Up to date Oct. 1, 2026, 2:27 p.m. ET
The household of Renee Nicole Good — the 37-year-old mom of three who was fatally shot by an immigration officer in Minneapolis earlier this yr — filed a sweeping civil rights lawsuit accusing senior Trump administration officers of orchestrating a discriminatory immigration operation that in the end led to her killing.
The 149-page grievance, filed practically 9 months after Good was shot inside her SUV, names Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Jonathan Ross together with a few of the officers who oversaw the administration’s immigration enforcement marketing campaign: White Home deputy chief of workers Stephen Miller, former Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem, border czar Tom Homan, Corey Lewandowski, then-acting ICE director Todd Lyons, former Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino and 10 unidentified federal brokers. Every is being sued individually.
“Our nation can’t tolerate unjustified and extreme use of drive, not to mention lethal drive, on extraordinary people who find themselves exercising their rights below the Structure of this nation,” Antonio M. Romanucci, an lawyer representing Good’s family members, stated throughout a information convention Oct. 1. “There isn’t any such factor as impunity relating to violating protected rights. When authorities energy crosses the road, there should be accountability.”
On the coronary heart of the lawsuit is an uncommon civil rights declare invoking the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871. Good’s household alleges the officers conspired to make use of Operation Metro Surge to deprive Minnesota’s Somali and Hispanic communities of equal safety below the legislation — and to intimidate, arrest or use drive towards individuals who noticed, documented or warned others in regards to the operation.
The grievance argues that Good’s killing on Jan. 7 was a product of that marketing campaign. She and her companion had encountered federal brokers of their south Minneapolis neighborhood after dropping her 6-year-old son off at college, based on the lawsuit. Her companion, Becca Good, obtained out of their SUV to movie whereas Good remained behind the wheel and honked her horn to warn neighbors that immigration officers have been close by.
“Renee was killed in the midst of conduct that served each of these objects,” the grievance alleges, arguing she was focused whereas “engaged in observing and warning” in regards to the federal operation.
The lawsuit individually accuses Ross of violating Good’s Fourth Modification rights by utilizing extreme drive in fatally taking pictures her. It alleges Good was unarmed, suspected of no crime and slowly turning her SUV away from Ross when he fired 3 times — as soon as by way of the windshield and twice by way of the open driver’s-side window. The grievance says Ross had already moved his physique out of the automobile’s path earlier than opening hearth.
The household additionally alleges the taking pictures violated necessary Division of Homeland Safety insurance policies proscribing officers from firing on the driver of a transferring automobile and from deliberately placing themselves in a automobile’s path. After Good was shot and her SUV crashed right into a parked automobile, the grievance says, federal brokers didn’t render medical support and turned away a bystander who recognized himself as a doctor.
In a separate lawsuit, the household sued the USA below the Federal Tort Claims Act, alleging wrongful dying and different torts, together with assault, battery, false imprisonment and negligence. The grievance additionally seeks damages for the emotional hurt Becca Good says she suffered from witnessing her companion’s killing.
“Each morning, she is my first thought,” Becca Good stated in her first public remarks. “I take into consideration how the children are rising up with out their momma and the way I’ll develop outdated with out the love of my life. I take into consideration how we should always have had 40 extra years collectively. However I additionally take into consideration what she would have wished in spite of everything of this.”
“What occurred to us ought to by no means occur to any household,” she added.
The White Home and DHS didn’t instantly reply to USA TODAY’s requests for remark
The fits open a brand new entrance within the long-running combat over Good’s dying, which was captured from a number of angles on video and rapidly grew to become the topic of sharply conflicting accounts from the federal authorities, native officers and Good’s household.
Good, a U.S. citizen, was not the goal of the immigration operation underway that Jan. 7 morning
Federal brokers have been deployed throughout the Minneapolis space as a part of Operation Metro Surge, an enormous immigration enforcement operation that introduced roughly 2,000 extra officers to Minnesota and adopted comparable enforcement surges in different Democratic-led cities below Noem.
The operation had already drawn fierce opposition from state and native officers, who accused the Trump administration of singling out Minnesota and different Democratic jurisdictions for aggressive federal enforcement. The administration stated the deployments have been essential to implement immigration legislation in locations the place native officers wouldn’t cooperate with federal authorities.
Good and her companion had stopped close to federal brokers working of their south Minneapolis neighborhood after they approached her SUV. Video reveals officers ordering Good out of the automobile earlier than she reversed after which started driving ahead. Ross, who was standing close to the entrance driver’s facet of the SUV, fired three photographs.
Noem stated Ross fired “defensive photographs,” arguing Good had tried to make use of her automobile as a weapon towards him. She stated Good was engaged in an act of “home terrorism.”
However the circumstances surrounding the taking pictures have been disputed virtually instantly. Movies from the scene confirmed Good turning the steering wheel as she accelerated and didn’t clearly set up whether or not the Good’s van struck Ross.
The killing, in addition to the following deadly taking pictures of 37-year-old Alex Pretti by Customs and Border Safety brokers Raymundo Gutierrez and Jesus Ochoa, sparked widespread protests and have become a flashpoint within the Trump administration’s push for mass deportations.
An unbiased post-mortem commissioned by Good’s household later discovered three gunshot paths: one by way of her left forearm, one other by way of the correct facet of her chest and a 3rd that entered close to her left temple and exited the opposite facet of her head. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner labeled her dying as a murder, a designation indicating she died by the hands of one other particular person however not, by itself, a willpower {that a} crime occurred.
Hennepin County prosecutors, the Minnesota Bureau of Felony Apprehension and the state lawyer normal’s workplace continued investigating and finally sued the federal authorities for entry to proof, together with Good’s SUV, movies, witness interviews and information associated to the officers concerned.
After months of resistance, federal authorities turned over arduous drives containing beforehand withheld proof in July, together with Good’s bullet-damaged SUV. State investigators stated on the time that they’d begun reviewing the fabric and had not prejudged whether or not prison costs have been warranted.
Good’s household retained Chicago-based agency Romanucci & Blandin days after her dying. The legislation agency, which additionally represented George Floyd’s household, launched its personal civil investigation and despatched the federal authorities a preservation letter searching for information, video, communications and bodily proof associated to the taking pictures.
Her brother, Brent Ganger, introduced the lawsuit as trustee for her subsequent of kin, together with her three kids, mother and father and siblings. Becca Good can be a plaintiff in her personal proper. She was standing toes from the SUV when Ross fired and ran after the automobile after the taking pictures, discovering her companion with a gunshot wound to the pinnacle, based on the grievance. The lawsuit says she has since been identified with post-traumatic stress dysfunction and insomnia.
The household is searching for compensatory and punitive damages, with the quantity to be decided at trial.
Suing federal legislation enforcement officers presents authorized obstacles that usually don’t exist in instances towards native police. Claims towards the federal authorities can proceed below the Federal Tort Claims Act, which waives federal immunity for sure wrongdoing by authorities workers however imposes procedural limits and doesn’t permit punitive damages or jury trials. Lawsuits searching for damages immediately from federal officers for alleged constitutional violations have additionally been sharply restricted by a sequence of Supreme Court docket selections.
Within the months since her dying, Good’s household has tried to ensure she is remembered for greater than the circumstances of her killing. Her brothers, Luke and Brent Ganger, testified earlier than Congress in February, describing their sister as a loyal mom who was “unapologetically hopeful.”
“Her kids have been and are her coronary heart strolling round exterior her physique,” Brent Ganger stated, studying from the eulogy he delivered at her funeral. “And he or she made positive they felt secure, valued, and endlessly cherished.”
Her mother and father later described a daughter who cherished sparkles, laughter and celebrations and had just lately begun working in its place trainer. “She was gradual to anger, fast to like, fast to care,” her father, Tim Ganger, informed the Related Press. “That’s the essence of who she was.”
