Renee Good's Family Sues Trump Administration, ICE Agent and Top Officials Over January Shooting

Since ICE agent Jonathan Ross fatally shot Renee Good in her car on January 7, 2026, during the Minneapolis immigration operation known as Operation Metro Surge, no criminal charges have been filed against him and the Department of Homeland Security has not released the results of its internal investigation. On Thursday, October 1, Good's family moved the fight into civil court, filing two lawsuits in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota.

The first lawsuit names the United States as the sole defendant under the Federal Tort Claims Act, alleging wrongful death, battery, assault, false imprisonment, and negligence, according to CBS News and NBC News. Attorney Sarah Raisch, of the firm Romanucci and Blandin, said the FTCA route means the government gets up to six months to respond and the case will ultimately be decided by a judge, not a jury.

The second lawsuit seeks a jury trial and names Ross directly, along with White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, former Noem aide Corey Lewandowski, and former Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino. It alleges a "conspiracy to interfere with civil rights," claiming the operation was coordinated to target Minneapolis's Somali and Hispanic communities and intimidate residents who documented federal agents, according to attorney Benjamin Berkman and reporting from MS NOW and Al Jazeera.

"The day of accountability has arrived for our own U.S. government and its governmental agencies ICE and CBP," lead attorney Antonio Romanucci said at Thursday's news conference, as reported by CBS News.

What the Video and Autopsy Show

Bystander footage, analyzed by the Associated Press, shows Good's SUV stopped in the road while she honked her horn. Two ICE agents, faces covered, approached and ordered her out. As her partner Becca Good shouted "Drive, baby, drive!" and the car began turning away, Ross drew his weapon and fired into the windshield, then fired twice more into the open driver's-side window at close range.

The Hennepin County medical examiner ruled Good's death a homicide after a private autopsy found three gunshot wound paths, according to The Hill. The lawsuit filed on behalf of Becca Good alleges each of Ross's three shots violated DHS's own use-of-force policy, which permits force only when "no reasonably effective, safe, and feasible alternative appears to exist."

These are allegations made in a civil complaint. They have not been tested in court, and Ross has not been criminally charged.

The Administration's Position

Trump's response to the shooting shifted over time. Hours after Good died, he said on Truth Social she had "violently, willfully, and viciously" run over the officer and blamed "the Radical Left" for "threatening, assaulting, and targeting" law enforcement, according to Al Jazeera. Weeks later he called her death a "tragedy" and said agents "sometimes are going to make a mistake." Federal officials maintained at the time that Ross acted in self-defense and that Good had engaged in what they called "an act of domestic terrorism."

DHS itself has documented a broader pattern. The department reported in late September that assaults on ICE officers rose 1,649% since Trump took office, citing 647 incidents nationwide. Whether that broader pattern bears on what happened on Portland Avenue on January 7 is a question the lawsuits will have to litigate.

Then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche blocked federal prosecutors from pursuing a civil rights case against the agents, according to MS NOW, which also reported that the Justice Department instead examined Good for potential criminal liability. No charges were ever filed against her. DHS said it opened its own investigation into the shooting, but has not disclosed any findings or timeline, and did not respond to requests for comment from multiple outlets including MS NOW and The Hill.

A Divergent Framing

The Daily Wire's coverage describes Good as an "anti-ICE activist" who was "doing what thousands of her neighbors were doing that winter: watching masked, armed men." Every other outlet reviewed describes her simply as a Minneapolis resident and mother of three who had recently relocated from Kansas City with her partner. The word "activist" appears nowhere in the court filings as characterized by CBS, NBC, PBS, or CNBC. That framing choice matters because it shapes how a reader judges her intent in stopping her car, a fact still contested in the pending litigation.

What Happens Next

Under the Federal Tort Claims Act, the government has up to six months to respond to the wrongful-death claim before the case can proceed to a bench trial. The civil rights conspiracy suit, naming Miller, Noem, Lewandowski, Bovino and Ross, seeks a jury trial and unspecified damages.

PBS has reported that Minnesota state prosecutors recently obtained evidence in their own probe into the fatal shootings of both Good and Alex Pretti, the Minneapolis man killed by ICE agents on January 24, that had previously been withheld. What that evidence contains, and whether it leads to any state or federal charges, remains unknown. DHS's internal investigation into Ross's conduct still has no public timeline or findings nine months after Good's death.