Wife of ICE shooting victim Renee Nicole Good speaks out and confirms couple were protesting when spouse was killed
SOURCE:Daily Mail
Her widow Rebecca Good has spoken out for the first time since the 37-year-old was killed by ICE agent Jonathan 'Jon' Ross.
Renee Nicole Good was protesting against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids when she was shot dead, her heartbroken widow has revealed.
Rebecca Good has spoken out for the first time since the 37-year-old was killed by ICE agent Jonathan 'Jon' Ross two days ago.
'We stopped to support our neighbors. We had whistles. They had guns,' Rebecca, 40, said Friday in a statement to MPR News.
She highlighted Good's Christian faith, and they were raising their six-year-old son to 'believe that no matter where you come from or what you look like, all of us deserve compassion and kindness.'
'Renee lived this belief every day. She is pure love. She is pure joy. She is pure sunshine,' Rebecca added.
Good, 37, was shot three times in Minneapolis on Wednesday afternoon for allegedly ignoring officers' demands to get out of her car.
Newly released video filmed on Ross's cellphone showed how Good and Rebecca seemingly taunted the officer in the lead up to the deadly shooting.
The couple are understood to have been part of a community watch group that was actively resisting ICE.
Rebecca Good has spoken out for the first time since her 37-year-old wife Renee Nicole Good was killed by ICE agent Jonathan 'Jon' Ross two days ago
The footage allegedly recorded by ICE agent Jonathan 'Jon' Ross shows how Renee Nicole Good (seen in her car) and her wife apparently taunted ICE agents before the fatal shooting
Rebecca's statement seemingly confirmed the Trump administration's claim that the couple were participating in a protest against the planned detention of Somali migrants in the area.
Witnesses have claimed Good and Rebecca were acting as legal observers and filming the protest.
Rebecca, in harrowing footage captured at the scene, admitted she encouraged Good to confront agents. 'I made her come down here, it's my fault,' she cried.
The couple moved to Minnesota last year, after a brief stint in Canada. They are understood to have fled the US after Donald Trump was elected.
Rebecca said Friday that the pair 'moved to make a better life for ourselves.'
'What we found when we got here was a vibrant and welcoming community, we made friends and spread joy,' she said of their relocation to Minneapolis.
'And while any place we were together was home, there was a strong shared sense here in Minneapolis that we were looking out for each other. Here, I had finally found peace and safe harbor. That has been taken from me forever.'
Her wife, Rebecca Good, 40, can be heard urging Ross to 'show his face' as she asks him 'you want to come at us?'
Ross shot Good six months after he was dragged 100 yards by a car in a separate incident
She noted how Good leaves behind three 'extraordinary children,' including her youngest who is six years old and now an orphan.
Her second husband and the boy's father, Timothy Macklin, died in May 2023.
'I am now left to raise our son and to continue teaching him, as Renee believed, that there are people building a better world for him. That the people who did this had fear and anger in their hearts, and we need to show them a better way,' Rebecca added.
Good's friends told The New York Post that the mother-of-three was part of a network of activists who were actively resisting ICE.
The group, coordinated through the six-year-old son's charter school, has publicly boasted of having a 'social justice first' approach to learning and 'involving kids in political and social activism'.
Ross has been branded a 'murderer' by furious Democrats but has enjoyed the full support of the Trump administration, who argue he acted in self-defense when it appeared Good intended to run him down with her car.
His cell phone video showed Good smiling at Ross while sitting in her Honda Pilot on Wednesday afternoon and saying, 'That's fine dude. I'm not mad,' in a video shot by the officer that was obtained by Minnesota outlet Alpha News on Friday.
Rebecca could be heard urging the agent to 'show his face' as she asks him, 'You want to come at us?'
'You want to come at us? I say go get yourself some lunch big boy,' Rebecca said, with her own cellphone in hand. 'Go ahead.'
New surveillance video shows how about 20 seconds after Good's maroon Honda Pilot pulled up to the street, a passenger - believed to be Rebecca - exited the vehicle
This is the moment a federal agent pulled at the door of Good's SUV, allegedly ordering her to exit the vehicle. Officials said she ignored their demands
Good was shot three times in the face at a protest in Minneapolis and died at the scene
As the tension mounted on the Minneapolis street, Good was told to get out of the car but ignored the order. She began revving the engine and drove off.
Rebecca can be heard shouting 'drive baby, drive' as Ross's camera jerked. It is unclear if he was struck by the car or jumped to get out of its way.
Ross fired three shots, including one through the front windshield of the Honda, which struck and killed Good. An agent is heard calling Good a 'f***ing b***h' as shots rang out.
The cellphone footage was unveiled just hours after surveillance footage was released, showing how Good apparently blocked the road with her SUV for four minutes before she was shot dead.
The video shows how about 20 seconds after the mother of three's maroon Honda Pilot pulled up to the street, a passenger - believed to be her wife Rebecca Good - exited the vehicle and eventually began filming.
Good then repositioned the SUV, seemingly blocking the street. The grainy video, however, shows that other cars were still able to pass around her.
Ross then arrived on the scene and was quickly joined by other federal agents who surrounded Good's vehicle.
A federal agent began to grab at her door, allegedly ordering her to get out of the SUV. Good seemingly pulled the car forward and Ross fired three shots at her in quick succession, before she drove off.
Good was part of a network of activists coordinated through her six-year-old son's charter school who were actively resisting ICE, according to her friends
Rebecca, in a harrowing video captured at the scene, admitted that she encouraged her wife to confront agents. She said: 'I made her come down here, it's my fault'
The remains of Renee Nicole Good's SUV with a bloodied airbag after she was rushed to hospital on Wednesday
Neither of the newly released videos show the immediate aftermath of the deadly shooting in which Good lost control at the wheel and crashed.
There is speculation that Rebecca, who admitted to bringing her spouse to the anti-ICE protest, exited the car so she could begin filming any potential clash with federal agents. She was seen wielding her camera during Ross's confrontation with her wife but it is unclear when she first started to record.
The previous incident in which Officer Ross was dragged by a car took place in Bloomington, Minnesota, and the officer suffered a serious injury to his right arm, which required 20 stitches.
The Trump administration has repeatedly characterized the shooting as an act of self-defense and cast Good as a villain, suggesting she used her vehicle as a weapon to attack the officer who shot her.
Vice President JD Vance said the shooting was justified and Good was a 'victim of left-wing ideology.'
'I can believe that her death is a tragedy while also recognizing that it is a tragedy of her own making,' Vance said, noting that the officer who killed her was injured while making an arrest last June.
But state and local officials and protesters rejected that characterization, with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey saying video recordings show the self-defense argument is 'garbage.'
Widow's full statement on ICE agent killing of Renee Nicole Good
Rebecca Good issued a statement Friday addressing the death of her wife Renee Nicole Good.
Good, 37, was shot dead by ICE agent Jonathan 'Jon' Ross on Wednesday.
Speaking out for the first time Friday, Rebecca said in a statement to Minnesota Public Radio:
'First, I want to extend my gratitude to all the people who have reached out from across the country and around the world to support our family.
'This kindness of strangers is the most fitting tribute because if you ever encountered my wife, Renee Nicole Macklin Good, you know that above all else, she was kind. In fact, kindness radiated out of her.
'Renee sparkled. She literally sparkled. I mean, she didn’t wear glitter but I swear she had sparkles coming out of her pores. All the time. You might think it was just my love talking but her family said the same thing. Renee was made of sunshine.
'Renee lived by an overarching belief: there is kindness in the world and we need to do everything we can to find it where it resides and nurture it where it needs to grow. Renee was a Christian who knew that all religions teach the same essential truth: we are here to love each other, care for each other, and keep each other safe and whole.
'Like people have done across place and time, we moved to make a better life for ourselves. We chose Minnesota to make our home. Our whole extended road trip here, we held hands in the car while our son drew all over the windows to pass the time and the miles.
'What we found when we got here was a vibrant and welcoming community, we made friends and spread joy. And while any place we were together was home, there was a strong shared sense here in Minneapolis that we were looking out for each other. Here, I had finally found peace and safe harbor. That has been taken from me forever.
'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. Renee lived this belief every day. She is pure love. She is pure joy. She is pure sunshine.
'On Wednesday, January 7th, we stopped to support our neighbors. We had whistles. They had guns.
'Renee leaves behind three extraordinary children; the youngest is just six years old and already lost his father. I am now left to raise our son and to continue teaching him, as Renee believed, that there are people building a better world for him. That the people who did this had fear and anger in their hearts, and we need to show them a better way.
'We thank you for the privacy you are granting our family as we grieve. We thank you for ensuring that Renee’s legacy is one of kindness and love. We honor her memory by living her values: rejecting hate and choosing compassion, turning away from fear and pursuing peace, refusing division and knowing we must come together to build a world where we all come home safe to the people we love.'