Who Was Renee Nicole Good? Poet and Mother Killed in Minneapolis ICE Shooting as Accounts Clash
City officials have identified the woman killed during an Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation in Minneapolis on Wednesday as Renee Nicole Good, 37, as sharply conflicting accounts continue to emerge about what led to the fatal shooting.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, the incident happened during an ICE enforcement action in south Minneapolis. Federal officials claim agents were attempting to make arrests when Good tried to use her vehicle as a weapon against officers, prompting one agent to open fire in what the agency described as self-defense.
Good was struck by gunfire and later pronounced dead. The federal agent involved has not been publicly named, and authorities say the case remains under investigation.
In a joint statement released Wednesday, members of the Minneapolis City Council confirmed Good’s identity and described her as “a member of our community.” The council called for ICE to leave the city following the shooting.
“This morning an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a member of our community,” the statement said. “Anyone who kills someone in our city deserves to be arrested, investigated, and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Council members said they stand with Minneapolis’ immigrant community and accused federal immigration officials of bringing “chaos and violence” into the city, while pledging to work with state partners to protect residents.
Who was Renee Nicole Good?
Good’s mother, Donna Ganger, told The Minnesota Star Tribune that her daughter lived in the Twin Cities with her partner. She said the family learned of Good’s death late Wednesday morning.
“That’s so stupid” she was killed, Ganger said after being told what happened. “She was probably terrified.”
Ganger told the newspaper that her daughter was not participating in protests against ICE and described her as “one of the kindest people I’ve ever known,” saying Good was deeply compassionate and dedicated to helping others.
According to the Star Tribune, Good had previously been married to Timmy Ray Macklin Jr., who died in 2023 at age 36. Macklin’s father told the outlet the couple shared a child and said he plans to travel to help care for the child following Good’s death.
On what appears to be Good’s Instagram account, she described herself as a “poet and writer and wife and mom and s—– guitar strummer from Colorado; experiencing Minneapolis, MN.”
A Facebook post from Old Dominion University’s English Department said Good, who was known at the time as Renée Macklin, won the 2020 ODU College Poetry Prize as an undergraduate for her poem “On Learning to Dissect Fetal Pigs.”
The university said she was originally from Colorado Springs, Colorado, and studied creative writing at ODU. Her work appeared in literary publications, and she also co-hosted a podcast with her husband at the time.
‘Weaponize her vehicle’
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem offered a different account Wednesday evening, saying Good attempted to run over a law enforcement officer with her vehicle.
The shooting, which Noem did not refer to by Good’s name, was “preventable,” she said, while maintaining that ICE agents were carrying out lawful enforcement actions.
Noem said ICE vehicles were operating in Minneapolis when one became stuck in the snow following recent weather. As agents tried to free the vehicle, she claimed they were harassed and blocked by what she described as agitators.
According to Noem, agents approached Good’s vehicle after she repeatedly obstructed their work. She said officers ordered Good to exit her car and stop interfering, but she refused.
“She then proceeded to weaponize her vehicle,” Noem said, alleging that Good tried to run over an officer.
Noem said the officer was struck by the vehicle and taken to a hospital, where he was treated and later released.
KSHB 41 News reported that the SUV Good was driving had Missouri license plates. The station said it confirmed with the Missouri Department of Revenue that the vehicle was registered to Renee N. Good Macklin at an address in Kansas City, Missouri. Officials have not explained why the vehicle was registered out of state.
Noem again characterized the incident as an act of domestic terrorism and claimed there has been an increase in vehicle-ramming attacks against federal officers nationwide in recent weeks.
“This must stop,” she said.
She also argued that elected officials should condemn violence against law enforcement, saying the shooting followed increasingly hostile rhetoric aimed at federal officers.
ICE sources told reporters that none of the agents involved in the Minneapolis shooting were wearing body cameras at the time. While ICE has been gradually expanding the use of body-worn cameras nationwide, the team involved in Wednesday’s operation did not have them, according to those sources.
The shooting comes amid growing tensions between federal immigration authorities and Minneapolis officials, after DHS deployed thousands of additional officers to the area in recent days — a move that has sparked protests and strong pushback from city leaders.
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