By Jonathan Allen
Oct 1 (Reuters) – The family of Renee Good, one of two US citizens fatally shot by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis in January, sued the Trump administration on Thursday, saying there had been “no accountability” for her killing during deportation sweeps.
Good, 37, was shot dead in her car by a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent on January 7 when she and her wife joined one of the city’s daily protests against masked and armed federal agents deployed to Minnesota to arrest migrants for deportation.
The two lawsuits accuse Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who shot Good, and senior Trump administration officials of unconstitutional negligence and excessive force that violated the civil rights of Good and others in Minneapolis, demanding a jury trial and damages. They are among the first major civil actions taken against US President Donald Trump for his unprecedented deportation sweeps in Minneapolis last winter, dubbed Operation Metro Surge.
“What happened to Renee was completely senseless and the fact that there’s been no accountability, no investigation, no expression of condolence, no change in policy is completely mind-blowing,” Brett Ganger, Good’s brother, said at a press conference in Minneapolis. “What happened to America? Something must change now.”
Ross could not be reached for comment on Thursday, while a White House spokeswoman called the lawsuits baseless.
Good’s killing intensified the backlash in Minnesota and beyond against the sweeps, involving thousands of immigration agents deployed to street patrols in Minnesota. Trump ended the Minnesota surge in February, but says his anti-immigration policies are needed for the safety of native-born Americans.
Days after Good’s death, an ICE agent shot and wounded Julio Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan delivery driver, in the leg, and two weeks later immigration agents fatally shot Alex Pretti, an American nurse working for the US Department of Veterans Affairs.
Senior Trump administration officials initially branded Good a “domestic terrorist” and the Department of Justice stopped its federal prosecutors in Minneapolis from investigating the agents involved in her killing, prompting at least half a dozen of those prosecutors to resign in protest. None of the agents involved has yet faced any charges.
The lawsuits describe Good as a poet and mother of three children, and that she and her wife, Becca Good, dropped their 6-year-old son off at school before stopping her car in the middle of Portland Avenue after seeing patrolling ICE agents.
“Renee honked her horn to warn her neighbors,” according to the lawsuits. “Her partner got out and began to film. Renee stayed behind the wheel. She was not the target of any investigation, and she was breaking no law that any federal officer had authority to enforce.”
Becca Good, in her first public remarks, said of her wife: “She was pure love. She was funny. She was smart. She was gorgeous.”
“Renee believed in something simple: that being good can change the world,” she said. “She believed everyone deserves love and compassion, care and dignity, no matter who they were or where they came from.”
Lauren Bis, a White House spokeswoman, said the administration would “vigorously defend” itself against the lawsuits.
“The Trump administration views the deaths of countless innocent Americans at the hands of criminal illegal aliens as a tragedy that should warrant equal coverage from the mainstream media who choose to ignore these victims of illegal alien crime,” she said in a statement.
‘I’M NOT MAD AT YOU’
Good’s killing was captured on widely viewed videos that showed Ross approaching Good in her car partly blocking the road moments after he had driven past her. Ross circled her car on foot, recording on his cellphone.
In her last words, Good can be seen on video saying to Ross: “That’s fine, dude, I’m not mad at you.”
Moments later, another ICE agent approached the car and told Good to get out. She can be seen reversing briefly, then putting the car into forward gear and turning the steering wheel to her right, apparently trying to drive away.
As the car moves forward, Ross, who at that point had returned to the front left of her car, shouts “Whoa!” and shoots into the car, hitting Good three times: in her head, arm and torso.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, the chief elected prosecutor in Minneapolis, is investigating the agents who killed Good and Pretti for possible violations of Minnesota law. The investigations have been slowed because the Justice Department withdrew its usual cooperation and evidence-sharing with local law enforcement agencies. Minnesota has sued the Trump administration to gain access to the evidence it gathered at the shooting scenes.
Ross has not publicly discussed Good’s death or his actions that day. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE and related agencies, has defended the conduct of Ross and other immigration officers as justified uses of force in dangerous situations.
(Reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York; Editing by Ed Klamann and Mark Porter)
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