The killing of a woman in Minneapolis by a federal immigration officer on January 7, 2026, was unjustifiable, Human Rights Watch said today. Three videos of the incident shared on social media, verified by Human Rights Watch and media outlets, clearly contradict federal officials' claims that the woman "weaponized her vehicle" or attempted to kill officers before an agent opened fire.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers confronted the 37-year-old US citizen, Renee Nicole Good, on a residential street in south Minneapolis, which a witness said Good was blocking with her car. As Good attempted to drive away from the officers, one shot her three times at close range. A statement by Good's wife in a local media outlet indicated the two had been alerting neighbors of ICE's presence. "We had whistles," the statement said. "They had guns."
"Over the past year, ICE and other federal agents have been abusing immigrant communities across the United States with impunity," said Ida Sawyer, crisis, conflict and arms director at Human Rights Watch. "This horrific incident is the latest sign that their abusive tactics put lives at risk, including people not subject to immigration enforcement."
Human Rights Watch analyzed three videos of the shooting and one of the immediate aftermath and reviewed four witness accounts on local media outlets.
In a video shared on social media by a Minnesota Reformer reporter and later published by NBC News, Good is in the driver's seat of a burgundy Honda Pilot, stationary in the middle of the road, as unmarked vehicles attempt to pass. Good appears to signal at them to go around. One vehicle does, and she signals for a second vehicle to pass, but it stops perpendicular to Good's car. Two officers get out and walk toward Good, shouting: "Get out of the car."
One of them tries to open the driver's seat door by grabbing the handle and then reaching inside the window. A third officer approaches from the passenger side. Good briefly reverses in an apparent attempt to get away from the officers. The third officer walks to the driver's side as Good begins to turn and drive in the opposite direction of the officers. Pulling out his gun, the third officer fires three shots in short succession at eye level, first through the windshield, then through the driver's seat window. Good's car speeds up and crashes into a parked car a short distance away.
A second video of the incident, filmed by the shooting officer, shows Good turning her steering wheel and accelerating away from the officers. Good and her vehicle are then out of frame as the officer fires his gun. A third video of the incident is consistent with this analysis, showing Good's vehicle pulling away from the officers as gunshots are heard.
Video analysis shows that when the shots were fired, the officer could not have reasonably feared death or serious physical injury.
In another video filmed afterward, a bystander standing across the street of Good's car asks: "Can I go check a pulse? I'm a physician." One officer refuses. Good can be seen, still inside the vehicle, bloodied and motionless, while several officers stand around the vehicle without making an apparent effort to provide immediate medical support.
The Minneapolis city government reported that police officers who responded to the incident found Good with "life-threatening gunshot wounds" and Minneapolis firefighters provided medical attention until paramedics arrived. Two witnesses told media that the ICE vehicles parked in the street impeded the ambulance, forcing paramedics to reach Good on foot from the end of the block. The city government reported that Good later died in the hospital.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) quickly issued a statement claiming that Good tried to kill ICE officers with her vehicle in "an act of domestic terrorism." This account is entirely inconsistent with any reasonable analysis of the video footage, Human Rights Watch said.
Good's killing comes amid increased deployment of federal immigration officers to Minneapolis.
Thousands of people gathered at a vigil on the night of January 7 to honor Good's memory and protest ICE's presence in Minneapolis. The shooting has sparked demonstrations in other cities, including New York, San Francisco, Chicago, and Seattle.
Good's killing fits a broader pattern of incidents involving the use of firearms under questionable circumstances during immigration enforcement operations, Human Rights Watch said. On December 24, 2025, an ICE officer shot Tiago Alexandre Sousa-Martins in his vehicle in Glen Burnie, Maryland, causing him to crash. DHS claimed that Sousa-Martins had "weaponized his vehicle," ramming into ICE vehicles and driving it "directly at ICE officers." While footage of the shooting has not circulated, a local police statement calls DHS's account into question, asserting that a second man injured in the crash was not a passenger in Sousa-Martins' car, as DHS said, but was instead injured while detained in an ICE vehicle.
In October, in Chicago, a Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agent shot Marimar Martinez five times. The next day, Martinez was criminally charged and accused of striking a CBP vehicle with her car, but the case was dismissed. In September, an ICE officer shot Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez near Chicago, claiming he "drove his car at law enforcement officers." But CCTV footage does not show his car driving at or hitting law enforcement officers.
Justice Department policy explicitly prohibits law enforcement officers from discharging firearms "solely to disable moving vehicles." Even when a "vehicle is operated in a manner that threatens to cause death or serious physical injury," an officer may not discharge a firearm if they can reasonably avoid the harm, including by "moving out of the path of the vehicle." Under international human rights standards, law enforcement officers can only intentionally use lethal force "when strictly unavoidable to protect life." These standards also establish that law enforcement should ensure that injured people receive medical aid as soon as possible.
Human Rights Watch has documented other incidents of government agents' excessive use of force against immigrants and people protesting increased raids and detentions since the Trump administration launched its violent immigration enforcement campaign last year. These abuses are compounded when law enforcement obscure their identity with face coverings, which has become a widespread practice among federal immigration enforcement agents and creates a barrier to accountability.
The Trump administration has dismantled key oversight mechanisms for DHS, including the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL), which could investigate an unlawful shooting by ICE but has had its capacity decimated through drastic staffing cuts.
On January 7, the Minneapolis police chief said that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), a criminal investigation agency within the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, would jointly investigate the shooting. However, the following day, BCA reported that it was closing its investigation after the FBI said it would no longer allow BCA access to evidence, and would instead lead the investigation alone.
Local and federal authorities should support one another's efforts to thoroughly and impartially investigate Good's killing, Human Rights Watch said. In the absence of strong internal DHS oversight mechanisms, the congressional DHS committees should hold oversight hearings.
"Good's death is a horrifying example of the dangers posed by law enforcement agencies that have been empowered to act recklessly and sends a threatening and potentially chilling message to immigrants, protesters, and bystanders alike," Sawyer said. "The authorities should investigate the killing publicly and thoroughly and ensure that justice is done."
