The woman who died in Minneapolis after being shot by an agent from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been identified as Renee Nicole Good, 37.
Good, a mother of three, died during an ICE operation targeting irregular migration. The woman was a U.S. citizen.
The identity of the agent who shot her remains unknown.
The incident has sparked protests in this city in the state of Minnesota, in the northern part of the country, as well as a fierce national political controversy.
Federal authorities claim the agent’s shots at Good were in self-defense. Meanwhile, Minneapolis and Minnesota officials argue the agent fired unjustifiably, as the victim posed no threat to his life.
“An incredible human being”
Good’s mother, Donna Granger, publicly identified her daughter hours after the fatal shooting, describing her as “one of the kindest people” she had ever known.
“She was extremely compassionate. Throughout her life, she cared for people. She was loving, tolerant, and affectionate. She was an incredible human being,” Granger told the The Minnesota Star Tribune.
Granger expressed disbelief at the circumstances of her daughter’s death.
“It was so stupid,” she told the local outlet. “She was probably terrified.”
According to her mother, Good lived with her partner in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, a fact confirmed in a joint statement by several members of the City Council.
What appears to be Good’s Instagram account, now private, was described by U.S. media as her self-portrayal as a “poet, writer, wife, and mother” who was “enjoying Minneapolis.”
A native of Colorado Springs, she had moved to Minneapolis last year from Kansas City.
The Minnesota Star Tribune reports she used to host a podcast with her second husband, Tim Macklin, who died in 2023. They had a son together, now 6 years old, according to Macklin’s father, who spoke to the newspaper.
Good had two other children with her first husband, who spoke to U.S. media on the condition his name not be disclosed.
He stated Good was not an activist but a devout Christian who had traveled to Northern Ireland on youth missions when she was younger.
She had previously worked as a dental assistant and at a credit union but had been a stay-at-home mother in recent years.
Good studied creative writing at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. In 2020, she won a student award from the Academy of American Poets.
“When she wasn’t writing, reading, or talking about writing, she binge-watched movies and made art with her daughter and two sons,” read the award biography, as cited by U.S. media. The text now appears to have been removed from the website.
Good graduated that same year from the university’s College of Arts and Letters with a bachelor’s degree in English.
In a statement, the university’s president said her sudden death “is yet another stark example of how, sadly, fear and violence have become commonplace in our country.”
“I hope Renee’s life serves as a reminder of what unites us: freedom, love, and peace,” wrote Brian Hemphill, president of Old Dominion University.
Videos of the moment
Videos shared by media outlets and on social media show the woman’s vehicle partially blocking a street from multiple angles as immigration agents approach.
The agents attempt to open the driver’s door as the vehicle appears to accelerate to the right in an apparent attempt to flee.
One of the agents, who was trying to block the vehicle’s path, responded by firing several shots at the driver’s seat. The car eventually went out of control and crashed into another parked vehicle.
The videos do not clearly show whether the moving vehicle made contact with the agent.
Hundreds of protesters gathered at the scene after the incident, which occurred near some of the city’s oldest immigrant-owned businesses and less than two kilometers from where George Floyd died at the hands of police in 2020.
“Something horrible to see”
President Donald Trump stated the footage was “something horrible to see.” He alleged the driver was behaving “very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, and then violently, deliberately, and cruelly running over the ICE agent, who appears to have shot in self-defense.”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who was visiting Texas, described the incident as an “act of domestic terrorism” against immigration enforcement.
According to her account, the driver attempted to run over the agents and rammed her vehicle into them, prompting one agent to fire “to protect himself and those around him.”
That characterization was strongly rejected by Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who called the federal government’s version “garbage.”
Frey condemned the deployment of over 2,000 federal agents in the Minneapolis and St. Paul metropolitan areas as part of the Trump administration’s latest immigration crackdown.
“What they’re doing is not making America safer. They’re causing chaos and distrust,” the mayor said, using explicit language to demand the agents leave the city.
After stating he had seen the videos of the incident, Frey emphasized it was not a case of self-defense.
“Public murder”
Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also condemned the incident, calling it a “public murder.”
An investigation into the shooting has been launched, and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz accused the federal agents who touched the vehicle of potentially tampering with the scene.
According to available data, the death of the 37-year-old woman is the fifth fatality linked to recent immigration enforcement operations in major U.S. cities.
The Twin Cities area (Minneapolis and St. Paul) had been tense since the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the start of the operation on Tuesday, partly related to alleged irregularities and fraud involving Somali residents.
Noem confirmed “hundreds and hundreds” of arrests have been made as part of this campaign.
Image: Opinion
