In Memoriam: Renee Nicole Good, Queer Mother Killed by ICE

Renee Nicole Good was a 37-year-old U.S. citizen, a mother, and a writer, who had recently moved to Minneapolis with her wife and son. She was shot and killed by ICE agents yesterday.

Here’s what we seem to know at the moment. (Please be careful before clicking through to any of the videos mentioned here, as they contain disturbing content.)

Donna Ganger, Good’s mother, told the Minnesota Star Tribune that Good lived in the Twin Cities with her partner, but did not specify the partner’s gender. The paper also reported that Good had a 6-year-old son via marriage to a man who died in 2023, plus two other children living with extended family; the AP notes they are ages 12 and 15, children of a prior marriage. An Instagram account that USA Today says belonged to Good shows a rainbow flag in the profile, along with the description, “Poet and writer and wife and mom and shitty guitar strummer from Colorado; experiencing Minneapolis, MN.”

A video of the shooting shows Good in her car, confronted by ICE officers. Her ex-husband (her first husband) told the AP that she “had just dropped off her 6-year-old son at school Wednesday and was driving home with her current partner when they encountered a group of ICE agents on a snowy street in Minneapolis.” As one officer grabs at her door, she tries to drive away and another officer shoots her. Minneapolis Public Radio (MPR) shared reports from eyewitnesses who said that ICE agents had given conflicting orders to Good during the encounter.

Another video from the scene is the audio of a distraught woman who says, as the AP reports, “That’s my wife, I don’t know what to do!” She also appears to say, “[Someone] shot my wife in the head because she was talking to you!” and later, “We stopped to videotape, and they shot her in the head.” She explains that “We’re new here.”

Good’s second husband’s father told the Star Tribune, however, that “There’s nobody else in [the 6-year-old’s] life,” and said he would come and get his grandchild. It’s possible that he didn’t approve of Good’s relationship with her new partner/wife, or that the partner/wife is not a legal parent to the child, which could make the grandfather the next of kin. It’s also possible that we’re misinterpreting some or all of the pieces of evidence that indicate Good was queer or that she had a woman partner/wife; this is still a developing story, and the rise of AI has made me want extra confirmation of any videos online. To my mind, though, all the evidence points strongly to her being queer (although whether she used that term or another is an open question). [Update, 1/9/2026: Renee Good’s wife, Becca Good, has spoken out via a statement to Minnesota Public Radio (MPR), which I think settles any doubts anyone might have about their relationship. Among other things, Becca noted, “I am now left to raise our son.”]

On the one hand, Good’s queer identity shouldn’t matter at all. A person was shot by officials of the U.S. government in a situation that by all indications did not warrant lethal force. That in itself should be enough for outrage. But as a queer mother myself, I do feel an extra resonance with her. I also worry that her queer identity will be used by those who are trying to defend ICE’s actions; in a post on Truth Social (shared by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on X), the president tried to tie her to “the Radical Left”; DHS also tweeted that Good had tried to run over ICE officers with her vehicle in an act of “domestic terrorism.”

Ganger told the Star Tribune, however, that Good had not been involved in any protests against ICE, and Good’s ex-husband told the AP that “she was no activist and that he had never known her to participate in a protest of any kind.” Not that it would have been acceptable to shoot her even if she were engaged in protests, of course; point is that if ICE can shoot someone without any links to protests, how much more endangered are those who actively speak out against them?

I’ll also note, too, that a number of other people have been shot and/or killed during ICE actions, as The Intercept notes; many, if not all of the others, appear to be of Latino identity. Good appears to be White. If her death is what finally galvanizes the country against ICE’s overreach, so be it, but we should be just as outraged at ICE’s ongoing assaults on people of color, who remain the focus of their activities.

Today, though, we mourn Renee Nicole Good and send our deepest condolences to her children and wife. Her death is a tragedy that never should have happened. May she not have died in vain, however; may her death motivate us to continue working for positive change that brings our country back to its highest ideals of a land based in equality, freedom, and justice.