On Wednesday, Renee Macklin Good was fatally shot by a federal ICE agent. Becca Good, her wife, shared the following statement with MPR News.
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First, I want to extend my gratitude to all the people who have reached out from across the country and around the world to support our family.
This kindness of strangers is the most fitting tribute because if you ever encountered my wife, Renee Nicole Macklin Good, you know that above all else, she was kind. In fact, kindness radiated out of her.
Renee sparkled. She literally sparkled. I mean, she didn’t wear glitter but I swear she had sparkles coming out of her pores. All the time. You might think it was just my love talking but her family said the same thing. Renee was made of sunshine.
Renee lived by an overarching belief: there is kindness in the world and we need to do everything we can to find it where it resides and nurture it where it needs to grow. Renee was a Christian who knew that all religions teach the same essential truth: we are here to love each other, care for each other, and keep each other safe and whole.
Like people have done across place and time, we moved to make a better life for ourselves. We chose Minnesota to make our home. Our whole extended road trip here, we held hands in the car while our son drew all over the windows to pass the time and the miles.
What we found when we got here was a vibrant and welcoming community, we made friends and spread joy. And while any place we were together was home, there was a strong shared sense here in Minneapolis that we were looking out for each other. Here, I had finally found peace and safe harbor. That has been taken from me forever.
We were raising our son to believe that no matter where you come from or what you look like, all of us deserve compassion and kindness. Renee lived this belief every day. She is pure love. She is pure joy. She is pure sunshine.
On Wednesday, January 7th, we stopped to support our neighbors. We had whistles. They had guns.
Renee leaves behind three extraordinary children; the youngest is just six years old and already lost his father. 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. That the people who did this had fear and anger in their hearts, and we need to show them a better way.
We thank you for the privacy you are granting our family as we grieve. We thank you for ensuring that Renee’s legacy is one of kindness and love. We honor her memory by living her values: rejecting hate and choosing compassion, turning away from fear and pursuing peace, refusing division and knowing we must come together to build a world where we all come home safe to the people we love.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Was her wife in the car with her?
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From the video I saw, her wife was taping the interaction, then trying to get in the car as she was starting to drive away.
I’m confused about how Renee kept her door locked, but her partner opened the lock on the passenger door.
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I didn’t see that video. I had no idea her wife was there and outside the car. I thought the video – at least one of them – was from a person that lived on the block. This just keeps getting worse and worse.
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Watch this video. It comes from the cellphone of the officer who shot and killed Renee Good.
https://www.rawstory.com/minneapolis-ice-new-video/
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The ICE agent who killed Renee Good VIOLATED DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY REGULATIONS which state that no agent should stand either in front of or behind an occupied vehicle. With this regulation, Homeland Security follows the protocol of nearly every law enforcement agency in our nation because it is understood that any officer blocking an occupied vehicle is potentially in harm’s way.
Because the agent who killed Renee Good DELIBERATELY AND WILLFULLY PLANCED HIMSELF IN DANGER IN VIOLATION OF DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY REGULATIONS, he cannot claim self-defense as his reason for shooting Mrs. Good.
The ICE agent also violated Homeland Security’s protocol that requires ICE agents to actively de-escalate confrontational situations by avoiding the display and use of firearms.
The widely-seen video of the situation shows that the wheels of Mrs. Good’s vehicle were sharply turned away from the ICE agent, trying to avoid him. An AI analysis of the video could show that the agent was in no actual danger of serious injury. And, in actual fact, he suffered no serious injury, if any injury at all.
MARTIN v. UNITED STATES
The action of the ICE agent in shooting Mrs. Good was demonstrably not “necessary and proper” under Martin v. United States (2025). The agent’s action is demonstrably unnecessary and improper, according to Homeland Security protocol — protocol that is shared nationwide by law enforcement agencies and is well-known to all law enforcement professionals. Therefore, the ICE agent has no claim of self-defense.
(Copy this and share it.)
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According to Ryan Grim he was dragged in another incident after breaking through a car window with his hand. There are very few situations in which police recommend doing this. To me, it suggests a pattern of aggressive behavior that escalates situations rather than de-escalating them.
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Who cleared this officer for field work? He clearly wasn’t ready.
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The federal officer who shot and killed a driver in Minneapolis is an Iraq War veteran who has served for nearly two decades in the Border Patrol and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to records obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.
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He showed very poor judgment.
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Renee’s wife gave the ICE officers “lip,” but the officer killed Renee, who smiled and said “Hey dude, I’m not mad at you.” He fired three times at Renee.
She did not try to run him over, she did not hit him.
Why did he kill her?
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(From Google) Many police and use-of-force policies discourage officers from firing at a moving vehicle unless there is a clear, imminent threat of deadly force beyond the vehicle itself. Experts have noted that shooting at a car is one of the most dangerous and unpredictable uses of lethal force and that officers are generally trained to avoid standing in front of moving vehicles and to reposition instead of firing if possible. In the Minneapolis ICE shooting, videos and independent analysis raised questions about whether those well-established de-escalation and vehicle-approach principles were followed.
I think he shot her (3X) because he has a right to when people don’t comply with ICE commands. He’s a loose canon who doesn’t think he has to follow police protocols.
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She posed no threat to him.
She was not armed.
She did not run over him or anyone else.
He didn’t need to shoot her to protect himself or others.
He shot her because he wanted to.
He shot her because the other woman in the car talked back to him.
Nicole Good did nothing wrong.
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I meant to say that “he thinks he has a right to”.
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Yes, he didn’t need to shoot her one time, let alone 3 times. After she had been killed he or someone else yelled “F-ing Bitch” which shows that ICE officers are socio-paths who have zero remorse after killing someone. I’ve never been more worried for the future of my country.
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Agreed
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Heartbreaking.
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It’s heartbreaking that a sparkling wife and mother who did nothing wrong was killed by law enforcement. But there are over 1200 law enforcement killings every year and we don’t mourn most of them – why not? Plenty of those people were wives and mothers (or husbands and fathers) and plenty of them sparkled too. And even those who were none of the above and maybe didn’t sparkle quite so much – and maybe who even did something wrong – their lives were valuable too, no? I mean, sure, there are probably a very small handful of those 1200 cases in which law enforcement truly had no choice, but, as we know from other countries, that’s very rare. American law enforcement simply choose to kill more often because they know they can get away with it, as it’s starting to look like Jonathan Ross will.
Until we actually change police culture, these heartfelt outpourings are just more “thoughts and prayers” like we utter after school shootings. “More training” isn’t going to cut it (Jonathan Ross is an experienced officer who is himself a trainer). Instead of hand-wringing, what specifically do you propose? I know you don’t support defunding, so, what then? Should payouts to victims come out of union or pension funding? Should officers be incarcerated like any other killer would be? Should they be kicked off the force (all forces) for life? Something else? What, exactly?
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Try using “ AND” instead of “BUT” if one truly cares or wants to convey understanding.
You wrote: It’s heartbreaking that a sparkling wife and mother who did nothing wrong was killed by law enforcement. But there…. Sorry, my immediate reaction based on previous comments on articles here was “and here we go again.”
If I may, a simple bit of advice from the communications world. In a “discussion” with someone on an issue, do not make the positive, sympathetic, “I understand” statement and follow it with BUT. That takes the wind out of the sails of truly understanding. Use AND. It works!
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And when you focus on a single word of what I wrote it makes it clear that you don’t care about the other 1200+ people law enforcement have put in body bags in the past year. I guess only people like Renee Good matter to you.
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A beautiful tribute by Becca Good.
Renee Good was most likely terrified and in a state of shock with conflicting commands being shouted at her and menacing figures trying to gain access to her car. So she fled in panic, in my opinion, and based on the available evidence and videos. In any case, she did not deserve the death penalty for whatever supposed infractions of the law she may have committed. Of course if Trump had not been in the White House, none of this would have occurred. Trump is determined to terrorize the populous with his goon squads on the loose.
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Here is the reality about this incident:
Renee Good’s partner made a devastating admission shortly after a shooting.
It was made on camera, in real time, before narratives had settled and before lawyers shaped language. In that video, she said, clearly and repeatedly, “This is all my fault. All my fault. She did not want to come today and I made her do it.”
Those words matter. They matter because they were spoken immediately, without calculation, and because they frame what followed not as an accident imposed by law enforcement, but as the culmination of choices made earlier in the day.
That on-camera statement does not stand alone. What happened next must be understood in the context of witness testimony, audible commands captured on video, and the physical evidence recorded during the incident itself.
Taken together, those sources establish a clear sequence of events.
For an extended period of time, Renee Good and her partner deliberately followed ICE agents with the intent of interfering with their work. This was not incidental contact. It was not coincidence. It was sustained pursuit.
Witnesses observed the SUV following federal officers throughout the day. Video recordings capture repeated positioning of the vehicle to obstruct movement. On multiple occasions, the SUV blocked lanes of traffic, physically preventing ICE vehicles from passing. This was not expressive conduct. It was not speech. It was physical interference using a motor vehicle.
Under federal law, knowingly impeding or obstructing federal officers engaged in official duties constitutes a criminal offense. When that obstruction is repeated, coordinated, and carried out using a vehicle, it rises to felony conduct. A vehicle used in this manner is a dangerous instrumentality. Courts consistently recognize that a car, when used to block, pursue, or strike, functions as a deadly weapon.
The conduct did not occur in isolation. It was coordinated.
Witness accounts and recorded audio establish that the passenger was directing actions inside the vehicle. She was heard encouraging continued pursuit. She was heard urging defiance of law enforcement commands. This establishes agreement, coordination, and shared purpose.
When federal agents issued lawful commands to stop and exit the vehicle, those commands were clear, audible, and unmistakable on video. Compliance was required. Instead, the commands were ignored.
Audio captured during the incident records the passenger instructing the driver to disregard those commands and continue moving. This was not confusion. It was refusal. It was encouragement to escalate rather than disengage.
The driver then took actions that fundamentally changed the nature of the encounter.
The vehicle reversed.
The steering wheel was turned toward a federal agent.
The vehicle accelerated forward.
At that moment, the SUV ceased to be transportation and became a weapon.
The vehicle struck the agent.
What followed is not speculation. It is established by physics and ballistics.
The fatal shot entered through the front windshield and struck the driver in the head. That trajectory is only possible if the vehicle was facing and advancing toward the officer at the moment the shot was fired. A vehicle turning away, passing laterally, or retreating would not produce that entry path.
The orientation of the vehicle confirms the threat.
The direction of travel confirms the danger.
The point of entry confirms the immediacy.
Deadly force was not the cause of this event. It was the response to an imminent threat created by the use of a vehicle against a federal officer.
Causation matters.
Law enforcement did not initiate this confrontation. Law enforcement did not create the danger. Law enforcement did not compel the vehicle to turn, accelerate, or strike. The chain of events was driven—legally and literally—by civilian actions that escalated from unlawful interference to felony obstruction and finally to assault with a deadly weapon.
The partner’s on-camera admission matters because it establishes that Renee did not want to be there and was compelled to come. The remaining evidence matters because it establishes intent, coordination, escalation, and agency throughout the encounter.
Confusion does not explain hours of pursuit.
Confusion does not explain repeated obstruction.
Confusion does not explain refusal of lawful orders captured on audio.
Confusion does not explain turning a vehicle toward a person and accelerating.
Stress responses do not erase agency. Fear does not nullify causation. A fight-or-flight reaction does not excuse the use of a vehicle against another human being.
This was not an unavoidable tragedy. It was a foreseeable outcome.
When civilians choose to physically interfere with federal officers, when they escalate rather than disengage, when they refuse lawful commands and use a vehicle as a weapon, the law does not treat the result as an accident. It treats it as the natural and predictable consequence of reckless and criminal conduct.
Law enforcement’s role here was reactive, not causal. Officers responded to a threat that had been deliberately created and repeatedly reinforced over the course of the day.
This case is not about politics.
It is not about identity.
It is not about selective sympathy.
It is about actions, intent, escalation, and consequence.
And when those elements are presented fully, honestly, and without omission, the conclusion is unavoidable:
This death was not caused by law enforcement.
It was caused by deliberate interference, sustained obstruction, coordinated defiance, and the final decision to drive a vehicle into a federal agent.
That is the record.
That is the law.
And that is the truth.
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None of the videos show Renee Good’s vehicle striking the ICE agent. She turned sharply to the right to avoid striking the agent who moved in front of her vehicle.
When the agent who shot her filmed her, she smiled and said, “Hey Dude, I’m not mad at you.”
She did not hit him with her car. She was not enraged.
He shot her point blank three times and killed her.
Why?
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Let’s check that story out re: ICE harassment— your paras #5-#8– in terms of sources, and the timeline that morning.
“Authorities” have said Good had been following and harassing federal officers earlier that day. (Fox News). McLaughlin said the information came from “firsthand accounts” from law enforcement officers who had been in contact with Good… Good’s family members have said they do not believe she was tailing Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. She had just dropped her son at school before the shooting, they said. (WaPo) In an AP interview with the father of her two older children, ex-husband Macklin confirmed that he spoke to her by cell phone on the day of the shooting just after she had dropped off her youngest at school. He stated Good was driving home with her current partner when they encountered a group of ICE agents on a snowy street in Minneapolis. (AP)
The child’s charter school is 4 miles from the location of the shooting (school starts 9:00 a.m.). Assuming heavy drop-off traffic at school, & city driving conditions, the trip would have taken at least 20 mins. Add 10 minutes discussion with partner [perhaps arriving home first (a few blocks from shooting location)– or just circling blocks]– before investigating nearby snarl of ICE agents (which partner Rebecca pressured her to do). Surveillance video from across the street shows that Good’s car pulled up parallel to another car [which turned out to be unmarked, containing ICE agents (including the one who shot her)—also, BTW, blocking traffic] just 2 or 3 minutes before the silver ICE pickup containing 3 agents advanced toward her car with flashing lights. Good was shot at 9:37 local time.
I think that pretty much puts to bed the claim she’d been tailing ICE agents & trying to obstruct their activities “earlier in the day.”
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Even if she had “tailed” ICE agents “all morning” (one hour), she did nothing illegal. Nothing that deserved s death penalty.
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RE: the rest of your narrative. Per Google AI, “There is audio and video evidence available to the public related to the incident, and in the recordings, Rebecca Good (the partner, outside the car) can be heard speaking aggressively to the ICE agents. However, the publicly described audio does not explicitly contain commands from Rebecca Good to her partner, Renee Good (the driver, who was shot), to pursue ICE or defy law enforcement commands.” However, there are witness accounts that suggest Rebecca may have been encouraging confrontation with ICE agents (but only possibly urging defiance of commands).
It’s hard to know how much of Rebecca’s exhortations would even have been heard by Renee, as we see in videos that at this point she was located among onlookers separated from vehicles. Any audio captured was by those in that group, not necessarily audible to Renee.
Meanwhile, Renee was getting conflicting shouted commands from agents. Many onlookers testified that the first agent to emerge from ICE pickup shouted/ gesticulated for Renee to “leave/ move along.” But within seconds, two other agents were shouting aggressively [with f-bombs] for her to exit the vehicle and trying to open her car doors. The ”passenger” [Rebecca Good] was no longer a passenger but in the onlooking crowd at a remove. Any audio capturing her directives would barely have been audible to driver, who was no doubt devoting all attention to conflicting commands of ICE agents. No doubt frightened and confused, and not surprisingly, the first order registered and she tried to “leave/ move along.”
The videos and surveillance footage are quite clear at this point. Driver backed up a few feet in order to turn, and turned wheels to right before applying gas—away from the agent who had been in front of car. At that point he had already side-stepped vehicle [note NYT video that established foot placement/ position and timing], had drawn weapon, and backed off about 2ft in order to assume classic aiming/ shooting position.
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Had she actually hit an officer, she should receive a presidential pardon like the insurrectionists on J6. Apparently, purposefully avoiding the officer earned her the death penalty. I am saddened and sickened by the behaviors allowed under this administration and supreme court
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One of the truly shocking things about this incident is the number of clearly Fascist-aligned Americans who think that such actions against citizens in a supposedly free country are acceptable. We are Germany in 1933 and have learned nothing.
And the entire Republican Party is complicit.
It’s sickening.
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Renee Good did nothing illegal.
Her partner spoke rudely to ICE agents.
Renee said to the man who killed her, “Hey dude. I’m not angry at you.” She smiled.
She did not menace him or threaten him or pose a danger to him.
She did not try to run over him.
Her car did not hit him.
He should not have killed her.
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I long for the day when a Truth and Reconciliation Committee will review the entire history of crimes committed by the Trump maladministration and its clown car posse and send a whole lot of them to jail for violating international law, kidnapping, and in cases such as this, murder.
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You’re too kind. In Nuremberg they weren’t sent to jail
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It’s truly breathtaking and sickening what people will try to rationalize. There as a lot of this back in Germany in the 1930s as well.
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Yup. Denial by those who though witnessing outrageous illegal actions by govt cannot quite believe their own eyes/ ears, it’s so beyond the pale. [Have you read Feuchtwanger’s novel/ account of Feb – Aug 1933 called “The Oppermanns?”]
The several-day rollout of gradual accumulation of video/ audio/ onlooker-interviews aids the process of denial: some will go with their first impression from first-available video, forming an opinion and never seeking out other evidence to get the full picture. Some are so needy of confirmation bias they will just go with whatever pres admin says. I think denial is a cognitive-dissonance thing that many haven’t the fortitude to confront.
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All love to you, sister. Our hearts are broken but our souls survive. Nan
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Right wing: This is what happens when you challenge law officers protecting good Americans.
Right wing opponents (there is no left wing in America presently): this was reckless behavior by law officials and is tantamount to murder.
I have not found an observer who has found any middle ground. Neither group trusts the other to be truthful. David Brooks wants to be silent and let “experts” tell us what happened. Others see the video and want an indictment of the officials.
If true left wing thought existed now, real armed opposition would arise and Trump would get what he wants out of this incident, an excuse to cause violence and seize power.
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Well said. Americans are in danger due to the reckless, militarization of ICE in US cities, and it is all a political ploy from a diabolical dictator.
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Renee had just left her 6-year-old son off at school. Sad beyond words that a six year old probably hugged and kissed his mother before going into the school and at the end of the day someone has to explain to him that he will never see his mother again.
From AOL Today: Good, 37 — who was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis Wednesday — has a 6-year-old at the Southside Family Charter School, which believes in “involving children in political and social activism” to fight “racism, sexism, classism and homophobia,” according to its website.
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From the beginning, when they first went into blue cities and said “F___ the kids” about scared, crying young children they separated from parents during a raid in another city, and still now, it has seemed like being a mean, uncaring, hateful, armed thug is all that’s required for becoming ICE. That was demonstrated this week, from the trigger happy ICE agent who foolishly chose to stand in front of a car and fired 1 shot at the female driver into her windshield and then 2 more shots into her driver’s side window, to the supposedly “strong man” president who made sure that heartless crazies similar to who he is were hired to do this kind of bidding for him –but who turned out to be a snowflake himself that said he couldn’t stand to watch a video of the event… And then to the agent who said he wouldn’t let a physician help the woman who was shot because he didn’t care… On every level of “government,” this whole thing wreaks of lack of training, inexperience, incompetence, poor judgement, huge ego and cruelty, all of which is very crude and amateur for a 250 year old “advanced” country. And while the whole world is watching us very closely now. We should expect tourism to remain low here for our 1776 celebrations.
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…All due to our model Bully-in-Chief and his boorish minions…
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And to think those thugs believe we are different from so called “sh*t-hole” countries…
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I think all the microfocus on whether this was a murder or a legitimate act of self defense by the ICE officer distracts from the more important point, which is that Trump has militarized ICE and set it against American citizens within the US. Those circumstances are such that violence against US citizens is inevitable, and indeed this is not the first and won’t be the last time it happens.
Of course this is the point—to create conflict and violence, to drive people apart, to create more opportunities for Trump to expand his power for political and personal gain.
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Trump has a political PAC called MAGA Inc. The PAC is getting millions in donations from people who want to stay on Trump’s good side, people who are seeking government contracts, and people who want a pardon for someone in federal prison.
They know that Trump is transactional. Pay up.
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