Renee Good family sues Trump officials over fatal Minneapolis ICE shooting
Renee Good's family has sued the US government and senior officials linked to President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown after she was shot dead by a federal agent in Minneapolis in January. Announcing the lawsuits on Thursday, the family said "the time is absolutely now for accountability" and accused the government and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Jonathan Ross of unjustified and excessive use of force.
The lawsuits say Good's killing during an immigration operation was the "predictable and intended product" of the administration's crackdown on Somali and other immigrants in Minnesota under an exercise called Operation Metro Surge. They seek unspecified damages for wrongful death, conspiracy and other alleged violations, and also name officials including White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House border czar Tom Homan.
At a news conference, Good's partner, Becca Good, said: "I'm here today because last January the whole world had to watch as our entire universe was destroyed." Her brother, Brent Ganger, said: "What happened to Rene was completely senseless. And the fact that there's been no accountability, no investigation, no expression of condolence, no change in policy is completely mind blowing." He added, "The hole in my family and myself created by my sister's passing is hauntingly apparent."
The killings of Good, a 37-year-old mother, and another US citizen, Alex Pretti, in Minneapolis weeks later sparked outrage across the country and calls to rein in immigration enforcement. According to the report, at least 10 people have died in encounters with immigration officers during Trump's second term. The family's lawyer, Antonio Romanucci, said, "Our government has become a grave and mortal threat to its own citizens." The Justice Department did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Good was shot dead on January 7 as protests against immigration raids spread across the city. According to Becca Good, her partner had stopped their car on a street to support neighbours during an immigration operation. Bystander video shows Renee Good in the driver's seat of a red SUV, blocking part of the road and repeatedly honking the horn.
The video shows two immigration officers stepping out of a truck with their faces covered. One orders Good to "get out of the car". She reverses briefly and then turns the steering wheel as the officer again says, "get out of the car". Almost at the same time, Becca Good, who was standing on the street, shouts, "Drive, baby, drive!" One officer standing in front of the vehicle pulls his weapon and fires through the windscreen. As the car turns away, the officer, now very close to the open driver's-side window, fires two more times, fatally shooting Good, according to an analysis of the videos by The Associated Press and others. Federal officials had said at the time that the officer acted in self-defence and that Good had carried out "an act of domestic terrorism".
One lawsuit against the United States seeks damages for Good's wrongful death and for "the immense suffering Renee endured in the final moments of her life and for the profound and permanent losses that her death has inflicted upon her family", according to a release issued by lawyers for Ganger and Becca Good. It also alleges intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligent infliction of emotional distress against Becca Good. Becca and Renee Good, the mother of three children, were not legally married, according to a family lawyer, but called each other wives. They had recently moved to Minneapolis from Kansas City, Missouri.
The second lawsuit seeks a jury trial and alleges a conspiracy to interfere with civil rights. It says the federal government acted to hide evidence of what happened on January 7 and describes a "carefully planned, coordinated effort between senior federal officials and private actors to make two ethnic communities - Minnesotans of Somali and Hispanic descent and origin - the object of aggression and abduction, and to silence by intimidation, arrest and violence the neighbours and allies of those targeted communities who observed, documented and warned of that campaign." Other defendants named include Corey Lewandowski, a Trump campaign manager who also served as one of Noem's advisers, former acting ICE director Todd Lyons, former US Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino and 10 unnamed federal agents.
In social media accounts, Renee Good described herself as a "poet and writer and wife and mom". On Pinterest, her profile picture showed her smiling and holding a young child, alongside posts about tattoos, hairstyles and home decorating. In an interview shortly after her death, her mother, Donna Ganger, told The Associated Press: "She had this way of making you feel special and loved that I didn't even understand that until we lost her."
Becca Good also referred to the wider impact of the immigration crackdown, saying in a release on Thursday: "As we have tried to navigate our own massive loss, I am also devastated by how many other lives have been destroyed in this darkest of times. So many other families are dealing with the loss of their loved ones; to everyone who has had to witness it - the pain of this moment extends far beyond our family. What happened to us should never happen to any family." The lawsuits centre on the circumstances of Renee Good's killing, the federal response after it, and the family's demand for accountability.
