Trump Administration Lies In Defense Of ICE Agent Who Killed Renee Nicole Good

A significant number of Americans are rightfully outraged after an ICE agent fatally shot Minnesota resident Renee Nicole Good on Wednesday. Instead of acknowledging the tragic nature of the events or holding the ICE agent accountable, the Trump administration has unleashed a torrent of lies and begun a smear campaign on Good’s character only hours after the shooting. 

According to The Guardian,  Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem immediately tried to portray Renee Nicole Good as a “domestic terrorist” after the shooting without any evidence. During a press briefing on Thursday, Vice President JD Vance said Good “aimed her car at a law enforcement officer” and added she was part of a “left-wing network to attack, to dox, to assault and to make it impossible for our ICE officers to do their job,” despite having literally no evidence she was part of any network of people. 

“This is classic terrorism,” Vance said. “Everybody who’s been repeating the lie that this is some innocent woman who was out for a drive in Minneapolis when a law enforcement officer shot at her, you should be ashamed of yourself.” Bold move letting the American people know that if a federal agent kills them or their family members, the Trump administration will immediately blame the victim.

President and noted liar Donald Trump weighed in on the shooting, telling The New York Times that Good “behaved horribly. And then she ran him over. She didn’t try to run him over. She ran him over.” This is despite the ICE agent, now identified as Jonathan Ross, clearly appearing uninjured after the shooting and walking toward Good’s car after he had fatally shot her. 

Unlike the Trump administration, I won’t lie to you, folks: I’m pissed off by this situation. Millions of us have seen the video with our own two eyes. 

Renee Nicole Good posed no danger to the ICE agent and looked as if she was simply trying to leave the scene, not run the man over. Making matters worse is that the administration released a video of the shooting from the ICE agent’s perspective, thinking that it would justify the shooting, but it only further reveals that Renee Nicole Good never posed a valid threat to the agent. In the video, Good could be seen smiling at Ross and saying, “That’s fine, dude, I’m not mad at you.”

Good’s wife, Becca Good, is also seen in the video filming the ICE agent. As Ross circles the vehicle, she can be heard saying, “That’s fine. U.S. citizen,” and at one point adds, “Former f—–g veteran, disabled veteran.”

Becca gets back into the car, and Renee attempts to drive off, clearly turning away from Ross in both videos, when Ross pulls out his gun and shoots her. By releasing Ross’s video as a defense for his actions, the Trump administration is literally telling us to ignore what we’re seeing with our own two eyes and accept their narrative. 

It’s wild that Noem is defending the shooting considering that, according to CBS News, it violates the policy established by the DHS that says shooting a moving vehicle is only justified “when the driver or someone inside the vehicle has a deadly weapon, or when the vehicle itself is a threat and no other reasonable defensive option exists, including moving out of the way.”

What’s the point of having policies if the agency is not going to enforce them? 

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has called out the Trump administration for spewing lies about Renee Nicole Good in the wake of the shooting. “People in positions of power have already passed judgment, from the president to the vice-president, to Kristi Noem … [they] have stood and told you things that are verifiably false, verifiably inaccurate,”  Walz said during a news conference on Thursday.

In an op-ed for The New York Times, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey also called out the Trump administration’s lies and underlined the chilling implications of how they’ve handled the shooting. “By defending the lie about this clearly avoidable shooting in Minneapolis and refusing to allow Minnesota officials to investigate the crime, the administration is sending a message to the entire country: If you show up for your immigrant neighbors, or even are simply present when those neighbors are taken, your rights will not be protected by the law and your life will be at risk,” Frey wrote. 

Becca Good released a statement on Friday addressing the shooting death of her wife. “First, I want to extend my gratitude to all the people who have reached out from across the country and around the world to support our family,” Good’s statement read. “On Wednesday, January 7th, we stopped to support our neighbors. We had whistles. They had guns.”

“Renee leaves behind three extraordinary children; the youngest is just six years old and already lost his father. I am now left to raise our son and to continue teaching him, as Renee believed, that there are people building a better world for him. That the people who did this had fear and anger in their hearts, and we need to show them a better way.” 

I just don’t know how your heart doesn’t break knowing that a six-year-old boy has now lost both of his parents, because a coward couldn’t just move two steps out of the way.

Unsurprisingly, the “Don’t tread on me” crowd has been loving the taste of tread. Right-wing influencers have been defending the ICE agent, parroting the talking points put out by the Trump administration, and trying to argue that the ICE agent was in danger of being run over, despite us all seeing with our own two eyes that Good was not driving at a high rate of speed, and the ICE agent could’ve simply stepped out of the way. Instead, he went for his gun like a coward. It’s maddening that the folks who claim that anyone who dislikes Trump has “Trump Derangement Syndrome” are so willing to dismiss what they can see with their own two eyes just to fall in line with the Trump administration.  

What is surprising is that some Republican Congress members have publicly expressed skepticism about Noem’s handling of the shooting and the narrative being presented by the Trump administration. “It was very unusual to have a senior law enforcement official to draw a conclusion about an event where the scene was still being processed,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said of Noem’s remarks. 

“Generally speaking, law enforcement would recognize that a life was lost, that families are changed forever, the shooter’s life will change forever, we’re collecting video, we’re trying to assess the situation,” Tillis added. “That didn’t happen.”

Alaskan Sen. Lisa Murkowski said she was concerned about reports that federal authorities are refusing to allow the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to investigate the shooting. “I did find that a little confusing and concerning. It seems like the state authorities are being iced out of it — no pun intended — which just seems unusual,” Murkowski told reporters. 

Sadly, a tragedy like this was inevitable considering that ICE has put more focus on rapidly expanding its ranks than properly vetting its agents. If the DHS won’t hold the man who fatally shot Renee Nicole Good accountable, what’s to stop more agents from using lethal force against Americans who happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time?

SEE ALSO:

ICE Killed A White Mother. Why Are White Men Cheering?

ICE Is The Real Criminal Threat, Not Undocumented Immigrants

ICE Agents Invade Minneapolis Hospital With No Warrant