(NewsNation) — Renee Nicole Macklin Good, 37, has been identified by her mother as the woman who was shot and killed by a federal immigration officer Wednesday in Minneapolis.
Donna Ganger told the Minnesota Star Tribune her daughter wasn’t “part of anything like that at all,” in reference to protesters challenging Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, and called her killing “so stupid.”
“Renee was one of the kindest people I’ve ever known,” Ganger told the outlet. “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.”
Macklin Good was a mother of three who’d recently moved to Minneapolis from Kansas City, Missouri. A self-described “poet and writer and wife and mom,” she was a U.S. citizen born in Colorado, according to the Associated Press.
She’d previously gone by Renee Macklin, but filed a name change petition in Missouri in October 2023, saying she wanted to “share a name with my partner,” NewsNation affiliate WDAF reported.
Macklin Good had just dropped off her 6-year-old son at school and was driving back home with her current partner when she encountered the group of ICE officers Wednesday.
Details of exactly what led to the fatal shooting remain unclear, with federal agents giving a separate account of events from what city and state officials are saying happened.
Video shows fatal ICE-involved shooting in Minneapolis
Footage from Minneapolis shows the moment the federal immigration agent fatally shot Macklin Good during an encounter that Minnesota lawmakers say paints a different picture than the Department of Homeland Security’s account of the incident.
In one video from the scene taken by bystanders, a car is positioned in front of an ICE vehicle. The driver can be heard telling officers to “go around.” One agent approaches and says, “Get out of the f—ing car,” while attempting to open the driver’s door.
At that point, three officers surround the car, with one standing directly in front. The driver reverses briefly, then accelerates forward. As the vehicle turns right and attempts to move forward, the officer who had been in front shifts to the left side and fires three shots in rapid succession as the car pulls away and crashes into other vehicles.
Local authorities found the woman with a gunshot wound to the head; she was later pronounced dead at a local hospital, the police chief said.
ICE officer ‘fired defensive shots’: DHS
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin confirmed Macklin Good died after being shot by an ICE officer after the agency said she attempted to run over federal agents with her vehicle.
“An ICE officer, fearing for his life, the lives of his fellow law enforcement and the safety of the public, fired defensive shots,” McLaughlin said. “He used his training and saved his own life and that of his fellow officers.”
McLaughlin described the protesters as “violent rioters” and called Macklin Good’s actions an “act of domestic terrorism.”
DHS narrative is ‘garbage’: Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey
Minneapolis’ Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey dismissed the federal agency’s explanation in a news conference held shortly after Macklin Good’s death was announced. He said DHS officials are trying to “spin” the incident as self-defense.
“I want to tell you …that is bull—-,” Frey said, calling it a ”garbage narrative … it has no truth.”
“We do not want you here. Your stated reason for being here in this city was to create some kind of safety, and you are doing exactly the opposite,” Frey said in reference to the deployment of federal agents in Minnesota.
“People are being hurt, families are being ripped apart, longtime Minneapolis residents who have contributed so greatly are being terrorized, and now someone is dead. That’s on you.”
Renee Good was a ‘professional agitator’: Trump
President Donald Trump characterized Macklin Good on social media as a “professional agitator” who was “very disorderly, obstructing and resisting” who then “violently, willfully and visciously” ran over the ICE officer.
“Based on the attached clip, it is hard to believe he is alive,” Trump wrote. “The situation is being studied, in its entirety, but the reason these incidents are happening is because the Radical Left is threatening, assaulting, and targeting our Law Enforcement Officers and ICE Agents on a daily basis. They are just trying to do the job of MAKING AMERICA SAFE. We need to stand by and protect our Law Enforcement Officers from this Radical Left Movement of Violence and Hate!”
‘Don’t believe this propaganda machine’: Gov. Tim Walz
In the wake of the shooting, Minnesota’s Democratic Gov. Tim Walz wrote on social media that the “state will ensure there is a full, fair, and expeditious investigation to ensure accountability and justice.”
“I’ve seen the video,” Walz wrote. “Don’t believe this (DHS) propaganda machine.”
At a news conference, Walz criticized DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and other officials for characterizing Macklin Good as an agitator who intentionally tried to kill federal agents with her vehicle.
Walz also said local officials did not hear from DHS that 2,000 federal agents and officers were being sent to Minneapolis before they arrived.
“We’re not living in a normal world,” Walz said.
‘Callous actions led to the killing of a legal observer’: Rep. Ilhan Omar
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., issued a statement describing ICE’s actions as “unconscionable and reprehensible” and Macklin Good as a “legal observer.”
“This administration has shown, yet again, that it does not care about the safety of Minnesotans. Instead of protecting our communities, they are unleashing violence – terrorizing neighborhoods and now killing a civilian,” Omar said.
Minneapolis police chief ‘very concerned’
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said there was nothing to suggest Macklin Good was being targeted by federal immigration officers. O’Hara had previously expressed concern about the tactics used by federal law enforcement officers and agents.
“I am obviously very concerned that I have been told that a woman who was sitting in her car blocking the street and not the target of any enforcement activity is now deceased,” O’Hara said, adding that he did not have direct knowledge of the specific details of the shooting.
The FBI and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension will be conducting the investigation, the police chief said.
“This is obviously a very, very tragic situation where a woman has lost her life,” O’Hara added.