Renee Good's Family Sues U.S. and Trump Officials Over Fatal ICE Shooting

The family of Renee Good, the 37-year-old mother of three shot and killed by a federal immigration officer in Minneapolis in January, filed two lawsuits Thursday. The suits name the United States, the officer who fired the shots, and several current and former Trump administration officials.

The first is a 149-page civil rights complaint. It names Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Jonathan Ross, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, border czar Tom Homan, then-acting ICE director Todd Lyons, former Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino, adviser Corey Lewandowski, and ten unidentified federal agents. Each is sued as an individual.

The Ku Klux Klan Act claim

At the center of the complaint is an unusual claim under the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871. The family alleges the officials conspired to use Operation Metro Surge to deprive Minnesota’s Somali and Hispanic communities of equal protection — and to intimidate, arrest, or use force against people who watched, documented, or warned neighbors about the operation. Good’s death, the complaint says, was the product of that campaign.

Good and her partner, Becca Good, had dropped her six-year-old son at school that morning, the complaint says. When they came across federal agents in their south Minneapolis neighborhood, Becca Good got out of their SUV to film. Good stayed in the driver’s seat and honked the horn to warn neighbors that immigration officers were nearby.

“Renee was killed in the course of conduct that served both of those objects,” the complaint alleges, saying she was shot while “engaged in observing and warning” about the federal operation.

The shooting account

The complaint separately accuses Ross of violating Good’s Fourth Amendment rights. It says Good was unarmed, suspected of no crime, and slowly turning her SUV away when Ross fired three times — once through the windshield and twice through the open driver’s-side window. It says Ross had already moved his body out of the vehicle’s path before he opened fire.

The family also says the shooting broke mandatory Homeland Security policies: officers are restricted from firing at the driver of a moving vehicle and from deliberately stepping into a vehicle’s path. After the SUV crashed into a parked car, the complaint says, agents did not give medical aid and turned away a bystander who identified himself as a physician.

The family’s account clashes with the government’s. Noem said Ross fired “defensive shots” because Good tried to use the vehicle as a weapon, and called Good’s actions “domestic terrorism.” President Trump said he believed Good was, “under normal circumstances, a very solid, wonderful person — but her actions were pretty tough.” Videos of the scene show officers ordering Good out of the SUV before she reversed and drove forward. The footage does not clearly establish whether the vehicle struck Ross.

The second suit

The second lawsuit targets the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act. It alleges wrongful death under Minnesota law, along with assault, battery, false imprisonment, negligence, and emotional harm. Becca Good is a plaintiff in her own right. She stood feet from the SUV when Ross fired, ran to the vehicle after, and found her partner with a gunshot wound to the head, the complaint says. She has since been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and insomnia.

“Every morning, she is my first thought,” Becca Good said in her first public remarks. “I think about how the kids are growing up without their mama and how I will grow old without the love of my life.”

Her brother, Brent Ganger, brought the first lawsuit as trustee for her next of kin, including her three children, her parents, and her siblings. The family seeks compensatory and punitive damages, with the amount left to trial.

“Our country cannot tolerate unjustified and excessive use of force, let alone deadly force, on ordinary people who are exercising their rights under the Constitution of this country,” said Antonio Romanucci, the family’s attorney, at a Thursday news conference. “When government power crosses the line, there must be accountability.”

The White House responds

Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment. A White House spokeswoman, Lauren Bis, said the administration would “vigorously defend these baseless civil lawsuits.”

Ross has not spoken publicly about the shooting and has not been charged with any crime.

What happened on Jan. 7

Good was not the target of the operation underway that morning. Federal agents were deployed across the Minneapolis area as part of Operation Metro Surge, which brought roughly 2,000 additional officers to Minnesota. Similar surges followed in other Democratic-led cities.

The operation drew fierce opposition from state and local officials, who accused the administration of singling out Minnesota and other Democratic jurisdictions. The administration said the deployments were needed to enforce immigration law where local officials would not cooperate.

An independent autopsy commissioned by the family found three gunshot paths: one through her left forearm, one through the right side of her chest, and one that entered near her left temple and exited the other side of her head. The Hennepin County medical examiner classified the death as a homicide — a designation that means she died at the hands of another person, not by itself a ruling that a crime occurred.

State prosecutors, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and the state attorney general’s office have been investigating. They sued the federal government for access to evidence, and in July federal authorities turned over hard drives and Good’s bullet-damaged SUV. State investigators said they were reviewing the material and had not prejudged whether criminal charges were warranted.

The family’s law firm, Romanucci & Blandin of Chicago, previously represented George Floyd’s family. Good’s brothers testified before Congress in February, describing her as a devoted mother who had recently begun working as a substitute teacher.

The legal road ahead

Suing the federal government is harder than suing local police. The Federal Tort Claims Act waives sovereign immunity for some wrongdoing but bars punitive damages and jury trials. Lawsuits seeking damages directly from federal officers for alleged constitutional violations have been sharply narrowed by a series of Supreme Court decisions.