Killing of Renée Good

Renée Nicole Macklin Good, a 37-year-old American woman, was fatally shot in Minneapolis, Minnesota, by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Jonathan Ross, on January 7, 2026. Good was in her car, stopped sideways in the street, which led Ross to circle her vehicle on foot. Other agents approached, and one ordered her to get out of the car while reaching through her open window. Good briefly reversed, then began moving forward and to the right, into the direction of traffic. At this point, Ross was standing at the front-left of the vehicle and fired three shots, killing her, as her vehicle passed him, turning away from him. The killing sparked national protests and multiple investigations.

Federal law enforcement officials and President Donald Trump defended the shooting, saying the agent acted in self-defense, that Good ran him over, and that the agent was recovering in a hospital. Their accounts of the shooting were contested by eyewitnesses, journalists, and Democratic Party lawmakers, some of whom called for criminal proceedings against Ross. The president and federal officials were criticized for espousing conclusions before any investigation had occurred. Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota governor Tim Walz called on ICE to end their presence in the city.

The killing sparked widespread protests in Minneapolis, and other US cities including Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. Marches in Minneapolis prompted the closing of public schools and the deployment of more police officers. Federal agents used tear gas and pepper spray against protesters, and Governor Walz placed the National Guard on standby.

Leaders of the Department of Justice (DOJ)'s Civil Rights Division declined to open a constitutional investigation, which led more than a dozen federal prosecutors in Minneapolis and Washington to resign in protest. Minnesota attorney general Keith Ellison, along with the cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, filed suit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to halt ICE deployments. The incident intensified national debate over immigration enforcement and renewed calls to abolish ICE.

Background

As part of the Trump administration's sweeping deportation efforts during his second presidency, ICE agents have been increasingly involved in violent confrontations with migrants and US citizens as part of the agency's shift to more aggressive immigration enforcement. On January 6, DHS announced what it called the largest immigration enforcement operation ever carried out, sending 2,000 agents to the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area. The surge included Homeland Security Investigations officers focused on suspected fraud. Saint Paul City Council member Molly Coleman described the first day of the action as "unlike any other day we've experienced". An eyewitness to the shooting said, "People in our neighborhood have been terrorized by ICE for six weeks." Good's killing was the ninth time in five states and Washington, D.C., that ICE agents had opened fire on people since September 2025. At least four other people have died during federal deportation operations since the enforcement surge began in 2025.

Renée Good

Renée Nicole Macklin Good (née Ganger; April 2, 1988 – January 7, 2026) was a 37-year-old US citizen. She was a writer and poet who lived in Minneapolis with her partner and a six-year-old child from her second marriage. Originally from Colorado Springs, Colorado, she graduated with a degree in English from Old Dominion University. According to a neighbor, Good had previously lived in Kansas City, Missouri, before relocating to Canada along with her partner and family following Trump's victory in the 2024 US presidential election. Later, she moved to Minneapolis. Good had been married twice. She and her first husband were married from 2009 to 2016 and had two children; she and her second husband had a single child. He died in 2023 at the age of 36.

Jonathan Ross

Federal officials declined to identify the shooter. But the day after the shooting, the Minnesota Star Tribune identified the ICE agent as Jonathan Ross through court records.

Ross has been married twice. His first marriage began shortly before his deployment to Iraq and ended in a divorce filed before he returned from deployment. He remarried in 2015. Ross graduated in 2007 with a degree in business administration from Anderson University.

Ross served in the Indiana National Guard from 2002 to 2008, and was a machine gunner in the Iraq War from 2004 to 2005. He worked for the US Border Patrol from 2007 to 2015. Court documents listed his start date with ICE as 2016. He was in the Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) unit of ICE at the time of the shooting. Ross testified in December that he was "a firearms instructor, an active shooter instructor...a field intelligence officer, and...a member of the SWAT team, the St. Paul Special Response Team".

On June 17, 2025, Ross was injured during a traffic stop in Bloomington, Minnesota. While trying to arrest someone inside a car, Ross broke a window and reached in to unlock the door. The driver then accelerated, dragging the agent some 50 yards (45 m). The incident was mentioned by DHS secretary Kristi Noem and Vice President JD Vance in press briefings after Ross shot Good.

Incident

Ross shot Good on Portland Avenue between East 33rd and 34th Streets in the Central neighborhood of Minneapolis, a few blocks from Good's home.

Before engaging

Secretary Noem said that several ICE officers were traveling to their headquarters when their vehicle became stuck in snow, and they called for help. Neighbors in the area were standing guard, watching for ICE activity as students were being dropped off at a dual-language elementary school around the corner, one resident said. Noem claimed, without evidence, that Good had been "stalking and impeding ICE all day". Several Minnesota state officials, including Minnesota attorney general Keith Ellison and United States representative Ilhan Omar said that Good was acting as a legal observer of ICE's activities at the time of the incident.

Good's mother and ex-husband said that they did not believe she had previously taken part in protests against ICE activities; the latter said "she was not an activist". According to Good's ex-husband, she had just dropped her son off at school, around seven minutes away by car, and was on her way home "when they came upon a group of ICE agents".

Pre-shooting

At 09:35:05 Central Standard Time (UTC−06:00), Good's Honda Pilot SUV was stopped sideways leftward on the one-way Portland Avenue. Ross drove his SUV around, stopped ahead of her, and began recording video. Ross walked toward and around Good's SUV with his face covered while recording her and her rear license plate. Good told him: "That's fine, dude. I'm not mad at you." At 09:36:51, Good's partner Becca stood behind their SUV, also recording on her cell phone, and said: "Show your face. That's OK. We don't change our plates every morning, just so you know. This will be the same plate when you come talk to us later. That's fine. US citizen, former fucking veteran."

Good drove her SUV slightly forward. At 09:36:58, a Ford Explorer entered Portland Avenue, Good waved, apparently to indicate that the Ford should pass in front of her SUV, which it did, along with another vehicle. Meanwhile, Ross returned to the right side of Good's SUV and switched his phone from his right hand to his left hand while Becca said: "You wanna come at us? You wanna come at us? I say go get yourself some lunch, big boy." As Good continued waving, a Nissan Titan stopped to the left side of her SUV and two more ICE agents stepped out.

An eyewitness said ICE agents gave conflicting orders, with one telling Good to drive away while another shouted at her to get out of the SUV. At 09:37:08, the ICE agents from the Nissan pickup approached Good's SUV as one of them repeatedly ordered her to "get out of the fucking car". Good remained in her vehicle and put the transmission into reverse. A number of events then occurred near-simultaneously:

• One of the ICE agents who approached her placed his hands on the driver's door handle and open window of Good's vehicle.
• Becca attempted to open the front passenger door.
• Good drove a few feet in reverse.
• Ross walked to the front-left of Good's vehicle.

The agent at the driver's door reached through the open window, and Becca shouted, "Drive, baby, drive!" Good began to drive forward while turning the steering wheel to the right and away from Ross, the correct direction of traffic on the one-way street.

Shooting

Keeping his phone in his left hand, Ross drew his gun, leaned forward, and fired three shots at Good in the departing SUV in under one second, all hitting her, at 09:37:13. He remained upright on the left of the SUV as it passed. According to separate video analyses by The New York Times and ABC News, Ross fired the first shot at the SUV's windshield and the second and third shots through the driver's side window.