Renee Good’s family has filed two federal lawsuits over her fatal shooting by an ICE officer, splitting its challenge between a wrongful-death claim and an allegation that senior officials helped create a civil-rights conspiracy. The cases, filed October 1, seek accountability through two different legal routes.
Good, 37, was shot in Minneapolis on January 7 during Operation Metro Surge. Her partner, Becca Good, was recording as federal agents confronted them beside their red SUV. Bystander video shows the vehicle turning as an officer fired. Federal officials said the officer, Jonathan Ross, acted in self-defense; the family alleges the force was unjustified and excessive.
The first suit names the United States as the sole defendant and brings wrongful-death and related claims under Minnesota law through the Federal Tort Claims Act. It seeks unspecified damages for Good’s death and the losses suffered by her family, including her three children. A judge, not a jury, would decide that case.
The second suit names Ross and officials including White House adviser Stephen Miller and former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. It alleges that the immigration operation targeted Somali and Hispanic communities and sought to silence people who protested or documented enforcement. The family invokes the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, arguing that officials conspired to interfere with civil rights, and seeks a jury trial.
That second theory could put decisions behind the operation—not only the street encounter—at issue. But the allegations are claims, not findings, and legal experts have described both cases as difficult to win. The Justice Department had not commented on the pending litigation in reports published after the filings. Neither lawsuit has been decided.