ICE

2 Lawsuits Cast Further Doubt on the Claim That ICE Agent Jonathan Ross Killed Renée Good in Self-Defense

According to complaints filed by Good's family, Ross was not in any danger when he fired three shots into her car.

Jacob Sullum | 10.2.2026 4:30 PM

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Renee Good (Aashish Kiphayet/Zuma Press/Newscom/Ruhuntn/Dreamstime)

Jonathan Ross, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent who fatally shot Minneapolis protester Renée Good on January 7, was not in any danger when he fired three rounds into the Honda Pilot she was driving, according to a pair of federal lawsuits that her brother and widow filed on Thursday. Nor was he responding to a threat that Good posed to anyone else, say the plaintiffs, who allege that Ross violated the Fourth Amendment and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) policies by using deadly force in circumstances that did not justify it.

Based on video recorded by witnesses, we already had reason to doubt the assertion that Good "weaponize[d] her vehicle" and "attempted to run a law enforcement officer over," as Kristi Noem, then the DHS secretary, averred the day after the shooting. It also seemed clear that Ross and other ICE agents at the scene disregarded widely accepted traffic stop guidelines and flouted DHS use-of-force rules. But the lawsuits add new details that, if accurate, further undermine the claim that Ross acted in self-defense.

The plaintiffs in both cases are Brent Ganger, Good's brother, and Rebecca Good, her domestic partner. One lawsuit seeks damages from the U.S. government under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). The second lawsuit relies on the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, which covers conspiracies to deprive people of "equal privileges and immunities under the laws" or "the equal protection of the laws," and Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics, a 1971 Supreme Court decision that recognized a cause of action for violations of Fourth Amendment rights. The defendants in the second lawsuit include Ross, 10 unnamed colleagues, Noem, and several other federal officials.

The complaints, which were filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, tell the same basic story. Renée and Rebecca Good were on their way home after dropping Renée's 6-year-old son off at school on a Wednesday morning when they encountered immigration agents deployed as part of President Donald Trump's deportation campaign. Renée stopped the car on Portland Avenue between 33rd and 34th streets and began "honking her horn to alert her neighbors to ICE's presence," the FTCA complaint says, while Rebecca "got out and began to film the agents with her cell phone." Although the Honda Pilot was partially blocking Portland Avenue, "numerous vehicles, including the unmarked Chevrolet Tahoe driven by [Ross], drove around their stopped car without incident."

When Ross got out of his SUV, he was holding his cellphone, which he used to record the scene as he walked around the car. That video shows Renée Good seated in the driver's seat, smiling and talking calmly through an open window. "That's fine, dude," Good assures Ross, apparently referring to the fact that he is recording her. "I'm not mad at you. I'm not mad at any of you." Within two minutes, Good was mortally wounded.

When two other ICE agents pulled up on the other side of Good's car, she waved, indicating that they should "just go around." They did not want to do that. Instead, "they got out of their truck, and one of them shouted, 'Out of the car. Get out of the fucking car.'" Apparently........

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