The family of Renee Good, the Minneapolis mother shot and killed by an ICE agent last week, has hired the same law firm that secured $27 million for George Floyd’s family—and they’re coming for answers.
Romanucci & Blandin, the Chicago-based firm that represented Floyd’s family after his murder by Minneapolis police in 2020, announced Wednesday they are now investigating Good’s death on behalf of her partner Becca Good, her parents, and her siblings, according to the Associated Press.
WHAT’S GOING ON: Renee Good, 37, was killed on January 7 when ICE officer Jonathan Ross opened fire on her vehicle during an immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis.
The Trump administration claims Ross acted in self-defense, saying Good’s SUV moved forward toward him. But video footage shows a far murkier picture—one that Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, Governor Tim Walz, and countless others say doesn’t justify lethal force.
Good and her partner Becca had just dropped their 6-year-old at school and stopped to observe the law enforcement activity. Video shows Renee’s red SUV sitting perpendicular in the road, with her pressing the horn repeatedly.
When officers ordered her to exit the vehicle, she began to turn—and Becca, standing on the passenger side, shouted “drive, baby, drive!” Shots followed almost immediately.
THE DETAILS: The family’s statement is devastating in its restraint. They want Good remembered as “an agent of peace” and urged the public not to weaponize her death as a political flashpoint.
But make no mistake—they’re demanding accountability. The family specifically wants answers about what ICE officers were even doing in that neighborhood, what happened during the encounter, and why there were delays in medical aid after the shooting.
Becca Good’s own statement to Minnesota Public Radio cut to the bone: “We had whistles. They had guns.”
BUT BUT BUT: The Justice Department has already said it sees no basis to open a federal civil rights investigation into the shooting. That decision prompted roughly half a dozen federal prosecutors in Minnesota to resign this week, along with several supervisors in the Civil Rights Division in Washington.
An FBI probe is technically ongoing, but the message from the administration is clear: they consider this case closed.
WHY IT MATTERS: This is now the second time in less than a decade that a family in Minneapolis has turned to this particular law firm after a loved one was killed by law enforcement. The firm says it will release findings “on a rolling basis” because they believe the community isn’t getting adequate information elsewhere.
For those keeping score: ICE officer Jonathan Ross is an Iraq War veteran who has served as a deportation officer since 2015. Renee Good was a mother of three who had just dropped her kid at school. The Trump administration is defending the shooting. The people tasked with investigating civil rights violations are quitting in protest. And the family is left to hire their own lawyers to find out why their loved one is dead.
