An online campaign meant to financially support the family of Renee Nicole Good – the US woman shot to death Wednesday by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent – raised more than $1.5m before organizers closed it Friday.
“Thank you. Thank you. Thank you,” said the page of the GoFundMe campaign benefiting Good’s family, which also explained the money raised would be placed in a trust. “We are here brokenhearted and in awe of your generosity.”
The campaign’s initial goal was $50,000. In a substantial show of public support, the campaign – verified by GoFundMe as legitimate – had generated more than 30 times that amount when it was closed Friday. Contributions came from roughly 38,500 donors who were asked on the fundraising platform to “support the widow and family of Renee Good as they grapple with the devastating loss of their wife and mother”.
“Renee was pure sunshine, pure love,” a message from the fundraiser’s organizers said. “She will be desperately missed.”
Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was shot to death as she tried to drive her car away from federal agents conducting an immigration sweep in Minneapolis at the behest of the Trump administration. Video taken by the agent who shot Good showed her saying everything was “fine” and “I’m not mad at you” while he approached and she was behind the wheel of a car stopped across a street.
Then a different ICE officer demanded she open her door and grabbed its handle. Good began pulling forward to drive away and slowly brushed the first officer, who was easily able to retain his balance.
The officer at that point shot Good multiple times, fatally wounding her while a voice on video is heard saying: “Fucking bitch.”
The ICE agent who killed Good has been identified as Jonathan E Ross. In June, he had been dragged by a vehicle while participating in the arrest of an undocumented immigrant with an open ICE detainer and a criminal conviction for sexually assaulting his 16-year-old stepdaughter in 2022.
Minnesota officials and residents have sharply rebuked the Trump administration’s narrative that Good was engaging in domestic terrorism when Ross killed her. Notably, Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey implored ICE to “get the fuck out” of the city. Some congressional Democrats have threatened to withhold funding for the Department of Homeland Security that contains ICE.
Thousands have protested near the site of Good’s killing, which was less than a mile from where Minneapolis police murdered George Floyd in plain view of a cellphone camera five years earlier, igniting worldwide protests.
Good’s widow, Rebecca Good, who witnessed her wife’s killing, published a statement on the GoFundMe saying “the kindness of strangers is the most fitting tribute” for Renee. Rebecca Good said she and her wife were supporting their neighbors amid the ICE sweep at the time of Renee’s killing.
“We were raising our son to believe that no matter where you come from or what you look like, all of us deserve compassion and kindness,” Rebecca Good’s statement said. “Renee lived this belief every day.”
