Renee Nicole Good; Who Was She? Why Was She Executed By The State?
UPDATE: Per the Minnesota Star Tribune: The ICE agent who fatally shot Renee Good has been identified as Jonathan Ross.
Yesterday, my colleagues and I all got some things wrong. I am normally much more diligent in my reporting. Although I was correct in all of the facts surrounding the events which transpired between ICE, activists, and the fatal killing that led to so much more state violence yesterday, I was not once correct about the woman who was killed. I attributed her as an observer, then as an activist. I apologize for these errors. They will be corrected now.
Perhaps it was too personal an issue; reading what her wife, who was in the car with her when she died, had said…even learning that she was killed in front of her wife, hurt me deeply to my core. As an activist myself, especially lately with increased violence toward us, I’ve been roused from bed at times with the thought of dying or being arrested in front of my own wife. The thought of them being left alone to pick up the pieces of what was once our life, to have to witness that, chills me to my core.
Minneapolis, MN. — ICE agents moved through the Powderhorn neighborhood of south Minneapolis early Wednesday afternoon near East 34th Street and Portland Avenue.
The Department of Homeland Security, through Secretary Kristi Noem, said “rioters began blocking ICE officers” during what the agency described as “targeted operations.” DHS alleged that one person “weaponized a vehicle,” prompting an agent to fire what the department called “defensive shots.” The incident was labeled “domestic terrorism.” Noem said the agent involved had “been dragged by a vehicle” in an earlier incident. DHS confirmed those details Thursday.
A law enforcement source who was not authorized to speak publicly identified the shooter as Jonathan Ross, the same agent involved in the vehicle-dragging incident in Bloomington, Minnesota, last June. The source told The Minnesota Tribune that Ross is named in multiple court records related to that case, including photo exhibits from a hospital, and is also listed as a witness.
Trump said, “The woman driving the car was 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.” He went on to blame “the Radical Left” for threats and assaults on federal officers “on a daily basis.”
In a non-graphic, slowed segment of video aired Wednesday, the victim can be seen waving ICE vehicles past her car as two people stand behind it. She appeared to be pulling out of a driveway or parking area in the neighborhood. The presence of people behind her vehicle, who have been identified as her wife and her killer, left no room to reverse.
She was killed because ICE agents interpreted her to be a threat, based on her presence. She was simply a mother in the wrong place at the wrong time. She paid the ultimate price due to the undisciplined nature of an armed Federal organization.
Mayor Jacob Frey said Minneapolis police responded shortly after 9:30 a.m. to reports of gunshots. Local officials said the woman was acting as a legal observer during ICE activity. Legal observers are typically volunteers who attend demonstrations to monitor interactions between law enforcement and demonstrators and document potential legal violations.
As the scene quieted after the tear gas, shouting and confusion, questions emerged about who the woman was.
Renee Nicole Good was a 37-year-old U.S. citizen, an award-winning poet and a mother of three. She had recently moved to Minneapolis and was fatally shot Wednesday in front of her wife.
“We have a 6-year-old at school,” Good’s wife said, her voice strained. “We’re new here.”
Witnesses said ICE agents created a chaotic scene and prevented at least one doctor from assisting Good, who was slumped over her steering wheel with the airbag deployed. Agents said they had their own medical personnel on site, though witnesses said no one was seen administering first aid to the woman in the vehicle.
Good was identified late Wednesday by her mother, Donna Ganger, who spoke with the Minnesota Star Tribune. Ganger said her daughter lived in the Twin Cities with her partner and was not involved in protests or legal observation related to ICE activity.
“She was probably terrified,” Ganger told the newspaper. “Renee 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.”
Good’s death has sparked protests nationwide and ignited a legal and political confrontation between Minnesota officials and the Trump administration.
The events led to a fierce standoff that ultimately turned violent between protesters, police, and ICE agents. On the national stage, tensions escalated between the state of Minnesota and the federal government.
Gov. Tim Walz expressed anger, offered condolences and demanded answers, saying the federal government had “done enough” and that the state was capable of handling public safety.
Walz sharply criticized the presence and actions of federal immigration agents following the shooting, calling it an escalation. He issued a warning order, though it was initially unclear whether he intended the National Guard to be prepared to deploy to protect Minnesotans or to respond to the protests.
In later statements, Walz made clear that his focus was protecting Minnesotans from ICE actions, emphasizing that National Guard members are community members themselves. He directed state agencies to support public safety efforts in Minneapolis and St. Paul, with an emphasis on protecting residents amid rising tensions.
Protests continued Wednesday in Minneapolis, with solidarity demonstrations spreading nationwide. A protest and vigil were held Wednesday night at Market Square in Cleveland. Additional protests are planned for Thursday evening in Painesville, Cleveland and elsewhere across Northeast Ohio and the state.
I would like to close with a poem by the award-winning poet who was killed yesterday.
On Learning to Dissect Fetal Pigs
by Renee Nicole Good
i want back my rocking chairs,
solipsist sunsets,
& coastal jungle sounds that are tercets from cicadas and pentameter from the hairy legs of
cockroaches.
i’ve donated bibles to thrift stores
(mashed them in plastic trash bags with an acidic himalayan salt lamp—
the post-baptism bibles, the ones plucked from street corners from the meaty hands of zealots, the
dumbed-down, easy-to-read, parasitic kind):
remember more the slick rubber smell of high gloss biology textbook pictures; they burned the hairs
inside my nostrils,
& salt & ink that rubbed off on my palms.
under clippings of the moon at two forty five AM I study&repeat
ribosome
endoplasmic—
lactic acid
stamen
at the IHOP on the corner of powers and stetson hills—
i repeated & scribbled until it picked its way & stagnated somewhere i can’t point to anymore, maybe
my gut—
maybe there in-between my pancreas & large intestine is the piddly brook of my soul.
it’s the ruler by which i reduce all things now; hard-edged & splintering from knowledge that
used to sit, a cloth against fevered forehead.
can i let them both be? this fickle faith and this college science that heckles from the back of the
classroom
now i can’t believe—
that the bible and qur’an and bhagavad gita are sliding long hairs behind my ear like mom
used to & exhaling from their mouths “make room for wonder”—
all my understanding dribbles down the chin onto the chest & is summarized as:
life is merely
to ovum and sperm
and where those two meet
and how often and how well
and what dies there.