The woman fatally shot by an ICE officer in Minneapolis on Wednesday has been identified as Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother and U.S. citizen.
The Minnesota Star Tribune spoke to her mother, Donna Ganger, who called her “one of the kindest people I’ve ever known.”
“She was extremely compassionate,” Ganger told the Tribune. “She’s taken care of people all her life. She was loving, forgiving and affectionate. She was an amazing human being.”
The Minneapolis City Council described Good in a joint statement as a resident who was out “caring for her neighbors” when she was killed.
In a separate statement, Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., said she was “heartbroken and angry” about the death of Good, whom she called “a U.S. citizen, a mother, and a Twin Cities resident.”
A relative said the family is mourning her death and will release a statement when appropriate.
Court documents filed in 2023 show that Good was the mother of three children. At the time, two of the children were living in Colorado and one in Missouri.
A woman who said she lived across the street from Good and her partner in Kansas City described the pair as quiet homebodies who lived with a young son and didn’t appear to be activists.
“I can’t see this having been like a premeditated thing on their part, and I think it’s just senseless,” Jennifer Ferguson, who said she lived across the street from the couple for a year and a half, told NBC News.
“I just pray that we don’t have more violence over it,” said Ferguson, 43.
A friend of Good’s partner told NBC News that the couple traveled often, living in Canada for a period of time after they left Kansas City in 2024 and moving to Minneapolis last summer.
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said she was shot after people began blocking officers during an immigration-related operation in the city.
At a news conference Wednesday night, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said the woman ignored commands to get out of the car she was driving and tried to run over an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in an “attempt to kill or to cause bodily harm to agents.” That officer was the one who shot the woman, Noem said.
The officer was struck by the vehicle and treated at a hospital before being released, Noem said. She declined to answer a question about whether the officer opened fire before or after allegedly having been struck by the vehicle.
“I know you keep asking that, but that doesn’t mean that the FBI is going to give you an answer today. There will be an investigation; we want to make sure that it’s factual,” Noem said in reply to a reporter’s question.
Her mother told the Star Tribune that Good was not part of ICE-related protests. Shortly after the shooting, local and state officials disputed federal authorities’ narrative of events, with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz saying he had seen a video of the shooting and warning people not to believe “the propaganda machine.”
A video of the encounter obtained by NBC News shows officers ordering a person out of an SUV in a residential part of Minneapolis. One of the officers can be seen trying to open the driver’s side door before the vehicle drives in reverse a few feet, then begins driving forward.
As the SUV moves, multiple gunshots can be heard and the vehicle crashes into a parked car. It is not clear what happened before the part of the encounter that was captured on video.
The FBI is investigating the shooting.
In a statement, Old Dominion University President Brian Hemphill said Good graduated from the school in 2020 with an English degree. He called her killing “yet another clear example that fear and violence have sadly become commonplace in our nation.”
“May Renee’s life be a reminder of what unites us: freedom, love, and peace,” Hemphill said. “My hope is for compassion, healing, and reflection at a time that is becoming one of the darkest and most uncertain periods in our nation’s history.”
The Department of Homeland Security has deployed hundreds more immigration agents to Minneapolis in response to a viral video from a right-wing YouTuber alleging that Somali-run day care centers were receiving federal subsidies without caring for children.
The Minnesota Department of Children, Youth and Families investigated the allegations and said compliance checks at the facilities found children present at all but one that closed in 2022.
Renee Good, Woman Killed by ICE, Traveled to N.Y.C. to Feed, Photograph Homeless People: ‘She Wanted to Know Their Stories’ (Exclusive).
A professional photographer who worked with Good remembers her as “an angel”
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(688x413:690x415):format(webp)/renee-nicole-good-010826-1-b2918fee7ac143feb3a7ff6182969dcf.jpg)
NEED TO KNOW
- A photographer who knew Renee Nicole Good, the woman shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on Jan. 7, tells PEOPLE Good once traveled with him to New York City to feed and photograph homeless people
- Charles Willie Winslow II says he first started working with Good in April 2021, when she began shooting sports games with him at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va.
- Winslow also traveled to New York City with Good, whom he said brought other photographers to tears while asking for the stories of the homeless subjects they photographed on the streets
One professional photographer who worked alongside Renee Nicole Good before the 37-year-old was shot and killed by an ICE officer in Minneapolis this week is remembering the mother of three for her compassion and kindness.
Charles Willie Winslow II tells PEOPLE that Good was “an angel” and “a perfect person.” Winslow, 61, who was born and raised in New York, regularly travels to New York City with a group of non-professional photographers to take pictures across the five boroughs. Good joined one such trip in winter 2022, where Winslow and the others photographed homeless New Yorkers at night.
Winslow says the photos the group took were shared with the American Civil Liberties Union in New York, “but it was mainly to bring awareness to the homelessness in New York, the streets of New York.”
“We would ask them if we could shoot them, and then we would give them money. Anywhere between $5 and $10,” he says. However, the group began providing food for their subjects when Good came up with the idea to purchase hamburgers “in bulk” for them.
“She would have this big giant thermos, which was heavier than anyone’s camera, carrying that around,” Winslow adds. “And we’d have cups and we would give them food and drink while they were sitting there or laying there.”
Good’s trip to New York with Winslow was her first time in the city, and “it was so emotional for her,” he recalls. “She started crying. By the time we got to the first or second person that was laying on the street, she had everyone else crying, just because of how emotional she was about it.”
Although the group was only visiting New York City for 24 hours, Good “didn’t want to leave,” he says. “She wanted to stay there. We were all freezing to death … But she wanted to stay and keep feeding the homeless and she wanted to know their stories,” he remembers.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2):format(webp)/minneapolis-ice-shooting-010826-1-960ab5aa7bbd4506a38954dcd0439455.jpg)
Winslow says Good would ask questions while shooting the subjects, telling PEOPLE, “It was like she just wanted to naturally interview them there and wanted to know their whole life story.”
“I’ve never done that in the years that I’ve been going to New York, taking photographers there. I never asked them their story because then I’ll get emotional,” he says, adding, “But she wants to know people’s story.”
Winslow first began working with Good in 2021 after she approached him while he was photographing a game at Old Dominion University, which Good graduated from in 2020 with a degree in English.
“She asked me if I can help her with her photography and graphic arts,” he recalled, noting that Good wanted to be a writer and wanted his help in creating a book cover after seeing Winslow’s portfolio. She went on to photograph sports games at the university with Winslow and other photographers.
Winslow said “it was rough” to learn the news that Good had been identified as the driver killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on Wednesday, Jan. 7.
“I know that this is not the type of person, this is not the person that someone would kill for any reason,” he tells PEOPLE. “She didn’t deserve to die for nothing. I had to watch the video maybe 10, 15 more times because I couldn’t believe it. I really couldn’t.”
Good had been returning from dropping off her 6-year-old son at school and was driving back home with her current partner when the couple came across a group of ICE agents on Wednesday morning, Good’s ex-husband told The Associated Press.
Good’s wife said in a statement that they “stopped to support our neighbors.”
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Multiple bystander videos show Good reversing her Honda Pilot as ICE agents tried to open her car door. She then moves the car forward and to the right as an agent — who was since been identified as Jonathan Ross — opens fire through her windshield and then twice through her open car window.
ABC News reported that Good suffered gunshot wounds to the head, citing city officials. She was then transported to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead, according to the outlet.
The Trump administration has claimed that Ross was acting in self defense in the shooting. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claimed Good had been “stalking and impeding” ICE agents, and accused her of “domestic terrorism,” while DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin alleged that Good “weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them.”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, however, said that the White House’s version of events is “bulls—,” and warned ICE to “get the f— out” of Minneapolis. Meanwhile, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz reposted a DHS statement and wrote, “I’ve seen the video. Don’t believe this propaganda machine.”
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(967x611:969x613)/Janelle-Kidman-Nicole-Kidman-090724-1-fe6b1b2f95a6447883ce21fe84b21ce1.jpg?w=1200&resize=1200,0&ssl=1 "Nicole Kidman Calls Her Late Mother ‘My Compass’ and a ‘Major Guide’ in Her Life")
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(989x650:991x652):format(webp)/coyotes-california-070224-d753c4d08c7a4dd1b0a1361bd580921f.jpg?w=1200&resize=1200,0&ssl=1 "3 Coyotes Killed After 5-Year-Old Girl Attacked at a Calif. Botanical Garden")
