Two civil lawsuits filed Thursday in Minnesota federal court put the federal government and some of the Trump administration’s most senior figures in the dock over the January shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis. Her family filed both suits, according to court records. No criminal charges have been filed in the case.
Good, a mother of three, died after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jonathan Ross shot her on January 7. The shooting happened during the Department of Homeland Security’s Operation Metro Surge. Her death sparked significant protests in the city and national outrage.
The Lawsuits
The first suit names the United States of America as its sole defendant under the Federal Tort Claims Act. That law lets people sue the federal government for personal injury, property damage or death allegedly caused by federal employees’ negligence while carrying out their job duties. Any liability under the law falls on the government itself.
The second suit reaches much further. It alleges, among other things, that senior federal officials, federal immigration enforcement agents and private actors conspired to interfere with civil rights. The defendants include 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. 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.”
These are allegations, and no court has tested them. CNN said it had contacted the White House, the Department of Homeland Security and phone numbers listed under Noem’s name for comment.
What the Video Shows
The footage sits at the center of the factual dispute. Good had just dropped 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 obstructing traffic.
Ross, a 10-year ICE veteran, walked from the front of the vehicle toward the driver’s side without speaking. 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 to “show your face.” She held up her cellphone, apparently recording him. Another officer then told Renee Good to get out of the car.
The video shows Renee Good reversing, then glancing forward as she turned the steering wheel to the right. The vehicle moved forward. Ross cried “whoa.” Three shots followed. A city government news release said someone shot her shortly after 9:30 a.m.
Ross’s own video captured the gunshots, but not the moment of the shooting. Other bystander video shows Ross standing outside the vehicle’s path when he opened fire. He fired first into the windshield, then at close range through the open driver’s-side window.
Government Response and Open Investigations
The Department of Homeland Security later said Good had “weaponized her vehicle” to run over an officer near an ICE vehicle. That account and the family’s now sit side by side. The courts will have to weigh them.
State authorities have pursued their own inquiry. In March, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office and two state agencies sued the Trump administration to obtain 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.
Why This Matters:
The two suits test different things. The Federal Tort Claims Act case asks whether federal employees acting within their duties acted negligently; any judgment would fall on the federal government. The second suit targets named senior officials and alleges a conspiracy, a claim that will need evidence, not assertion. Videos show the SUV moving forward and Ross standing outside its path when he fired, but his footage didn’t capture the shooting itself. DHS says an officer faced a threat. Those details are for a court to sort out. State investigators have received materials from the Justice Department, and no charges have been filed. From a rule-of-law standpoint, how the judiciary resolves these competing accounts will shape how far officials can be held personally liable for enforcement operations, and what the government owes its agents and the public.