Renee Good’s Family Files Civil Suits Against US Government 

The family of Renee Good has filed two separate civil suits against the United States government over her shooting death by a federal immigration agent earlier this year. 

The New York Times reports that the first civil suit names ICE Agent Jonathan Ross, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, along with several others, alleging a “conspiracy to interfere with civil rights by senior federal officials, federal immigration enforcement agents, and private actors.” 

Earlier this year, Good was fatally shot by Ross while driving through her neighborhood and observing ICE agents. Good’s body wasn’t even cold before Noem and Miller began to publicly disparage her, framing her as a domestic terrorist who tried to run over Ross with her car. 

Anyone who sees the video of the incident and hasn’t drunk the Trump administration’s Kool-Aid can clearly see that Good was driving away from Ross when he began to fire. The suit says Ross violated ICE policies by failing to de-escalate the situation and placing himself in front of the vehicle.

“She was killed on a public street, while doing what thousands of her neighbors were doing that winter: watching masked, armed men terrorizing her community and refusing to look away,” the lawsuit says.

“The day of accountability has arrived for our own U.S. government and its governmental agencies ICE and CBP,” Antonio Romanucci, one of the attorneys representing Renee Good’s family, said at a press conference. “When government power crosses a line, there must be accountability.”

Romanucci said that a private autopsy found that the bullet hit Good’s left temple from a 90-degree angle, meaning that Ross wasn’t at risk of being hit by Good’s car when he began to fire. Brent Ganger, Good’s sister, said it took her death “for white people like me to know what it feels like to not feel safe in this country.” 

Honestly, I’m not mad at Ganger for saying the quiet part out loud. It really feels like the shootings of Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents made the brutality of the Trump administration real for white folks. 

It’s why ICE has been moving far more quietly in the wake of those shootings, but make no mistake, they are still rounding up immigrants indiscriminately. 

According to CBS News, the second suit lists the United States government as a defendant. 

From CBS News:

The … complaint names the United States as the sole defendant and alleges wrongful death under Minnesota law, citing “battery, assault, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligence that caused Renee’s death.”

According to Benjamin Berkman, an attorney with Romanucci and Blandin, the first lawsuit seeks accountability for the decisions that Ross and other agents made that day, and their choice to “violate DHS policy after DHS policy.”

The process when it comes to seeking accountability from federal agents differs from how one would seek accountability from a local law enforcement officer, explained Sarah Raisch, a partner with Romanucci’s firm. The family must file a claim under the Federal Tort Claims Act, and the government can take up to six months to decide on a response. Eventually, instead of a jury trial, the case will be decided by a judge, Raisch said.

While I hope Renee Good’s family wins their civil suits, I find it absolutely disgusting that the federal government hasn’t opened any kind of criminal investigation into the shooting. Instead, the FBI investigated her wife, Becca Good, for links to protest groups. 

So, according to the federal government, federal agents shooting an unarmed woman is fine, but exercising First Amendment rights is a cause for concern. 

SEE ALSO:

Judge Won’t Block DHS Policy Limiting Congress’s Ability To Oversee ICE

Minnesota Stages Economic Blackout To Protest ICE