The Killing of Renee Good
On January 7, 2026, Renée Nicole Macklin Good, a 37-year-old American woman, was fatally shot in Minneapolis, Minnesota, by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Jonathan Ross. Good was in her car, stopped sideways in the street when Ross walked around it and then walked back and around her vehicle. Other agents approached, and one ordered her to get out of the car while reaching through her open window. Good briefly reversed, then began moving forward and to the right, into the direction of traffic. At this point, Ross was standing at the front-left of the vehicle and fired three shots, killing her, as her vehicle passed him, turning away from him. The killing sparked national protests and multiple investigations.
Federal law enforcement officials and President Donald Trump defended the shooting, saying the agent acted in self-defense, that Good ran him over, and that the agent was recovering in a hospital. Their accounts of the shooting were contested by eyewitnesses, journalists, and Democratic Party lawmakers, some of whom called for criminal proceedings against Ross. The president and federal officials were criticized for espousing conclusions before any investigation had occurred. Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota governor Tim Walz called on ICE to end their presence in the city.
The killing sparked widespread protests in Minneapolis, and other US cities including Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. Marches in Minneapolis prompted the closing of public schools and the deployment of more police officers. Federal agents used tear gas and pepper spray against protesters, and Governor Walz placed the National Guard on standby.
Leaders of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division declined to open a constitutional investigation, which led more than a dozen federal prosecutors in Minneapolis and Washington to resign in protest. Minnesota attorney general Keith Ellison, along with the cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, filed suit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to halt ICE deployments. The incident intensified national debate over immigration enforcement and renewed calls to abolish ICE.
Conduct of federal agents and liability
Speaking to the Associated Press, criminology professor Geoff Alpert questioned whether there was any law enforcement training which would permit the use of a firearm in one hand while filming with the other. Law professor John P. Gross said that Ross "casually filming" the encounter demonstrated that Good was not perceived as a threat. Washington Post columnist Monica Hesse wrote that Good backed up her car to conduct a multipoint turn on the icy street after waving other motorists ahead to allow space for her to pull onto the street.
Legal experts and former ICE officials interviewed by Politico and The New York Times said that the Trump administration's rush to assign blame, mount partisan attacks, and deny responsibility damaged public trust in ICE and the credibility of any federal investigation.
Legal analyst Ian Millhiser found it unlikely that the federal government would charge the shooter with a crime, but said it may be possible for state prosecutors to lay homicide charges against him. The previous year, the Supreme Court ruled in Martin v. United States that federal officers are protected from prosecution only to the extent that they acted in a "necessary and proper" fashion in the discharge of their official duties. Similarly, law professor Rachel Moran listed ICE actions in the aftermath of the shooting, such as the use of pepper spray, as possible grounds for assault charges.
It was not immediately clear whether Good was legally obligated to comply with ICE's orders. Legal analysts interviewed by The New York Times said the issue was multifactorial, encompassing the question of whether ICE was engaged in lawful activity, and also whether Good was blocking their cars.
Government policy and statements
DHS policy directives instruct its officers to "avoid intentionally and unreasonably placing themselves in positions in which they have no alternative to using deadly force". ICE directs its officers to use deadly force "only when an officer has probable cause that a detainee poses an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury". The Economist noted that previous DHS self-defense assertions in cases of seemingly excessive force "have been repeatedly debunked", with evidence in federal court showing that "Border Patrol agents involved in such confrontations" in Chicago the previous year "lied under oath and exaggerated the threat from protesters in order to justify their aggression". According to The Atlantic, the incident historically would have been investigated by the DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties "to review policies, training, and oversight procedures to try to prevent anything like it from happening again", but the Office was disabled early the previous year along with two other DHS oversight offices. Radley Balko wrote that the administration's refusal to investigate themselves or support other investigations "is the very definition of a cover-up. It's just being done in plain sight."
Militarization of border police agencies
The New York Times said Ross's career trajectory, which took him from the US war campaign in Iraq, to border patrol in Texas, and then immigration enforcement in Minnesota, was emblematic of a broader effort by the federal government to militarize its police apparatus at the border in the decades after the September 11 attacks. David Wallace-Wells contextualized the shooting as an instance of imperial boomerang, writing: "Here we are, with an Iraq veteran in tactical gear, surrounded by comrades swarming a car partially blocking his way, firing point-blank at its driver. In the immediate aftermath, sympathetic nativists justified the shooting by describing a Minneapolis taken over by Somali refugees, but also by pointing to the victim's divorce and sexuality, the social justice curriculum at her child's elementary school and the obstinateness of liberal white women."
Michelle Goldberg wrote, "It's as if the right is speedrunning the Martin Niemöller poem that begins, 'First they came for the Communists.' ICE's invasion of Minneapolis started with the demonization of Somali immigrants. It took only weeks for conservative demagogues to direct their venom toward the middle-class women of the Resistance." Goldberg also wrote that what made Good's killing "such a shock is that we're not used to seeing law enforcement violence against middle-class white mothers".
Federal law enforcement officials and President Donald Trump defended the shooting, saying the agent acted in self-defense, that Good ran him over, and that the agent was recovering in a hospital. Their accounts of the shooting were contested by eyewitnesses, journalists, and Democratic Party lawmakers, some of whom called for criminal proceedings against Ross. The president and federal officials were criticized for espousing conclusions before any investigation had occurred. Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota governor Tim Walz called on ICE to end their presence in the city.
The killing sparked widespread protests in Minneapolis, and other US cities including Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. Marches in Minneapolis prompted the closing of public schools and the deployment of more police officers. Federal agents used tear gas and pepper spray against protesters, and Governor Walz placed the National Guard on standby.
Leaders of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division declined to open a constitutional investigation, which led more than a dozen federal prosecutors in Minneapolis and Washington to resign in protest. Minnesota attorney general Keith Ellison, along with the cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, filed suit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to halt ICE deployments. The incident intensified national debate over immigration enforcement and renewed calls to abolish ICE.
Conduct of federal agents and liability
Speaking to the Associated Press, criminology professor Geoff Alpert questioned whether there was any law enforcement training which would permit the use of a firearm in one hand while filming with the other. Law professor John P. Gross said that Ross "casually filming" the encounter demonstrated that Good was not perceived as a threat. Washington Post columnist Monica Hesse wrote that Good backed up her car to conduct a multipoint turn on the icy street after waving other motorists ahead to allow space for her to pull onto the street.
Legal experts and former ICE officials interviewed by Politico and The New York Times said that the Trump administration's rush to assign blame, mount partisan attacks, and deny responsibility damaged public trust in ICE and the credibility of any federal investigation.
Legal analyst Ian Millhiser found it unlikely that the federal government would charge the shooter with a crime, but said it may be possible for state prosecutors to lay homicide charges against him. The previous year, the Supreme Court ruled in Martin v. United States that federal officers are protected from prosecution only to the extent that they acted in a "necessary and proper" fashion in the discharge of their official duties. Similarly, law professor Rachel Moran listed ICE actions in the aftermath of the shooting, such as the use of pepper spray, as possible grounds for assault charges.
It was not immediately clear whether Good was legally obligated to comply with ICE's orders. Legal analysts interviewed by The New York Times said the issue was multifactorial, encompassing the question of whether ICE was engaged in lawful activity, and also whether Good was blocking their cars.
Government policy and statements
DHS policy directives instruct its officers to "avoid intentionally and unreasonably placing themselves in positions in which they have no alternative to using deadly force". ICE directs its officers to use deadly force "only when an officer has probable cause that a detainee poses an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury". The Economist noted that previous DHS self-defense assertions in cases of seemingly excessive force "have been repeatedly debunked", with evidence in federal court showing that "Border Patrol agents involved in such confrontations" in Chicago the previous year "lied under oath and exaggerated the threat from protesters in order to justify their aggression". According to The Atlantic, the incident historically would have been investigated by the DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties "to review policies, training, and oversight procedures to try to prevent anything like it from happening again", but the Office was disabled early the previous year along with two other DHS oversight offices. Radley Balko wrote that the administration's refusal to investigate themselves or support other investigations "is the very definition of a cover-up. It's just being done in plain sight."
Militarization of border police agencies
The New York Times said Ross's career trajectory, which took him from the US war campaign in Iraq, to border patrol in Texas, and then immigration enforcement in Minnesota, was emblematic of a broader effort by the federal government to militarize its police apparatus at the border in the decades after the September 11 attacks. David Wallace-Wells contextualized the shooting as an instance of imperial boomerang, writing: "Here we are, with an Iraq veteran in tactical gear, surrounded by comrades swarming a car partially blocking his way, firing point-blank at its driver. In the immediate aftermath, sympathetic nativists justified the shooting by describing a Minneapolis taken over by Somali refugees, but also by pointing to the victim's divorce and sexuality, the social justice curriculum at her child's elementary school and the obstinateness of liberal white women."
Michelle Goldberg wrote, "It's as if the right is speedrunning the Martin Niemöller poem that begins, 'First they came for the Communists.' ICE's invasion of Minneapolis started with the demonization of Somali immigrants. It took only weeks for conservative demagogues to direct their venom toward the middle-class women of the Resistance." Goldberg also wrote that what made Good's killing "such a shock is that we're not used to seeing law enforcement violence against middle-class white mothers".
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