As you may have already heard, on January 7th, 2026, a 37-year-old woman and American citizen named Renee Nicole Good was fatally shot by an ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) officer during an altercation in Minneapolis.
The ICE officer who killed Renee is Iraq veteran Jonathan Ross.
Both sides of the political spectrum have been providing their points of views on the situation over the past week and while both do bring up valid arguments, I’d like to dive a little deeper into the situation as these kinds of events spark a national conversation which set a precedence for the future as well as policy changes.
The Right-Wing Narrative
Right leaning news sources and advocates, along with the current administration claim that Ross was in danger of being run over by Good’s SUV.
Articles from sites like the New York Post claim that she was trying to “mow” him down.
YouTube channels like The Rubin Report have assisted in spreading the narrative, calling out what they believe to be lies from left-leaning media like CNN regarding the shooting, claiming that Good was not trying to reverse her vehicle and avoid the officer.
They emphasize on pushing the narrative that Renee was either intentionally trying to hit Ross or at the very least, didn’t care if he was injured during her attempt to escape.
Some content creators are also claiming that Renee, a mother of three at the very least, should have complied with the agents attempts to apprehend her, even if they were in the wrong.
Shortly after the shooting, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem held a press conference on the incident, defending the ICE officer and framing Renee Good as crazy leftist with the intention of running the man over.
President Donald Trump defended the shooting, sharing footage of the scene on Truth Social, claiming that Good was “disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE officer”.
Later, he took part in a hours long interview with the New York Times from the Oval Office.
“I want to see nobody get shot. I want to see nobody screaming and trying to run over policemen either,” Trump said as the reporters began pressing him on the issue.
The Left-Wing Narrative
Left-leaning news sources and advocates are, as expected, pushing the opposite narrative. Wired for example called out Trump’s rhetoric that Renee was attempting to run over the officer and are calling right-wingers a bunch of shills for a corrupt agency that not only violated federal law, but are trying to get away with murder.
Democrats and other leftists took to X and BlueSky to share their grievances.
Similarly, content creators such as Hasan Piker have been staunchly defending Good with their own perspectives on the footage.
Typical media pundits and personalities like Jimmy Kimmel, who recently survived cancellation over the assassination of Charlie Kirk took to their shows to call out the shooting and ICE agents or what they perceive to be a cover up by the current administration.
The Reality
Now that both sides have thoroughly shared their opinions and there is technically an official investigation regarding the matter (although it may not mean much) I’d like to chime in.
Here are some indisputable facts.
- A single mother of three children was killed.
- A federal law enforcement officer and U.S. veteran most likely lost his career.
- A random citizens car was totaled.
- A completely innocent dog was caught up in the middle of the situation.
Both sides make valid arguments. Yes, it would have been easier for Renee Good to simply comply with the officers’ demands and allow them to remove her from the vehicle.
No matter how many times you look at the footage, I don’t think running away was the smartest decision and in most cases, it doesn’t end well for anyone.
However, I completely disagree with the notion that she was intending to run all of the officers over. When slowing down the footage, you can see that she reversed and then turned her wheels, showing that at the very least, she was likely just trying to escape.
Now, did she care if she hit the man after he ran in front of her car? I don’t know, maybe not. Although it’s also not a smart idea to stand in front of a vehicle if you believe there’s a chance the person in that vehicle may in fact run you over with it.
I’ve seen this many times over the years with law enforcement, and no matter how times it’s repeated, it doesn’t make it any less stupid.
When a human body goes toe to wheel with SUV, the SUV wins every single time.
This should especially have been a concern for Jonathan, who had previously gone through the traumatic incident of being dragged down a road in a vehicle while attempting to apprehend illegal immigrant, child rapist, and real criminal Muñoz-Guatemala back in June of 2025.
I’d also like to note that it is in fact illegal for any ICE agent to arrest or detain an American citizen, except under certain conditions.
There are essentially three exceptions to this rule.
- Interference with ICE Operations: If a citizen gets in the way, physically or verbally, they can be arrested for obstructing a federal officer.
- Suspected Criminality: If ICE believes a citizen is involved in criminal activity, they can be arrested as a law enforcement agency, not for immigration reasons.
- Unverified Citizenship: If a citizen can’t quickly prove their citizenship (e.g., with a passport or birth certificate), they might be detained temporarily until their status is confirmed.
So, given these exceptions, it’s pretty clear that Renee was being detained for the first one as the officers claimed she was blocking the roads with her SUV.
My problem with this reasoning is that it’s unclear whether she was actually attempting to do that. We know that she and her wife Rebecca were/are both politically left leaning and the according to the DHS were/are members of a group called Ice Watch.
Video footage shows that they were verbally protesting ICE before the shooting but it also shows Good waving ICE agents through the street, allowing them to pass. It’s just unclear why her SUV was parked in the street in the first place.
According to a written statement from Good’s wife, they were there in support of their neighbors.
From the footage we can see that as she accelerated, she was looking the officer directly in his face while smiling with her wife yelling “drive baby, drive!” in the background.
This backs up the idea that she wasn’t really concerned for his safety.
At the same time, her last words before being shot in the head were “That’s fine dude, I’m not mad at you”.
Not only that, Ross’s last words to her after ending her life was “fucking bitch”.
This backs up the idea that he was not really in danger, knew he was not in danger, and took his anger out on her.
Conclusion
After examining all of this information and footage, I have come to a conclusion and this would be my opinion if I was a member of a jury.
I believe that Renee Good made a poor decision to try and escape, even given that she may have feared for her safety or was legally in the right to resist.
She also put her dog’s life in danger of which we are still not sure what happened to the poor pup. The smart decision would have been to comply, despite if their actions were legal or not, and then fight the event in court. We have not deteriorated in to a lawless society yet and she would have had a strong case given the amount of video evidence and political leanings of the state.
Putting that aside, I believe that the ICE agent unnecessarily put himself in harms way and then used excessive force, resulting in the death of a mom and U.S. citizen.
I do not believe she was a true threat to ICE or their enforcement actions and I certainly don’t believe she deserved to die based on her actions. In fact, her vehicle is not even blocking the entire road. The ICE vehicles could easily have gone around her as did the previous ones shown in available footage.
This is a tragic event that could have been avoided by both parties, but one party had a lot of guns and ammunition, alongside the backing of a, in my opinion, increasingly authoritarian administration.
I do believe Jonathan Ross should face prosecution for his actions and I do believe he should be fairly held accountable for them in the court of law.
While it is preferable for both parties to avoid escalation, the responsibility lays mostly on law enforcement, whose duty is to enforce the law while also avoiding as much infringement on citizens rights or livelihoods as possible.
In this case, it was the ultimate infringement. The loss of life and liberty.
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