‘Poet, writer, wife, mom’: who was Renee Nicole Good, the woman killed by an ICE agent?
Good, 37, had moved to Minneapolis last year from Missouri, loved to sing and won an award for her poetry
On January 7, 2026, Renée Nicole Macklin Good, a 37-year-old US citizen, was fatally shot by a United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Good was in her car at the scene of an ongoing ICE operation when she was approached by agents who, according to an eyewitness, gave conflicting orders. As Good began to leave the scene, an agent reached in the driver side window. A separate agent fired three shots and killed Good as the vehicle moved forward.
Federal officials and President Donald Trump defended the shooting, saying the agent acted in self-defense and that Good had attempted to run him over. This account has been contested by eyewitnesses, journalists' analysis of video footage, local figures, and Democratic Party lawmakers, the latter of whom have called for a criminal investigation. Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota governor Tim Walz called on the federal government to end their presence in the city. Thousands of people have protested in Minneapolis, and more have protested in other cities including Chicago, New York City, and Washington, D.C.
Renee Nicole Good, the woman killed by a federal immigration agent in Minneapolis on Wednesday, and portrayed by the Trump administration as a “domestic terrorist”, was an “affectionate” mother of three children who had recently moved to Minnesota, and had won an award for poetry.
“Renee was one of the kindest people I’ve ever known,” her mother, Donna Ganger, told the Minnesota Star Tribune.
“She was extremely compassionate. She’s taken care of people all her life. She was loving, forgiving and affectionate. She was an amazing human being.”
Good, 37, was born in Colorado and had no criminal record or experienced previous law enforcement engagement beyond a traffic ticket, records show.
She described herself on social media as a “poet and writer and wife and mom”, with a 15-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son from her first marriage, and a six-year-old son from her second.
According to her Instagram account, which features a Pride flag emoji, she was “experiencing Minneapolis” after moving from Kansas City, Missouri, last year. Her Pinterest profile shows her smiling and holding a young child against her cheek, along with posts about tattoos, hairstyles and home decorating.
Her ex-husband, who asked not to be named out of concern for the safety of their children, told the Associated Press that Good had just dropped off her youngest son at school on Wednesday and was driving home with her partner when they encountered a group of ICE agents on a snowy street.
He said she was not an activist, and had not taken part in any kind of protest that he was aware of. He said she was a devoted Christian who took part in youth mission trips to Northern Ireland when she was younger. She loved to sing, participating in a chorus in high school and studying vocal performance in college, he said.
She studied creative writing at Old Dominion University in Virginia, according to a post on the school’s English department Facebook page. The university’s president, Brian Hemphill, paid tribute to her in a statement.
“It is with great sadness that Old Dominion University mourns the loss of one of our own, Renee (Macklin) Good, a proud Monarch who graduated in December of 2020 from the College of Arts and Letters with a degree in English. Following Renee’s tragic killing, our thoughts and prayers are with her family, friends, loved ones, and the Monarch Nation.
“May Renee’s life be a reminder of what unites us: freedom, love, and peace. My hope is for compassion, healing, and reflection at a time that is becoming one of the darkest and most uncertain periods in our nation’s history.”
While at Old Dominion, she won an Academy of American Poets prize in 2020 for a work titled On Learning to Dissect Fetal Pigs, and hosted a podcast with her second husband, who died in 2023.
Her ex-husband said she had primarily been a stay-at-home mother in recent years, but had previously worked as a dental assistant and at a credit union.
Several of her friends and neighbors attended a vigil in Minneapolis on Wednesday night. Mary Radford told the Star Tribune she lived next door to Good and saw her and her young son often.
“It’s a beautiful family. They have a son. He’s very sweet. He loves our dog. He always has to go run up and pet and play with her,” Radford said. “They’re always outside playing. We’re gonna miss seeing them – forever.”
Minneapolis Public Schools cancelled class for the remainder of the week, citing safety concerns after the shooting and ICE's use of pepper spray and pepper balls against students at Roosevelt High School. Faculty at the high school said that armed ICE officers had handcuffed two members of the staff.
Good's death occurred about one mile (1.6 km) from the location where George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in 2020, which sparked worldwide protests over police brutality and racial justice. Good's killing drew a crowd of hundreds of protestors to the location. Federal law enforcement fired tear gas and pepper spray in Minneapolis, and some protestors threw snowballs. At a press conference, Governor Walz announced he had begun preparing the Minnesota National Guard. By the evening, the crowd at the location where Good was killed grew to thousands, including members of the Minneapolis City Council. Protestors also gathered in many other cities across the country.
On January 8, a crowd of people barricaded the street in Minneapolis where Good was killed to hold a vigil in her memory. City workers removed the barricades shortly after, but preserved a memorial established. More protests occurred elsewhere, including in Buffalo, Chapel Hill, Durham, Kansas City, and Los Angeles.
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