Renee Good’s family sued the U.S. government and several immigration officials Thursday, alleging wrongful death, conspiracy and other violations in the 37-year-old woman’s killing by an immigration officer during a federal crackdown in Minneapolis.
The two lawsuits were filed by Good’s partner, Becca Good, and Renee's brother Brent Ganger. Both are an attempt to seek accountability for the incident that occurred during Operation Metro Surge, and accuses DHS authorities of negligence and a conspiracy to interfere with civil rights.
"No one was armed, no one was a domestic terrorist. They had their pet dog in the back seat. And indeed, Renee's last words that she spoke before she was shot were, I'm not mad at you. I am not mad at any of you, clearly defining what her state of mind was," said the firms founding partner Antonio M. Romanucci at a press conference in downtown Minneapolis.
Romanucci added that one lawsuit names the United States of America as the sole defendant under the Federal Tort Claims Act, also known as the FTCA.
The other lawsuit names Jonathan Ross, who is the agent that shot good. It also names Trump administration officials at the time, including White House advisor Stephen Miller, former DHS Sec. Kristi Noem and her advisor Corey Lewandowski, along with former Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino, Border Czar Tom Homan, and a number of unnamed federal agents.
"We are saying that they are all responsible or had some cause in Renee's death," Romanucci explains. "Today's filings are not about immigration policy. We are focused on the extraordinary overreach of the federal government and federal agents who used aggressive tactics that ignored well established protocols and training for law enforcement officers, and used excessive and unnecessary force, causing countless U.S. citizens and legal residents to become collateral damage."
Renee Good's partner, Becca Good, said 'we were all robbed' as family. Renee Good was a mother of three children, two sons and a daughter, from her previous marriages. Becca Good talked about the moments that Renee never missed.
"I bought him new shoes and a backpack, and notebooks, pencil case," she said. "I went back to school night on my own. She never missed a single moment. And this Halloween, it's our son's absolute favorite holiday. I'll take him trick or treating without her hand in mine."
The Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office and two state agencies sued the Trump administration in March for evidence in the shooting deaths of Good and Alex Pretti. The Justice Department handed over the files in July, and no charges have been filed yet in either case.
Officer shot Good as she turned her car away from him
Renee Good was fatally shot Jan. 7 as protests against immigration raids flared across the city. According to Becca Good, her partner stopped their car in a street to support neighbors 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 her horn.
Two immigration officers get out of a truck, their faces covered, and one orders Good to get out of the car. She reverses briefly, then turns the steering wheel as the officer says again, “get out of the car.”
Almost simultaneously, Becca Good, standing in the street, shouts: “Drive, baby, drive!”
One officer standing in front of the vehicle pulls his weapon and fires into the windshield. He lurches back as the car turns away from him. The officer, who is now very close to the open window on the driver’s side, fires two more times, fatally shooting Renee Good, according to an analysis of the videos by The Associated Press and others.
Federal officials at the time said the officer acted in self-defense and that Good had engaged in “an act of domestic terrorism.”
Romanucci went on to say that the conduct of agents should never ever be justified, neutralized, or normalized.
"Our constitutional rights matter now more than ever in the face of a government that believes the ends justify the means," he says. "Today's filings are about making clear that fear, urgency, or the asserted need for security cannot become a license to disregard our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, the ones that apply to all of us."
One lawsuit alleges wrongful death
The lawsuit against the United States of America seeks damages for Good's wrongful death and “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 news release by lawyers for Ganger and Good.
The lawsuit, which seeks a bench trial, also alleges “intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligent infliction of emotional distress” on Becca Good.
Becca and Renee Good, the mother of three children, were not legally married, according to a family lawyer, but referred to one another as wives. They had only recently relocated to Minneapolis from Kansas City, Missouri.
Another lawsuit alleges conspiracy to conceal evidence
The other lawsuit alleges a conspiracy to interfere with civil rights and seeks a jury trial. It says the federal government moved to hide the evidence of what actually happened on Jan. 7.
The lawsuit says the shots fired by Jonathan Ross, the immigration officer who killed Good, “were the predictable and intended product of the operation.”
It 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 neighbors and allies of those targeted communities who observed, documented and warned of that campaign.”
The lawsuit names Ross as a defendant, as well as: White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller; former Homeland Security head Kristi Noem; Corey Lewandowski, a campaign manager for President Donald Trump who also served as one of Noem's advisers; White House border czar Tom Homan; former acting director of U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Todd Lyons; former U.S. Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino; and 10 unnamed federal agents.
Good's partner acknowledges other lives lost in immigration crackdown
The killing of Good and another U.S. citizen, Alex Pretti, in Minneapolis just weeks later sparked outrage across the country and calls to rein in immigration enforcement. At least 10 people have died in encounters with immigration officers during President Donald Trump’s second term.
In social media accounts, Renee Good described herself as a “poet and writer and wife and mom.” On Pinterest, a profile picture shows her smiling and holding a young child, alongside posts about tattoos, hairstyles and home decorating.
In an interview shortly after her death, Renee Good’s 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.”
Good's partner noted the broader loss to communities nationwide.
“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,” Becca Good said in the news release Thursday. “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.”
Associated Press reporters Kathy McCormack and Mark VanCleave contributed to this story.
