Saturday, January 10, 2026

Renee Nicole Good

The US government murdered Renee Nicole Good on January 7th in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  ICE agent Jonathan Ross, a man with years of training in using a firearm and who provided training to others ("a firearms instructor, an active shooter instructor"), shot and killed the mother of three who was unarmed.  Ross, apparently needing to make social content while on the clock, filmed her and when the video was released, the world saw that her last words to him were, "I'm not mad at you."  By contrast, he or one of his fellow agents immediately called Renee a "f**king bitch" after plugged her with three bullets.  The federal government immediately began attacking Good -- even though they should be stating "I can't comment on an ongoing federal investigation." 

Instead, as NPR's Martin Kaste observed on January 9th, ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, "And I think what's not normal here is the way the federal officials have been publicly passing judgment on a case that's still being investigated. For instance, just today, the vice president posted a video that appears to have come from a device being held by the agent who shot Renee Good on Wednesday. It shows Good smiling and saying she's not mad at the officer. But Vance called the video evidence that the officer was in danger. So there seems to be a real disconnect right now on the basic level of what the evidence means."  Fat and little Vice president  JD Vance is a professional troll but his efforts this time are especially outrageous.   John Grosso (NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER) observed:


Yesterday (Jan. 7), 37-year-old Renee Good was shot and killed in a residential  Minneapolis neighborhood by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer. Good was a mother of three and an U.S. citizen.

Today, JD Vance has taken to social media to justify the shooting and blame Good for her own death.

Though the full circumstances of the situation are still coming to light, widely available video evidence shows the horrific moments before, during and after shots were fired into Good's car. Videos of the shooting and the ensuing aftermath are graphic and disturbing. After Good was shot, her car accelerates, slamming into another car and a pole. In one video, a person can be heard identifying themselves as a physician and offering to help only to be angrily denied by an unidentified ICE agent saying: "I don't care."

The Trump administration was quick to demonize Good. Within hours of the event and before a formal investigation could even be launched, Homeland Security Director Kristi Noem labeled Good's actions as an "act of domestic terrorism." President Donald Trump on Jan. 7 labeled her as "disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer." Trump went on to say that the ICE officer was lucky to be alive and "is now recovering in the hospital."

[. . .]

As a Catholic, Vance knows better than to peddle this brand of gaslighting and agitation. Vance knows that, by virtue of her humanity, Good was endowed with inherent dignity, made in the image and likeness of God. Vance knows that only God can take life. Vance knows that protesting, fleeing or even interfering in an ICE investigation (which there is no evidence that Good did) does not carry a death sentence. Vance knows that lying and killing are sins.

Vance knows. He doesn't care. Vance’s twisted and wrongheaded view of Christianity has been repudiated by two popes. His Catholicism seems to be little more than a political prop, a tool only for his career ambitions and desire for power.

The vice president's comments justifying the death of Renee Good are a moral stain on the collective witness of our Catholic faith. His repeated attempts to blame Good for her own death are fundamentally incompatible with the Gospel. Our only recourse is to pray for his conversion of heart.


Mike's response to Vance's outrageous lies, "As a Catholic,  I'm sick of this little bitch distorting my religion.  He needs to be excommunicated.  I'm not joking.  He is presenting as a Catholic -- he's been a Catholic for about five minutes -- and he is distorting our beliefs and our teaching.  Two popes have repudiated him -- Pope Francis and now Pope Leo.  Excommunicate Vance, don't let him speak for the Church or pose as a Catholic.  Whatever crap he was raised before distorted his damn mind.  We cannot allow him to pervert the Catholic faith."  



At AMERICA: THE JESUIT REVIEW, James T. Keane writes:


After Renee Nicole Good was shot and killed in her minivan by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis on Jan. 7, Vice President JD Vance called her murder “a tragedy of her own making” and claimed that Ms. Good, a community activist and a mother of three, was “part of a broader left-wing network to attack, to dox, to assault and to make it impossible for our ICE officers to do their job.” 

Mr. Vance claimed further that Ms. Good “viciously ran over the ICE officer” who shot and killed her, an assertion contradicted by video evidence taken from multiple angles.

Why the obvious lie? Because, similar to Ms. Kirkpatrick and Mr. Haig, Mr. Vance recognizes the potential for this atrocity to turn American public opinion against President Trump’s brutal campaign against undocumented immigrants, particularly because Ms. Good is an American citizen, was apparently denied medical assistance by ICE agents after the shooting and, according to the video evidence, posed no real threat to the shooter. Not even the most fervent supporter of the arrest and deportation of undocumented migrants, one assumes, would defend such Gestapo-like tactics. 

The answer? Blame Ms. Good for her own murder.

Mr. Vance’s boss, President Trump, has engaged in further deceit and hyperbole in support of that same goal, claiming that Ms. Good “violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE officer, who seems to have shot her in self-defense.” She made for an easy culprit for a man desperate to justify ICE’s actions. After all, she was already dead.

The murder of the churchwomen in El Salvador in 1980 was not an isolated incident; they shared the fate of tens of thousands of other Salvadorans, including Rutilio Grande, S.J., St. Oscar Romero, and the six Jesuits and two laywomen who were murdered by the Salvadoran military in 1989 in San Salvador. Eventually, the overwhelming evidence of these murders became too much for American politicians to justify, and U.S. funding for the Salvadoran military government dried up. It just became impossible to believe the lie anymore.

On the 40th anniversary of the martyrdom of the churchwomen of El Salvador, Cardinal Michael Czerny, S.J., preached at a memorial Mass in Rome on the impact of their witness. “Theirs, mysteriously but without doubt, is the triumph because vigorous, courageous acts of solidarity and compassion persist in dreadful, risky conditions,” he said. “Brutal claims failed and fail to stop the evangelizing.”

Let us hope the same will happen in Minneapolis. Nothing can bring Renee Good back; her 6-year-old son is without his mother now, her partner a widow. The masked man who killed her simply drove away. Nor is her death an isolated incident: All over the country, we hear and see more and more examples of violent attacks by masked ICE agents who seem to face no accountability for their crimes. And we hear the brutal claims used after the fact to justify them.

How long before it simply becomes impossible to believe the lie anymore?

Whitney Curry Wimbish (TAP) notes of Kristi Noem, "Noem repeated the lie that the officer who shot Good to death had done nothing wrong and that officers had been “surrounded, assaulted, and blocked in by protesters,” something contradicted by video and eyewitness evidence. She also said that Good had been following officers all day prior to her murder, but would not say for how long or whether there had been earlier interactions, or how many, between Good and the officers."



HARPER'S BIZAAR runs a piece by poet Danez Smith entitled "An Elegy for My Neighbor, Renee Nicole Good."  Renee was murdered January 7th and that night, in Chicago, Kelly Hayes spoke at a memorial for Renee:


I’m Kelly Hayes. I’ve been organizing for justice for years in this city, and I’ve had the honor of working and thinking alongside many of you in recent months as we’ve held our ground in defense of our neighbors. We are gathered here tonight in the cold, among people of conscience, among neighbors who see themselves in the person who was gunned down in Minneapolis today. She was 37 years old and her name was Renee Nicole Good. She was the mother of a six-year-old child. Her mother described her as “loving, forgiving and affectionate,” and called her “an amazing human being.” 

We grieve for Renee, her family, and her community, but even before we knew anything about Renee — including her name — many of us were shaken by her violent death, because a moment that feels inevitable can still be shocking.

Even though we know ICE has killed before — and will again — even though they shot a woman in Chicago and told lies like the lies they are telling now, even though they are fascist purveyors of violence — their brutality has not hardened or corrupted us. We are still shaken and heartbroken by their violence. That is the cost of staying human in inhuman times — and it’s a cost we pay in defense of our neighbors and in defense of our own humanity. We feel what they would have us ignore, and we grieve the violence that their cultish followers applaud. 

There is power in grief, because grief draws us together in moments when our enemies would tear us apart. Trump, Miller, Bovino, and DHS want us to believe their violence is inevitable. They want it to become the background noise of our lives — not something we respond to with love, tears, and action. They want us to give up on what the world could be, abandon our decency, and abandon each other. They want us to submit to their violence, and to accept that the cost of disrupting their attacks on our communities is death. And if we refuse to forget our neighbors — if we refuse to become dead inside — they want us to live in fear. They want us terrorized, afraid to show up for each other the way the people of Minneapolis have shown up — and the way Chicago has shown up.

And while this violence didn’t occur in our city, we know what it’s like to have their guns drawn on us. We understand the terror Minneapolis is facing, and we feel their loss deeply. A federal agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good. And with that shot, ICE took aim at every city where people have dared to organize against their violence, every place where neighbors have chosen each other over fear. But people of conscience will not be cowed. Today, I saw our siblings in struggle in Minneapolis chanting, “You can’t kill us all.”

I am grateful to the people of Minneapolis tonight. Their courage in the wake of this violence is a bright light for us to rally around. They have mobilized — just as we have mobilized — to protect one another, to love one another, and to tell ICE to get the fuck out of their communities. And what they have found together — what we have found together, what so many communities have found together through collective efforts to create as much safety and justice as possible — will not be destroyed by acts of violence and repression.

They want us to scatter in fear, to give up hope, and to give up on each other. But we will hold more tightly to one another, plan more strategically, and care even more deeply. We will resist the normalization of their violence, the immobilization of fear, and the sense of inevitability they would impose upon us. We will do what our courageous friends in Minneapolis have done today. We will be a light to all those who resist — to those forced to hide or live in fear, to those who want to love and practice care bravely. We will be a reminder of what people can do when they refuse to give up, and when they refuse to give up on each other.

Protests, rallies and memorials have taken place around the country for Renee. Mark Naymik (SIGNAL CLEVELAND) reports on a Friday action:


A few hundred people rallied near Cleveland’s West Side Market Friday evening to call attention to the death of Renee Nicole Good, who was fatally shot Wednesday morning by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer near her home in Minneapolis. 

The rally was one of several organized across Greater Cleveland over the last few days by various groups. Longtime Cuyahoga County Democratic Party activist Cindy Demsey, who organized the “No Kings” rally in June to protest Trump administration policies, led the event. Other speakers included civil rights lawyer Subodh Chandra, who argued the videos taken by bystanders in Minneapolis show she was killed for nothing more than exercising her right to protest actions by ICE. 

Good’s family acknowledged in a public statement Friday that she monitored and supported protests of immigration activity in her neighborhood. 


Quinn Alexander (New York's WRGB) notes:

The death of Renee Nicole Good has ignited a wave of protests in the Capital Region, with hundreds gathering on Saturday to honor her memory and demand accountability for the actions of ICE agents.

The protests have extended to Saratoga Springs, where demonstrators expressed their growing frustration with Democratic lawmakers, accusing them of not doing enough to halt deportations under President Trump's immigration policies, which continue into 2026.

The fatal shooting in Minnesota has prompted calls for an end to ICE operations nationwide.

"This is an American citizen that was exercising her free speech rights and was murdered in cold blood," Ellen Aimone, a protester with Indivisible ADK Saratoga, stated.

Carol Margulies, an organizer with Indivisible ADK Saratoga, described the incident as chilling and hard to watch.


Many Democrats in Congress have called the government out for killing Renee.  We've noted several throughout the week including AOC, Jasmine Crockett, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, Pramila Jayapal, Hakeem Jeffries and Robin Kelly (who has called since the murder for the impeachment of Kristi Noem).  The Congressional Equality Caucus issued the following:


“Renee Nicole Good was a wife, mother, poet, singer, member of the LGBTQI+ community, and United States citizen. Her tragic killing will forever be a stain on the moral fabric of our nation. We solemnly join Renee’s friends, loved ones—including her wife and young children—and community in Minnesota in mourning this heartbreaking loss.

“We must demand accountability from the Trump Administration and fight for justice for Renee. Federal authorities must allow a full, transparent, and independent investigation that involves state and local law enforcement agencies in order for justice to be served and to ensure these senseless acts of violence never happen ever again.”

Rep. Mark Takano (CA-39), Chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus
Rep. Mark Pocan (WI-02), Co-Chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus
Rep. Angie Craig (MN-02), Co-Chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus
Rep. Sharice Davids (KS-03), Co-Chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus
Rep. Chris Pappas (NH-01), Co-Chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus
Rep. Ritchie Torres (NY-15), Co-Chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus
Rep. Becca Balint (VT-AL), Co-Chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus
Rep. Robert Garcia (CA-42), Co-Chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus
Rep. Eric Sorensen (IL-17), Co-Chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus
Rep. Julie Johnson (TX-32), Co-Chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus
Rep. Sarah McBride (DE-AL), Co-Chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus
Rep. Emily Randall (WA-06), Co-Chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus 


Samantha Michaels (MOTHER JONES) reports:


After an ICE agent shot and killed Renée Good in Minneapolis this week, firing his weapon as she attempted to drive away, protesters have amassed around the country, many wondering: Can that officer be taken to court?

The Trump administration, predictably, says the agent, Jonathan Ross, is immune from prosecution. “You have a federal law enforcement official engaging in federal law enforcement action,” Vice President JD Vance told reporters on Thursday. “That guy is protected by absolute immunity. He was doing his job.”

But what do independent attorneys say? After the shooting, I reached out to Robert Bennett, a veteran lawyer in Minneapolis who has worked on hundreds of federal court police misconduct cases during his 50-year career. “I’ve deposed thousands of police officers,” he says. “ICE agents do not have absolute immunity.”

Bennett says the state of Minnesota has the right to prosecute an ICE agent who commits misconduct. But, he adds, that might be difficult now that the FBI has essentially booted the state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension off the case—blocking access, the BCA wrote, to “case materials, scene evidence or investigative interviews necessary to complete a thorough and independent investigation.”


Robert Kuttner (TAP) shares:


PULLING BACK TO A WIDER-ANGLE LENS, this is all part of Trump’s pattern of random acts of violence, used to keep changing the subject. Is the aftermath of the kidnapping of Venezuela’s President Maduro a mess? Threaten Greenland. Are cities and states resisting Trump’s incursions? Send in more ICE agents to create provocations and pretexts for more violence. Trump is so addled that he doesn’t quite grasp that his seizing of a Russian-flagged oil tanker and his claims to Greenland to block Russian Arctic power undermine his Ukraine alliance with Vladimir Putin.

On all fronts, Trump is losing the battle for public opinion. Well before the latest ICE outrage, polling showed public opposition to ICE tactics by a margin of 53 to 39 percent. In the wake of the Minneapolis killing, new polls will surely show even more opposition.


 

The following sites updated:





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