close range.
In another video taken after the shooting, a woman is seen sitting near the vehicle, saying, “That’s my wife, I don’t know what to do!”
Good’s ex-husband, who asked not to be named out of concern for the safety of their children, told The Associated Press that she had just dropped her six-year-old son off at school and was driving home with her current partner when they encountered a group of ICE agents on a snowy street in Minneapolis, where they had moved last year from Kansas City, Mo.
Trump administration officials referred to Good as a “domestic terrorist,” and said she had attempted to ram federal agents with her car.
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said on X that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer began firing after a “violent rioter” weaponized her vehicle and attempted to run over ICE officers in “an attempt to kill them.”
McLaughlin said it was an “act of domestic terrorism,” and she confirmed that the ICE officers who had injuries from the shooting are expected to make full recoveries.
Good’s ex-husband said she was not an activist and that he had never known her to participate in a protest of any kind.
He described her as a devoted Christian who took part in youth mission trips to Northern Ireland when she was younger. She loved to sing, participating in a chorus in high school and studying vocal performance in college.
Who was Renee Nicole Good?
On her social media accounts, Good described herself as a “poet and writer and wife and mom.” She said she was currently “experiencing Minneapolis.”
She studied creative writing at Old Dominion University in Virginia and won a prize in 2020 for one of her works, according to a post on the school’s English department Facebook page.
Good’s bio on the Facebook page said, “When she is not writing, reading, or talking about writing, she has movie marathons and makes messy art with her daughter and two sons.”
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Good’s ex-husband said she had been a stay-at-home mom in recent years but had previously worked as a dental assistant and at a credit union. She had also hosted a podcast with her second husband, Timmy Ray Macklin Jr., who died in 2023 at the age of 36, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune.
Good had a daughter and a son from her first marriage, who are now 15 and 12. Her six-year-old son is from her second marriage.
Timmy Ray Macklin Sr., Macklin’s father, told the Tribune that he was shocked to hear the news and spoke about his six-year-old grandchild.
“There’s nobody else in his life,” Macklin said. “I’ll drive. I’ll fly. To come and get my grandchild.”
Renee Nicole Good was shot and killed by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis on Jan. 7.
ODU English Department / Facebook
Donna Ganger, Good’s mother, told the outlet that the family was notified of the death late Wednesday morning.
Ganger called Good “one of the kindest people I’ve ever known” and said she was “not part of anything like that at all,” referring to protesters challenging ICE agents.
“She was extremely compassionate,” Ganger told the Tribune. “She’s taken care of people all her life. She was loving, forgiving and affectionate. She was an amazing human being.”
Old Dominion President Brian O. Hemphill released a statement following news of Good’s death.
“May Renee’s life be a reminder of what unites us: freedom, love, and peace. My hope is for compassion, healing, and reflection at a time that is becoming one of the darkest and most uncertain periods in our nation’s history,” Hemphill said.
What officials are saying
Members of the Minneapolis City Council released a joint statement demanding that ICE leave the city following the shooting.
“This morning an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a member of our community,” the statement said. “Renee was a resident of our city who was out caring for her neighbors this morning and her life was taken today at the hands of the federal government.”
“Anyone who kills someone in our city deserves to be arrested, investigated, and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” the statement added.
“We are united in our support for our immigrant community and our residents in the wake of these attacks. We demand that ICE immediately leave our city so we can get rid of their chaos and violence that ended the life of one of our neighbors today.”
Minnesota State Representative Leigh Finke paid tribute to Good in a post on Facebook, writing, “My heart is absolutely broken. Rest in peace Renee Good. You deserved a full life with your wife and child, a whole beautiful world to live and explore.”
“I am sorry you could not have it. Love your people boldly and all the time,” Finke added.
At a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said he had reviewed footage of the incident and accused federal authorities of spinning the shooting as an act of self-defence, an argument he said was “bullsh–t.”
“This was an agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying,” he continued. “We’ve dreaded this moment since the early stages of this ICE presence in Minneapolis.”
After the shooting, the priority then became to get ICE off the scene, whose presence he said caused “chaos” and was “problematic.”
“I have a message for ICE,” Frey continued, “get the f–k out of Minneapolis.”
Frey also urged community members not to take actions that could be used to justify further federal escalation.
“Do not take the bait. They want an excuse to come in and show the kind of force that will create more chaos and more despair. Let’s not let them. Let’s rise to this occasion. Let’s show them something far more beautiful than the kind of division that they’re trying to stoke,” he said.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, having previously asked residents to remain calm, echoed Frey’s sentiments.
“I’ve seen the video. Don’t believe this propaganda machine,” he wrote on X. “The state will ensure there is a full, fair, and expeditious investigation to ensure accountability and justice.”
Congresswoman Ilhan Omar said ICE’s actions were “unconscionable and reprehensible.”
“I am beyond outraged that their reckless, callous actions led to the killing of a legal observer in Minneapolis. My heart breaks for the victim’s family, who will have to forever live with the pain caused by the Trump Administration’s reckless and deadly actions,” she wrote in a post on X.
“This is not law enforcement. It is state violence. It is simply indefensible, and ICE must be held accountable,” she added.
New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told reporters she believed the ICE agent murdered Good.
“This has now turned into what our greatest fear is and has been for a long time around ICE — that this will be used as an anti-civilian force that has no accountability. At the end of the day, what we saw today is a murder, and murders in cold blood need to be prosecuted,” she said.
U.S. Vice-President JD Vance said that he wants “every ICE officer to know that their president, vice president, and the entire administration stands behind him.”
“To the radicals assaulting them, doxxing them, and threatening them: congratulations, we’re going to work even harder to enforce the law,” he added.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump referred to Good as “very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense.”
“The situation is being studied, in its entirety, but the reason these incidents are happening is because the Radical Left is threatening, assaulting, and targeting our Law Enforcement Officers and ICE Agents on a daily basis,” he added.
Investigation details
The head of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said Thursday that the U.S. attorney’s office had barred it from taking part in the investigation.
BCA Superintendent Drew Evans said in a statement that after the agency consulted with the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, the U.S. attorney’s office and the FBI following the shooting, it was decided that the BCA Force Investigations Unit would conduct a joint investigation with the FBI. But he said the FBI later informed the BCA that the U.S. attorney’s office had changed the plan.
“The investigation would now be led solely by the FBI, and the BCA would no longer have access to the case materials, scene evidence or investigative interviews necessary to complete a thorough and independent investigation,” Evans wrote.
“Without complete access to the evidence, witnesses and information collected, we cannot meet the investigative standards that Minnesota law and the public demands. As a result, the BCA has reluctantly withdrawn from the investigation. The BCA Force Investigations Unit was designed to ensure consistency, accountability and public confidence, none of which can be achieved without full cooperation and jurisdictional clarity,” he wrote.
— With files from Global News’ Rachel Goodman and The Associated Press
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