Minneapolis woman killed by ICE agent was a mother, a poet and a wife

To the wife and three children of Renee Good, the Minneapolis woman who was fatally shot by a federal immigration agent blocks from her home, she was pure sunshine.

“On Wednesday, January 7th, we stopped to support our neighbors,” Good’s wife, Becca Good, said in a statement first shared with Minnesota Public Radio. “We had whistles. They had guns.”

Becca Good described her late wife as a Christian who lived by the belief that “We are here to love each other, care for each other and keep each other safe and whole.”

The pair shared a 6-year-old son, who “already lost his father,” Becca Good said, recalling the young boy drawing all over the windows of the car the couple drove to Minneapolis from Kansas City, Missouri, to “make a better life” for their family.

“I am now left to raise our son and to continue teaching him, as Renee believed, that there are people building a better world for him,” Becca Good said in the statement published Friday. “That the people who did this had fear and anger in their hearts, and we need to show them a better way.”

Renee Good had two other children, ages 12 and 15, from her first marriage. Her 6-year-old son was from her second marriage, whose father died, according to Becca Good.

On Wednesday, Renee Good’s mother, Donna Ganger, described her daughter as “one of the kindest people I’ve ever known.”

“She was extremely compassionate. She’s taken care of people all her life,” Ganger told the Minnesota Star Tribune. “She was loving, forgiving and affectionate. She was an amazing human being.” 

Good, 37, described herself as a poet, writer, wife and mother who said she was “experiencing Minneapolis” on her personal social media accounts, which are now private. Born in Colorado, Good had recently relocated to the Twin Cities, where she lived with her 6-year-old son and wife. Good’s wife was in the car with her when she was killed, according to The Associated Press.

A fundraiser in support of Good’s wife and son on the platform GoFundMe quickly shattered its $50,000 fundraising goal. It had raised more than $1.5 million as of Friday afternoon. 

Donors from around the world wrote messages about Good and offered support for her family.

Some called Good brave for “standing up for what’s right and defending others during these troubling times.” Others decried the Trump administration’s expanded federal immigration enforcement operations in Democratic-led states and cities. Most expressed condolences for Good’s son, who will now grow up without his biological mother.

“Renee Nicole Good was a mother of three, including a 6-year-old boy who is now an orphan,” Minnesota’s Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar said in a statement. “Renee was deeply loved by many … by refusing to coordinate with local law enforcement, ICE is not making our community safe. It is making it less safe.” 

Federal officials said the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who killed Good had done so in self-defense, alleging she had tried to use her car to “run over” a law enforcement officer. Local officials, including Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, quickly condemned the government’s defense and contested its account of events. 

For the community that turned out in droves to mourn the loss of a neighbor, starting with a vigil at the site of the shooting and marching through the streets of south Minneapolis, it’s a painful reminder of the past. Good was killed about a mile from the site where 47-year-old George Floyd was killed by a police officer who held his knee on Floyd’s throat until he stopped breathing in 2020.

“This young woman is a hero. She stood up to defend her neighbors,” Jaylani Hussein, the executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said at a news conference after Good’s death. “We are a strong community. We have dealt with a lot more.”

Good studied English at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. She received an undergraduate award from the Academy of American Poets for a poem she wrote called “On Learning to Dissect Fetal Pigs.” She graduated with a degree in English in 2020.

“May Renee’s life be a reminder of what unites us: freedom, love, and peace,” Brian O. Hemphill, the university president, said in a statement. “My hope is for compassion, healing, and reflection at a time that is becoming one of the darkest and most uncertain periods in our nation’s history.”

Good had been on her way home from dropping off her 6-year-old son at school on Wednesday when she encountered the ICE agents, according to an interview with her ex-husband that appeared in The Associated Press.

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., said in a post on X: “My heart breaks for the victim’s family, who will have to forever live with the pain caused by the Trump Administration’s reckless and deadly actions. This administration has shown, yet again, that it does not care about the safety of Minnesotans.”

Mayor Quinton Lucas of Kansas City, Missouri, where Good lived before moving to Minneapolis, said his constituents are “mourning the loss of a former neighbor.”

Good’s death and the Trump administration’s description of her as a “domestic terrorist” have sparked national outrage. The shooting drew protests in Minneapolis on Wednesday and Thursday, with more expected to take place in cities across the country.

The Justice Department directed the FBI to take over the case on Thursday, removing the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which oversees use-of-force cases in the state, from the investigation.

The city of Minneapolis called the decision “disappointing” and encouraged residents not to “take actions that could be used to justify further federal escalation or militarized response,” despite “the pain and anger” federal agents are causing the city.