UPDATED: WHAT VIDEO TELLS US ABOUT ICE KILLING A WOMAN IN MINNESOTA
COP SHOT RENEE NICOLE GOLD EVEN THOUGH HE MOVED OUT OF THE WAY OF THE SUV SHE WAS DRIVING
Still images from bystander video of a federal agent killing a woman in Minneapolis. Photo credit: via Max Nesterak of the Minnesota Reformer.
MALONE, NEW YORK Jan. 7, 2025 Last updated: Jan. 8, 2026, 4:15PM
An ICE raid in Minneapolis this morning resulted in the shooting and killing of a motorist who attempted to flee federal agents when they tried to detain her, video shows.
Jonathan Ross was that ICE officer who pulled the trigger on Renee Nicole Good , the Minnesota Star Tribune later reported.
“Renee was one of the kindest people I’ve ever known,” her mother, Donna Ganger, told the newspaper.
Minneapolis and neighboring St. Paul were targeted for federal law enforcement action on Tuesday. About 2,000 agents and officers are sweeping through the Twin Cities, conducting raids and arresting people. The crackdown comes after allegations of wide-spread fraud of federally-funded, state-run social services programs among Somali residents went viral last week.
Its the latest crackdown on migrants in a Democratic-run city by the Republican Trump administration, coming after similar actions in Los Angeles and Chicago.
The City of Minneapolis confirmed the killing in a statement.
"We are aware of a shooting involving a federal agent at 34th Street and Portland," the city said. "We are working to confirm additional information, but what we know is that the presence of federal immigration enforcement agents is causing chaos in our city and making our community less safe."
The statement added Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey "is demanding ICE to leave the city and state immediately. We stand by our immigrant and refugee communities—know that you have our full support."
The motorist killed was a 37-year-old woman, Frey said later at a Wednesday afternoon news conference.
“To ICE,” the mayor added, “Get the fuck out of Minneaplis. We do not want you here.”
Video posted to social media and confirmed as authentic by The Free Lance captured the killing and its aftermath. It happened about 10:25 AM.
Seconds before she was shot, the woman was sitting in an SUV parked cross-wise and partially blocking a one-way city street.
While a police vehicle is seen moving around her SUV, a police pick-up truck with two officers inside stops perpendicular to her SUV. The two officers exit their truck and approach the driver's side of the woman's SUV, which is closest to them.
"Ma'am get out of the car. Get out of the car," one of the officers tells the woman.
The woman has her driver's side window open with her arm casually resting on the side of the door. She signals other vehicles to pass. She appears to have heard the officer’s command.
"Get out of the fucking car!," the officer says again.
As this is happening, a third officer—Ross—circles around the passenger side of the woman’s SUV.
Now the SUV’s white back-up lights come on and the woman begins slowing driving her SUV backwards, further out of the way of traffic.
When the vehicle begins moving backward, the officer who instructed the woman to get out of the car reaches for the door handle. The SUV stops and the back-up lights go off.
At this point, Ross—who circled around the passenger side—reappears in front of the SUV toward the driver's side.
The SUV begins moving slowly forward. When that happens, Ross draws his pistol. The SUV continues moving forward. Ross fires one shot. He is just off the front corner of the driver's side when he fires that first shot.
As the SUV drove past him, Ross points his pistol almost through the open driver's side window and fires at least one more shot and possibly a third shot into the woman at point-blank range.
Ross does not appear to have been hit by the SUV and successfully got out of the way.
At most, he may have been grazed—because he pulled his pistol instead of immediately moving out of the way.
In June 2025, Ross was dragged 100 yards by Roberto Carlos Munoz. The convicted pedophile, wife beater and serial illegal migrant from Honduras attempted to drive away flee arrest, the Star Tribune also reported. Ross got his arm caught in the car when Munoz drove away.
Munoz was convicted in Minnesota Federal District Court of assault on a Federal Officer with a deadly weapon and causing bodily injury after a December 2025 trial, court records show.
It's not immediately clear Ross’s killing of Good was justified.
First of all, its not clear what crime, if any, the woman committed before officers attempted to detain her. If there was no reasonable suspicion to detain her, the attempted detention violated the Fourth Amendment from the start. Legally that would mean no use of force was justified at all.
But, even if police had reasonable suspicion to detain her, its not clear whether Ross could reasonably fear for his safety given he could easily have gotten out of the way of the SUV and in fact did so.
And, even if the first shot Ross fired was justified, its especially questionable whether the second and possible third shots were justified because by then he was clearly out of the vehicle’s way.
Federal law enforcement use of force policy specifically bars federal officers from firing into moving vehicles unless “no other objectively reasonable means of defense appear to exist, which includes moving out of the path of the vehicle.”
The policy also prohibits use of deadly force ”solely to prevent the escape of a fleeing suspect” and “solely to disable moving vehicles.”
”Means other than the vehicle” is required before a federal agent can shoot into a potentially threatening vehicle, under the federal use of force policy.
After the shooting,the SUV crashed into a park car about 50 feet away. The woman appears to have been already dead—likely shot in the head given the close range, perhaps more than once.
Additional bystander video posted to social media captured blood covering the air bag that deployed upon the crash. Other video captured first responder providing first-aid to the woman, to no avail.
Protesters gathered at the scene after the shooting, where they attempted to block ICE from leaving. ICE agents shot them with pepperspray and less-lethal munitions.
Federal law enforcement use of force policy.
Kristi Noem, Homeland Security secretary, said federal officers had made more than 1,500 arrests since the sweep began on Tuesday.
Good, the driver, was killed while committing what Secretary Noem called “an act of domestic terrorism.”
ICE officers “were out on an enforcement action” and “got stuck in the snow,” she said. That’s when “a woman attacked them and those surrounding them,” Noem claimed. The woman “attempted to run them over and ram them with her vehicle.”
The officer who shot the woman, Noem asserted, “defensively shot to protect himself and the people around him.”
“We’re continuing to gather more information,” Noem concluded, “but this goes to show the assaults that our ICE officers and our law enforcement are under every single day.”
Frey, the Minneapolis mayor, called the federal account “bullshit.”
Tim Walz, Minnesota’s out-going governor, agreed. He called the official story “propaganda.”
Amnesty International condemned the killing “in the strongest possible terms.”
Protesters gathered near the location of the shooting as night fell. The spot is less than a mile from where Minneapolis police killed George Floyd in 2020.
While the shooting may violate federal use of force policy, not every policy violation is a crime.
Federal prosecutors would be the first to assess whether a killing by federal officers is a crime. It is unlikely they would prosecute the ICE officer involved in this shooting given the Minneapolis operation was a federal one likely personally approved by the President.
That leaves it up to state prosecutors in Minnesota. The highest possible charge would depend on which shot killed Good. If the first killed her, that would make it diffucult to prove murder. If the first missed Good or was survivable and the second shot or possible third shot killed her, that would make a murder charge more easily provable and thus more plausible.
The highest charge that could fit these facts is what Minnesota law calls third degree murder. It requires proof of “an act eminently dangerous to others and evincing a depraved mind, without regard for human life.” First and second degree manslaughter also plausibly fit the facts.
Keith Ellison, Minnesota’s Attorney General, said in an X statement that “If anyone broke the law in today’s act of violence, I will do all I can to ensure they are held accountable.”
But on Thursday, Noem, the Homeland Security Scretary, said at a news conference in New York City that Minnesota officials “don’t have any jurisdiction in this investigation.”
Drew Evans, Superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, confirmed state investigators had been cut of the case.
“BCA would no longer have access to the case materials, scene evidence or investigative interviews necessary to complete a thorough and independent investigation,” Evans said in a statement released on Thursday.
“Without complete access to the evidence, witnesses and information collected,” the statement said, “we cannot meet the investigative standards that Minnesota law and the public demands. As a result, the BCA has reluctantly withdrawn from the investigation.”
For tips or corrections, The Free Lance can be reached at jasonbnicholas@gmail.com or, if you prefer, thefreelancenews@proton.me.