Becca Good bought the shoes, the backpack, the notebooks, and the pencil case. In August, she prepared her 6-year-old son for his first day of first grade, ultimately attending back-to-school night alone. Renee Good had never missed those milestones. Now, as Halloween approaches, Becca faces taking her youngest child trick-or-treating without the woman who should have been standing by her side.
Speaking publicly for the first time since her spouse was killed, Becca stood alongside family members and legal counsel at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis to announce two major federal lawsuits stemming from the January 7 shooting death of 37-year-old Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer.
“He is becoming this amazing little man, and that’s all Renee ever wanted to see,” Becca Good shares during her emotional address, as Renee’s mother, Donna Ganger, placed a comforting hand on her arm. “And watching him grow into that person without her beside me is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.”
The tragic encounter unfolded when Renee and Becca were returning home after dropping their youngest child off at school and unexpectedly came across federal agents deployed under Operation Metro Surge. According to court filings, Renee stopped her SUV on Portland Avenue and honked her horn to alert surrounding neighbors to the law enforcement presence, while Becca stepped out of the vehicle to film the incident. Neither woman was under federal investigation, nor had they issued any threats of violence.
During the interaction, ICE officer Jonathan Ross walked around the couple’s vehicle while recording on his phone. According to video recordings and court documents, Renee called out to the officer, saying, “That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you. I’m not mad at any of you.” While other agents ordered Renee out of the vehicle and attempted to open her door, another agent simultaneously instructed her to leave. As Good turned the vehicle away, the lawsuits allege Officer Ross moved out of the SUV’s path, leaned toward the car, and fired through the front windshield before discharging two additional rounds through the open driver’s side window.
When Becca ran to the crashed SUV, federal agents allegedly provided no medical aid and turned away a bystander who identified himself as a physician. Filings indicate that an agent abruptly dismissed the doctor’s attempt to intervene, stating, “I don’t care.”
The legal action filed by Becca Good and Brent Ganger—Renee’s brother and the court-appointed trustee for her estate, children, parents, and siblings—includes two separate claims. The first complaint targets the United States government, alleging that Officer Ross shot the mother of three without justification and that responding agents failed to render life-saving medical care. The second action is a comprehensive 149-page complaint naming Officer Ross individually alongside high-profile White House and federal officials, including Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem, Corey Lewandowski, Tom Homan, Todd Lyons, Gregory Bovino, and 10 unidentified agents.
The lawsuit alleges senior officials orchestrated an aggressive campaign targeting local immigrant communities and sought to intentionally suppress observers who documented enforcement actions. Citing administration accounts, the complaint asserts that Stephen Miller managed operations through daily phone calls, demanding mandatory arrest quotas and ordering personnel into areas with active protesters to explicitly force confrontations.
Responding to the allegations, White House spokesperson Lauren Bis stated to the press, “We intend to vigorously defend these baseless civil lawsuits.”
Renee Good, a mother to children aged 15, 12, and 6, was an active member of her youngest son’s school board, loved poetry, film, and animals, and was preparing to pursue a master’s degree in English while applying to become a substitute teacher. The legal filings detail how the loss has shattered the family’s daily routines and long-term stability.
“She was the center of my universe, and living without her is like trying to live without the sun,” Becca Good saya, describing the overwhelming grief of moving forward without her partner. “Every morning she’s my first thought. I think about how the kids are growing up without their mama, and I’ll grow old without the love of my life.”
Beyond the loss itself, the companion suit details severe post-traumatic stress, insomnia, panic attacks, and continuous security threats that forced Becca and her children out of their home for over a month following public statements from administration figures characterizing Renee as a criminal. Remembering the contrast between the nonviolent observers and armed federal agents that morning, Becca recalled her initial written response from January: “We had whistles. They had guns.”
Reflecting on the community support that helped her family survive the immediate aftermath, Becca emphasizes that neighbors delivered hot meals and cared for her son without hesitation or political divide. “No one asked who you voted for first,” she noted, framing the pursuit of legal accountability as a broader effort to protect other families from suffering similar fates under federal operations.
“They took a mother away from her children. They know that, and they will carry it forever. Caring for each other shouldn’t cost you your life,” she says. She remains dedicated to honoring her late wife’s memory through action. “This is the world that she believed in. It’s the world I’m going to fight for, and that’s the world I’m going to raise our son in.”
