The family of Renee Good, the U.S. citizen shot to death during a confrontation with ICE officers in Minneapolis in January, filed two lawsuits Thursday seeking to hold the government responsible for her killing.
Video of Good’s confrontation and death shocked the country and sparked a heated debate over whether her SUV had threatened the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.
The lawsuits were brought by her brother Brent Granger on behalf of the family. They accuse the government of wrongful death, assault, battery and false imprisonment, among other claims.
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“The day of accountability has arrived for the United States’ rogue agencies, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and the unjustified and excessive use of force — let alone deadly force — used on people exercising their rights under the Constitution’s Bill of Rights,” the family’s lawyers said in announcing the lawsuits.
One of the lawsuits names the U.S. as defendant. The other names ICE Officer Jonathan Ross, who pulled the trigger, as well as top Trump immigration officials.
Good’s killing, along with that of Alex Pretti weeks later, forced the White House to retreat from its aggressive immigration effort in Minneapolis.
Months later Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was out of her job, as was Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol official who had been given the lead role in Minneapolis and other enforcement surges.
The lawyers for the family said the ICE officers on the scene that day violated their own use of force policies. But they said the issues ran deeper.
They said the Trump administration itself set the conditions that led to the fatal encounter.
“Renee’s death was not an accident. It was the predictable result of a coordinated campaign by senior officials in this administration to target Minnesotans of Somali or Hispanic origin and silence anyone who dared to raise their voice in protest,” the lawyers said.
The Justice Department declined to comment. The Washington Times also sought comment from DHS.
Good was on the scene on Jan. 7 as ICE officers were in Minneapolis conducting arrest operations. She was there with her romantic partner, Rebecca Good, who had stepped out of the SUV to record video of the officers.
Government officials said Good’s SUV was blocking an ICE vehicle. Several federal officers approached her, ordering her out of her vehicle.
She instead put her vehicle into reverse, then lurched forward, seemingly toward one of the officers who had come up near the front of her SUV and was recording her.
That officer drew his gun and fired, as the SUV appeared to bump him.
Good’s defenders say she was attempting to leave the scene and didn’t pose a danger. DHS officials argued that she had turned her vehicle into a deadly weapon — part of a spate of such attacks ICE had faced over its first year of the Trump mass deportation campaign.
A government investigation is ongoing.
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