Renee Good's family sues US government and immigration officials over
her killing in Minneapolis
[October 02, 2026]
By TIM SULLIVAN, KATHY McCORMACK and MARK VANCLEAVE
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Renee Good's family sued the U.S. government and the
architects of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown Thursday,
saying “the time is absolutely now for accountability” for her killing
in January by a federal agent in Minneapolis.
Good’s partner, Becca Good, and her brother Brent Ganger on behalf of
her larger family, accused the government and Jonathan Ross, the
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who shot into her SUV and
killed her, of unjustified and excessive use of force.
The Jan. 7 shooting, captured on bystander video, was “the predictable
and intended product” of the Trump administration’s crackdown on Somali
and other immigrants in Minnesota dubbed Operation Metro Surge,
according to one of the two lawsuits.
“She was the love of my life,” Becca Good said at a news conference
announcing the lawsuits. “I’m here today because last January, the whole
world had to watch as our entire universe was destroyed — as the
sunshine who was my amazing Renee was robbed from us, from her children,
and from her community.”
The lack of accountability stuns Good's family
The killings of Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, and another U.S.
citizen, Alex Pretti, in Minneapolis just weeks later sparked outrage
across the country and calls to rein in immigration enforcement. At
least 10 people have died in encounters with immigration officers during
Trump’s second term.
The crackdown, a pillar of Trump’s second term, has prompted a slew of
lawsuits filed by everyone from Chicago-area pastors to more than a
dozen states and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Hundreds of
protesters have been arrested, but few have been convicted of any
crimes.
“What happened to Renee was completely senseless,” Ganger said. “And the
fact that there’s been no accountability, no investigation, no
expression of condolence, no change in policy is completely mind
blowing.”
The lawsuits — one against the government, the other against Ross and
officials including White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller,
ex-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House border czar
Tom Homan — seek unspecified damages for wrongful death, conspiracy and
other violations.
“Our government has become a grave and mortal threat to its own
citizens,” the family’s lawyer, Antonio Romanucci, told reporters.
The Justice Department has not responded to an email seeking comment.
Ross shot Good as she turned her car away from him
Renee Good was killed while driving with Becca on a street where masked
federal immigration officers were conducting an enforcement operation.
They had just dropped their 6-year-old son at school. Renee stopped
their red SUV in the street and honked her horn to warn people about the
operation while Becca got out and started recording video with her
cellphone.
Bystander video shows Renee Good in the driver’s seat, her car blocking
part of the road, as she repeatedly honks the horn. Two immigration
officers get out of a truck, their faces covered, and one orders Good to
get out of the car. She reverses briefly, then turns the steering wheel
as an officer again demands: “Get out of the car.”
Almost simultaneously, Becca Good, standing in the street, shouts:
“Drive, baby, drive!”
The officer standing in front of the vehicle pulls his weapon and fires
into the windshield. He lurches back as the car turns away from him. The
officer, by then very close to the open window on the driver’s side,
fires two more times, fatally shooting Renee Good, according to an
analysis of the videos by The Associated Press and others.
Federal officials at the time said the officer acted in self-defense and
that Good had engaged in “an act of domestic terrorism.”
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Becca Good, Renee Good's partner, arrives for a news conference
after Good's family sued the U.S. government and several immigration
officials, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Ellen
Schmidt)
Becca and Renee Good were not legally married, according to a family
lawyer, but referred to one another as wives. They had only recently
relocated to Minneapolis from Kansas City, Missouri.
“I don’t hate the people that took Renee from us,” Becca Good said.
“But what I want them to understand: Every single day they get to
look at their children and their wives and their sisters and know
what they took from our family. They took a mother away from her
children. They know that. And they will carry it forever.”
Government tried to hide the truth, lawsuit says
The wrongful death lawsuit against the U.S. government seeks damages
for “the immense suffering” Good endured in her final moments and
her family's “profound and permanent" loss.
The other lawsuit, against Ross and top federal immigration
officials, paints Operation Metro Surge as a conspiracy to trample
the civil rights of immigrants, and accuses the administration of
targeting Becca instead of thoroughly investigating Good’s killing.
The government sought to hide evidence of what happened, it said,
and officials worried that pursuing a civil rights investigation
would undermine Trump’s claims that Good had tried to kill an
officer.
The operation, the conspiracy lawsuit said, was a “carefully
planned, coordinated effort” to make Somali and Hispanic immigrants
“the object of aggression and abduction.” The crackdown used
violence and the threat of arrest to intimidate neighbors and allies
“who observed, documented and warned.”
Other defendants include: Corey Lewandowski, a Trump campaign
manager who also served as one of Noem’s advisers; former acting
director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Todd Lyons;
former U.S. Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino; and 10 unnamed
federal agents.
The news conference announcing the lawsuits was held in the atrium
of the University of St. Thomas School of Law, and dozens of law
students looked on as the family and lawyers spoke.
“The time is absolutely now for accountability for the deep damage
done by ICE and others,” Ganger said. “We will not be quiet. We will
not go away.”
Lawsuits are ‘uphill battles’
Good's lawyers acknowledged the complexity of the cases, and legal
scholars said they could be challenging to win.
“They’re going to face significant uphill battles,” said Rachel
Moran, a professor at the University of St. Thomas law school.
“These are both complicated types of lawsuits, and so I can’t
predict how they will play out. But I’m sure the government will
have many, many types of responses to why the lawsuits should not go
forward.”
But she noted the conspiracy lawsuit, in particular, could reveal
many unknown details about the crackdown, including the involvement
of some of the country's top officials.
“Yes, ICE agents on the ground acted problematically, but that was
at the behest, in many ways, of people very high up in the
administration,” she said.
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McCormack reported from Concord, New Hampshire.
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