UPDATED: ICE agents shoots, kills queer Minneapolis woman

UPDATE:

According to reports published today (Thursday, Jan. 8) by the Washington, D.C. LGBTQ magazine Metro Weekly, Renee Nicole Good, the woman murdered Wednesday in Minneapolis by an ICE agent, was a queer woman who had moved to Minneapolis last year with her female partner and her son from a previous marriage.

Some reports have indicated that Good’s partner was at the scene when the shooting occurred. Video recorded by a man who lived nearby shows a woman who is crying as she tells him Good was her wife. When he asks if she has “called any of your people yet,” the sobbing woman replies, “We’re new here. I don’t have any people here.”

According to MetroWeekly, Good was a 2020 graduate of Old Dominion University in Virginia who spent much of her life in Colorado before moving to Kansas City, Mo., to live with her parents after the 2023 death of her second husband, Timmy Ray Macklin Jr. The couple had a six-year-old son together. Good also has two other children, aged 15 and 12, from her first marriage.

ORIGINAL POST:

Today (Wednesday, Jan. 7) in Minneapolis, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent with the Department of Homeland Security shot and killed a woman attempting to drive away from a confrontation with a group of DHS agents on a residential street in South Minneapolis.

The woman was identified as Renee Nicole Good, 37.

Allegations of fraud

The Trump administration sent a surge of Department of Homeland Security offices into Minneapolis allegedly to address allegations of welfare fraud perpetrated by Somali immigrants. The “fraud” centers around a “nonprofit” agency called Feeding the Future, founded in 2016 and operated since then by a white woman named Aimee Bock. The FBI raided the organization in 2022, during President Joe Biden’s administration, and the fraudulent nonprofit was disestablished.

In September 2022, again during the Biden administration, federal charges had been filed against 47 former Feeding the Future employees, and by October 2024 — STILL during the Biden administration — the total number of people indicted in the scam had reached 70.

In May and June of this year, two more suspects were indicted — the only two charged since Trump took office. Nonetheless, the scam, which started during Trump’s first term in the White House, had been broken up long before he took office the second time.

A video that went viral on social media falsely accused 11 day care center in Minneapolis run by Somalis of fraud, and it was apparently those false accusations that prompted the Trump administration this week to send some 2,000 federal agents into the city and to freeze all child care payments to the entire state of Minnesota — even though the lies in the video were called out and rebuked by city of Minneapolis officials and the Minnesota Department of Children, Youth and Families.

Today’s shooting

Trump and others in his administration claim that Good was impeding agents conducting “targeted” enforcement and that she tried to run over the ICE agent who was forced to defend himself with deadly force.

However, video of the incident tells a different story. In the video captured by a bystander, Good’s dark-colored SUV is shown parked sideways across the street, A large pickup truck pulls up, stops and several agents get out, approaching Good’s vehicle, yelling for her to get out of the car. As one of the agents tries to yank open her door, Good’s car begins to roll forward as she tries to leave the scene (at least one agent had yelled at her to move her car). The video shows another agent moving in to stand near the front left fender of the SUV.

The video shows the front wheels of the SUV cut sharply to the right, away from the agent, as it moves forward. The agent steps backward while firing his handgun through the front windshield. As the car moves further away, the agent can be seen standing to the left of the car, firing again, twice, through the driver’s side front window.

At that point, Good’s SUV crashes into two vehicles just a short way down the street, on the left hand side.

The agent who shot her can be seen in at least one video adjusting the mask covering the lower half of his face as he walks away.

Responses

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem called Good a “domestic terrorist” who had “weaponized her vehicle,” and Trump said Good had deliberately tried to run over the agent, forcing him to shoot her, and that the agent was lucky to be alive — none of which is actually supported by video of the shooting.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said, “We’ve dreaded this moment since the early stages of this ICE presence in Minneapolis. This was a federal agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying.”

Frey went on to call for ICE to “Get the f*** out of Minneapolis. We do not want you here. Your stated purpose for being in this city is to create some kind of safety, but you are doing exactly the opposite.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz issued a “warning order” to prepare the Minnesota National Guard after the shooting. “Donald Trump and his administration may not care much about Minnesota — that’s been pretty evident — but we love this state,” Walz said at a press conference today. “We won’t let them tear us apart. We will not turn against each other.”

Minnesota National Guard Joint Staff Director Simon Schaefer said the of 13,000 soldiers and airmen of the state’s National Guard “always prepared to respond and support state agencies and the citizens of Minnesota.” He added that the agency has begun preparations in the event the guard is activated, including equipment checks and notifying service members.

Here in North Texas, Texas Latino Pride issued the following statement:

“An act of violence on those who practice their first amendment right should be a concern for all Americans, no matter their background.

“Across this country, from Minnesota to Texas, Latinos, LGBTQ folks, immigrants and people of all identities should not live in fear of a reckless, lawless federal government that defies law and precedent.

“Texas Latino Pride mourns with the family of the life lost today in Minneapolis. We continue to stand with all who have experienced violence and tragedy because of their identity, citizenship status or aspiration to simply live in a country that once promised to guarantee a pursuit of happiness.”

(“Un acto de violencia contra quienes ejercen su derecho a la Primera Enmienda debería preocupar a todas las personas en los Estados Unidos, sin importar su origen o identidad.
“En todo el país, desde Minnesota hasta Texas, las comunidades latinas, las personas LGBTQ, las personas inmigrantes y quienes viven con identidades diversas no deberían verse obligadas a vivir con miedo ante un gobierno federal imprudente y sin respeto por la ley, que desafía tanto la legalidad como el precedente.
“Texas Latino Pride se une al dolor de la familia por la vida que hoy se perdió en Minneapolis. Continuamos alzando la voz y mostrando solidaridad con todas las personas que han vivido violencia y tragedia debido a su identidad, su estatus migratorio o simplemente por aspirar a vivir en un país que alguna vez prometió garantizar la búsqueda de la felicidad.”)

Statement from Kierra Johnson, president of the National LGBTQ Task Force: 

 “We recognize and mourn the loss of Renee Nicole Good and extend our condolences to her family, loved ones, and community. This loss of life was preventable and reprehensible, particularly coming at the hands of federal agents.

“We condemn in the strongest terms the actions taken by ICE, under circumstances that the world has witnessed. Like the public, we watched in disbelief and anger as the current administration and Homeland Security officials then lied to the media and the American public about what really happened. The fact that this killing occurred mere blocks from the murder of George Floyd should give us all pause and is a wake-up call to connect the dots — all marginalized communities are under threat as authoritarianism grows, and a police state is created in our streets by Federal agencies like ICE.

“This is also just one of the more visible ways that ICE has demonstrated their abuse of power, leaving us deeply concerned about the treatment of individuals who are in the detention centers at this time. All to say, you saw this happen to someone in public and yet inside the neglect and the violence is just prolonged and exacerbated.

“The tragic reality here is about much more than a blatant murder documented and now seen by millions. A child lost his mother. A wife lost her spouse. A family has lost a daughter. A community has lost a caring person, yet another innocent person put danger by the occupation of our cities against the will of the people of Minneapolis — as we have seen in Chicago, Los Angeles and more.

“We support Governor Walz and the people of Minnesota who are demanding a state investigation into this incident. Finally, we are now extremely concerned about what ICE agents may do in Minneapolis and at other protests across the country, given their lack of training and particularly in their interactions with civilians exercising their First Amendment right to protest.

“Protest is still our constitutional right and yet we have seen what lies get woven and given wings to give cover and permission for lives surveilled, detained, demeaned and taken. We encourage vigilance and caution.”

— Tammye Nash