On January 7th 2026, 37 year-old Renee Nicole Good was murdered by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent named Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The shooting took place at a protest against ICE in Good’s neighborhood.
Good had just dropped her son off at school when she was driving in the area of the protest. Several ICE agents pulled her over, approached her vehicle and started shaking the doors, demanding for her to get out of the vehicle with foul language. Good did not exit her vehicle; instead, she stated to the officers, “That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you.” An ICE officer, Jonathan Ross started to record a video on his phone and circle her vehicle, stopping right in front of the car. Good reversed her vehicle while her wife attempted to get in the car with her, then turned her steering wheel to the right to drive away. Jonathan Ross then pulled out his gun, fatally shooting her three times. Renee Nicole Good immediately went unconscious at the wheel, resulting in her crashing into two other cars on the side of the street.
Jonathan Ross proceeded to call Good names and walked away from the vehicle, uninjured. Good’s neighbors started to yell at the ICE agents to help her, including a physician. The physician in the protest asked to check her pulse, but the officers said they did not care. Renee Nicole Good was denied access to medical attention. It took fifteen minutes for ambulances to arrive, but by the time medical help arrived the area was blocked off.
The result of the death of Renee Nicole Good struck a controversy across the nation and world. Primarily, far-right conservatives consider the shooting of Good to be an act of self-defense. The Trump Administration has spoken out about the situation, including Vice President JD Vance and President Donald Trump. Both have considered Ross to be acting rationally, while Good was portrayed as a radical leftist. Ross stated himself that he believed Good was going to run him over, and he had to act quickly. On the app, TruthSocial, owned by Trump Media & Technology Group, President Trump states, “…who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense. Based on the attached clip, it is hard to believe he is alive, but is now recovering in the hospital.” The statement provided allows the Republicans to believe that the shooting of Renee Nicole Good was just an act of self-defense. However, this is not the case.
The shooting of Renee Nicole Good was not an act of self-defense; it was a murder. Good was a legal U.S. citizen that was passing through the area, which resulted in her being fatally shot. The situation raises the question, how is this happening? The answer is, the money that has been allocated for the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) has caused the agency to act irrationally. President Trump has made his entire administration revolve around military violence and the promotion of border control. ICE has knocked down doors, separated families, and murdered several people, some of whom were even U.S. citizens. 2025 was stated to be ICE’s deadliest year, beating a record that was set two decades ago. In 2025, over 220,000 people were detained by ICE and put into a detention facility. And, according to NBC news, over a third of those detained had no criminal convictions. The change in this country since President Trump took office in early 2025 has proved that the United States has started to advance in the wrong direction, making our country revolve around violence. 32 people died in the year 2025, with 8 so far into 2026, according to The Guardian. The shift in violence in our country raises the question to citizens: what can we do? The only solution to the problems occurring in our country is to promote change by using our voices. Protest, demand, vote, and petition.
