The death of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good has ignited a firestorm of grief, outrage, and nationwide protests after newly released body-camera and bystander footage appeared to show an ICE agent firing multiple rounds through the windshield of her vehicle, killing her almost instantly. What began as a routine traffic stop in a quiet residential neighborhood of Minneapolis on the afternoon of January 21, 2026, ended in seconds of terror captured on video: Renee — a mother of three young children, award-winning poet, community organizer, and vocal advocate for immigrant rights — pulling slowly away from the curb before a hail of gunfire shattered the glass and ended her life.
Witnesses and family members say Renee had just picked up her youngest child from daycare and was only three blocks from home when she was flagged down by an unmarked vehicle. According to preliminary accounts released by the Minnesota Department of Public Safety and ICE’s Office of Professional Responsibility, the agent — identified as 32-year-old Special Agent Daniel Torres — believed the vehicle matched the description of a car linked to a recent human-smuggling investigation. When Renee failed to stop immediately after the agent activated emergency lights (which were not clearly visible on the unmarked SUV according to video analysis), Torres exited his vehicle, drew his service weapon, and fired at least seven rounds as Renee began to accelerate away.
The footage, first leaked by an anonymous source and later officially released by authorities under mounting public pressure, shows the sequence in devastating clarity: Renee’s hands visible on the steering wheel, her young child visible in the back seat, the agent stepping into the roadway, muzzle flashes, glass exploding inward, the vehicle drifting to a stop against a parked car. Bystander video captures screams, the child’s cries, and neighbors rushing toward the SUV before police arrived and cordoned off the scene. Renee was pronounced dead at the scene from multiple gunshot wounds to the chest and neck. Her three-year-old daughter, seated in a rear booster seat, was physically unharmed but taken to hospital for evaluation.
Renee Nicole Good was no stranger to public attention — but never for something like this. A celebrated poet whose collection “Borders of Breath” won the 2024 National Book Critics Circle Award for poetry, she was also a fierce community advocate in Minneapolis’s North Side. She had spent years documenting ICE raids, volunteering with legal-aid clinics, and speaking at rallies against family separations at the border. Friends say she was fearless but careful — always aware of the risks that came with her visibility. “She knew the system saw people like her as threats,” said longtime collaborator Aisha Coleman. “She still kept showing up.”
Within hours of her death, protests erupted in Minneapolis, spreading overnight to Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Houston, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. Demonstrators carried signs reading “Justice for Renee,” “ICE Murders Again,” and “Her Words Were Not a Crime.” In several cities, clashes occurred between marchers and police after attempts to block major intersections or approach federal buildings. By the evening of January 23, more than 40 arrests had been reported nationwide, though most protests remained peaceful.
The White House issued a brief statement expressing condolences and calling for a “swift, transparent investigation.” ICE Director Sarah Saldaña called the incident “deeply troubling” and placed Agent Torres on administrative leave pending review. Torres, a six-year veteran of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division, has not made a public statement. His attorney released a short message asserting that the agent “feared for his life and the life of the child in the vehicle” and acted in accordance with training.
Civil rights organizations, including the ACLU, NAACP, and United We Dream, have demanded an independent federal investigation, the immediate release of all body-camera and dash-camera footage, and the suspension of Torres without pay. They argue the shooting fits a pattern of excessive force by immigration enforcement officers, especially against Black and Brown individuals. Renee, who was Black and Latina, had written extensively about the intersection of race, immigration enforcement, and state violence.
Renee’s wife, Becca Larson-Good, spoke briefly outside Hennepin County Medical Center, where their youngest child was being monitored. Visibly exhausted, she said: “She was driving home with our baby. That’s all she was doing. Driving home. And now our children have to grow up without her because someone decided her life wasn’t worth the seconds it would have taken to de-escalate.” She asked for privacy for the family and urged supporters to focus energy on peaceful demonstrations and policy change.
Funeral arrangements are pending while the investigation continues. A memorial service is planned for early February at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis — a venue where Renee had performed her work multiple times. In the meantime, vigils continue nightly outside the Minneapolis ICE field office, with thousands expected to gather this weekend for a national day of action called “No More Blood on These Borders.”
Renee Nicole Good’s final moments were captured in brutal clarity: a mother trying to get home, a burst of gunfire, a vehicle drifting to a stop. What remains unclear — and what has set the nation ablaze — is whether those shots were justified or whether they represent yet another preventable tragedy in America’s long, fraught relationship with immigration enforcement. As protests swell and demands for accountability grow louder, one truth is already undeniable: her voice, so powerful in life, has become thunder in death.
