Renee Good’s family has filed two civil lawsuits over her fatal shooting by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, bringing the United States and senior Trump administration officials before a federal court in Minnesota. Good, an American woman and mother of three, died at the hands of ICE agent Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis on January 7, during the Department of Homeland Security’s Operation Metro Surge.
Her death sparked significant protests in Minneapolis and national outrage. The family’s lawsuits now challenge federal power in court: one names the United States as the sole defendant, while the other accuses senior federal officials, immigration agents and private actors of conspiring to interfere with civil rights.
What the videos show
Good had just dropped off her 6-year-old son at school when she encountered ICE agents. Bystanders and Ross recorded video showing her burgundy SUV stopped for a few minutes, perpendicular to a snowy residential street and blocking traffic.
Ross, a 10-year ICE veteran, walked from the front of the vehicle toward the driver’s side without speaking, according to the video. Good told him, “That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you.” He didn’t respond.
Rebecca Good stood outside the SUV and told Ross, “show your face.” His masked reflection appeared in the vehicle’s windows as he walked around it. Rebecca Good held up her cellphone, apparently recording him, and said, “You wanna come at us? You wanna come at us? I say go get yourself some lunch, big boy.”
She tried to get back into the car but found the door locked. Another officer then told Renee Good to “get out of the f***ing car.”
Video shows Renee Good reversing and glancing forward as she turned the steering wheel to the right. The vehicle moved forward. Ross cried “whoa,” and three gunshots rang out. A city government news release said she was shot shortly after 9:30 a.m.
Ross’s video captured the gunshots, but not the moment he fired. Other bystander video shows Ross outside the vehicle’s path when he opened fire; the footage shows him firing first into the windshield and then at close range through the open driver’s-side window. At the end of Ross’s video, as the SUV moved forward, someone can be heard saying, “fing bh.”
Two routes through the courts
One lawsuit names the United States of America as the sole defendant under the Federal Tort Claims Act. That law lets people sue the U.S. government for personal injury, property damage or death caused by alleged negligence of federal employees acting within their job duties. The federal court system will oversee the process examining the alleged conduct of a federal employee.
The second lawsuit alleges, among other things, a conspiracy to interfere with civil rights. It names Ross, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, former Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, White House border czar Tom Homan and other Trump administration figures as defendants. The family’s attorneys also named ten John Doe federal agents “for their respective individual roles in the operation that led to Renee’s death.”
The Department of Homeland Security later said Good had “weaponized her vehicle” to run over an officer near an ICE vehicle. That’s the department’s account; the lawsuits and videos dispute the shooting and the agency’s description. CNN said it had contacted the White House, the Department of Homeland Security and phone numbers listed under Noem’s name for comment.
Evidence, officials and unanswered questions
In March, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office and two state agencies sued the Trump administration for access to evidence in the deaths of Good and Alex Pretti, whom DHS agents killed in January. In July, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announced that the Department of Justice had provided state investigators with a trove of materials related to both shootings.
No charges had been filed in either case. The family’s civil suits name the officials and agencies connected to the federal operation, while footage records Good’s encounter with agents and the shots that killed her. The court filings bring federal power into the case; they don’t erase the gap between an agency’s account, what the videos show, and the absence of criminal charges.