FBI Agent Resigns in Protest as Trump DOJ Investigates Renee Good—Not the ICE Agent Who Killed Her
The FBI has focused its investigation on Good’s ties to activist groups as ICE agents have increasingly threatened people for filming and observing their operations.
The FBI has focused its investigation on Good’s ties to activist groups as ICE agents have increasingly threatened people for filming and observing their operations.
Candles are lit outside the US Embassy in London in memory of Renee Nicole Good, who was shot by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in the United States.
(Photo by Lab Ky Mo/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Julia Conley
Jan 24, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
A supervisor in the FBI’s Minneapolis field office became the latest official to resign over the federal law enforcement agency’s handling of the investigation into an immigration agent’s fatal shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis earlier this month.
As the New York Times reported Friday, FBI agent Tracee Mergen, acting supervisor of the office’s Public Corruption Squad, resigned after senior FBI officials in Washington pushed her to end a civil rights probe into the killing. The agency is focusing on investigating Good and her wife, who were legally observing US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, instead of determining whether ICE agent Jonathan Ross used excessive force..
An FBI source told CBS News that Mergen “would not bow to pressure” from the agency’s leaders.
Starting immediately after Good was shot three times at close range by Ross, who was one of several agents who had approached her vehicle and, according to eyewitnesses, shouted conflicting orders at her, Trump administration officials have described Good and her wife as “domestic terrorists.” They have accused her of trying to run over Ross, a claim that has not been supported by detailed analysis of footage of the killing.
Federal prosecutors have refused to allow authorities in Minnesota to conduct a probe into the killing, and Harmeet Dhillon, the Trump administration’s assistant attorney general for civil rights, announced days after Good was killed that the US Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Civil Rights Division would not be investigating—which would ordinarily be a standard step in a shooting involving a federal law enforcement agent. That decision led four top officials in Dhillon’s office to resign in protest.
Six federal prosecutors in the US attorney’s office in Minnesota also stepped down after the DOJ made clear that Becca and Renee Good—not Ross—would be the focus of an investigation.
As NBC News reported Friday, the DOJ also directed the US attorney’s office and FBI agents to investigate whether Good could have been criminally liable in her own death. Agents had drafted a search warrant to obtain her car, but they were told by aides to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to redraft the warrant to search the car for evidence of an attack on Ross. A federal judge rejected the warrant.
Like many residents of Minneapolis, Chicago, and Charlotte, North Carolina have in recent months as thousands of ICE agents have descended on US cities and detained immigrants and citizens alike, the Goods were observing and filming ICE operations on January 7 when Renee Good was shot.
Filming ICE is legal as long as doing so does not interfere with agents’ operations. Yet officers have increasingly threatened people for observing them and claimed that doing so is an act of domestic terrorism.
One agent in Portland, Maine on Friday told an observer she would be included in a “nice little database” and “considered a domestic terrorist,” after she filmed ICE operations.
Volunteers for neighborhood ICE watches in Maine told the Portland Press Herald that ICE agents have shown up at their houses and issued warnings not to follow them.
The threats, and the FBI’s insistence on investigating Good’s alleged ties to what it calls “activist groups,” come months after Attorney General Pam Bondi signed a memo expanding the DOJ’s definition of domestic terrorism to include “impeding” law enforcement officers or “doxxing” them.
That memo followed National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, or NSPM-7, a document signed by President Donald Trump shortly after the assassination of right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk, which mandates a “national strategy to investigate and disrupt networks, entities, and organizations that foment political violence so that law enforcement can intervene in criminal conspiracies before they result in violent political acts.” The memo exclusively focuses on “anti-fascist” or left-wing activities.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to include details about the DOJ push to investigate Good for criminal liability after her death.
Independent Autopsy Provides ‘Strong Evidence’ Against ICE Agent Who Killed Renee Good
“Our legal team will continue its unwavering and proactive advocacy for Renee’s life and her family,” said lead attorney Antonio M. Romanucci, whose firm commissioned the autopsy.
“It was murder,” reads a sign held at a vigil for Renee Good outside the US Embassy in Berlin, Germany on January 11, 2026.
(Photo by Christophe Gateau/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Jessica Corbett
Jan 22, 2026
COMMON DREAM\S
“As a lawyer, I’ve been waiting for this,” New York University law professor Ryan Goodman said early Thursday after attorneys for Renee Good’s family released findings from an independent autopsy conducted as part of a civil investigation into her death.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Jonathan Ross fatally shot Good in Minnesota two weeks ago. While the Trump administration has tried to paint the 37-year-old US citizen and mother of three as a “domestic terrorist,” and argue that the ICE agent was acting in self-defense, videos, eyewitness accounts, and analyses of the shooting have fueled calls for Ross’ arrest and prosecution.
‘ICE Out for Good’: Weekend Rallies Nationwide After Killing of Renee Good
The independent autopsy provides “strong evidence against Agent Ross, given what it means about [his] second or third shot through [the] left-side window” of Good’s vehicle, Goodman wrote on social media. Those shots make the “easiest criminal case of a willful killing.”
The Chicago-based law firm Romanucci & Blandin said in a Wednesday statement that it commissioned a “highly respected and credentialed medical pathologist” to conduct the autopsy at the request of Good’s family, and the expert found:There were three clear gunshot wound paths to Renee’s body;
One gunshot wound struck the left forearm, causing soft tissue hemorrhage;
One gunshot wound traversed the right breast without penetrating major organs;
One gunshot wound entered the left side of her head near the temple and exited the right side of her head;
The breast and left forearm wounds were not immediately life-threatening; and
A fourth wound was a graze wound consistent with a firearm injury, but with no penetration.
“We believe the evidence we are gathering and will continue to gather in our investigation will suffice to prove our case,” said lead Attorney Antonio M. Romanucci. “The video evidence depicting the events of January 7, 2026, is clear, particularly when viewed through the standards of reasonable policing and totality of circumstances. Additionally, our legal team will continue its unwavering and proactive advocacy for Renee’s life and her family.”
The firm noted that “the results of the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office autopsy have not yet been released to the family or legal team.”
The Washington Post highlighted that “Romanucci, one of the firm’s founding partners, was on the legal team that represented the family of George Floyd after he was killed by a Minneapolis police officer. That legal team also commissioned an independent autopsy that contradicted aspects of the Hennepin County medical examiner’s autopsy.”
The day after Good’s death, Drew Evans, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, announced that the probe into the fatal shooting “would now be led solely” by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Meanwhile, several officials with the US Department of Justice (DOJ), including prosecutors and others in the Civil Rights Division, have recently resigned over the case.
The DOJ has refused to open a civil rights investigation into Good’s killing but is investigating Minnesota officials for alleged conspiracy to impede the thousands of federal immigration agents sent to the Twin Cities. On Tuesday, the department subpoenaed Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, state Attorney General Keith Ellison, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, Saint Paul Mayor Kaohly Her, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, and Ramsey County Attorney John Choi.
“This Department of Justice investigation, sparked by calls for accountability in the face of violence, chaos, and the killing of Renee Good, does not seek justice,” Walz said in a statement that mirrored those of the other targeted officials. “Minnesota will not be intimidated into silence and neither will I.”
“Our legal team will continue its unwavering and proactive advocacy for Renee’s life and her family,” said lead attorney Antonio M. Romanucci, whose firm commissioned the autopsy.
“It was murder,” reads a sign held at a vigil for Renee Good outside the US Embassy in Berlin, Germany on January 11, 2026.
(Photo by Christophe Gateau/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Jessica Corbett
Jan 22, 2026
COMMON DREAM\S
“As a lawyer, I’ve been waiting for this,” New York University law professor Ryan Goodman said early Thursday after attorneys for Renee Good’s family released findings from an independent autopsy conducted as part of a civil investigation into her death.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Jonathan Ross fatally shot Good in Minnesota two weeks ago. While the Trump administration has tried to paint the 37-year-old US citizen and mother of three as a “domestic terrorist,” and argue that the ICE agent was acting in self-defense, videos, eyewitness accounts, and analyses of the shooting have fueled calls for Ross’ arrest and prosecution.
‘ICE Out for Good’: Weekend Rallies Nationwide After Killing of Renee Good
The independent autopsy provides “strong evidence against Agent Ross, given what it means about [his] second or third shot through [the] left-side window” of Good’s vehicle, Goodman wrote on social media. Those shots make the “easiest criminal case of a willful killing.”
The Chicago-based law firm Romanucci & Blandin said in a Wednesday statement that it commissioned a “highly respected and credentialed medical pathologist” to conduct the autopsy at the request of Good’s family, and the expert found:There were three clear gunshot wound paths to Renee’s body;
One gunshot wound struck the left forearm, causing soft tissue hemorrhage;
One gunshot wound traversed the right breast without penetrating major organs;
One gunshot wound entered the left side of her head near the temple and exited the right side of her head;
The breast and left forearm wounds were not immediately life-threatening; and
A fourth wound was a graze wound consistent with a firearm injury, but with no penetration.
“We believe the evidence we are gathering and will continue to gather in our investigation will suffice to prove our case,” said lead Attorney Antonio M. Romanucci. “The video evidence depicting the events of January 7, 2026, is clear, particularly when viewed through the standards of reasonable policing and totality of circumstances. Additionally, our legal team will continue its unwavering and proactive advocacy for Renee’s life and her family.”
The firm noted that “the results of the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office autopsy have not yet been released to the family or legal team.”
The Washington Post highlighted that “Romanucci, one of the firm’s founding partners, was on the legal team that represented the family of George Floyd after he was killed by a Minneapolis police officer. That legal team also commissioned an independent autopsy that contradicted aspects of the Hennepin County medical examiner’s autopsy.”
The day after Good’s death, Drew Evans, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, announced that the probe into the fatal shooting “would now be led solely” by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Meanwhile, several officials with the US Department of Justice (DOJ), including prosecutors and others in the Civil Rights Division, have recently resigned over the case.
The DOJ has refused to open a civil rights investigation into Good’s killing but is investigating Minnesota officials for alleged conspiracy to impede the thousands of federal immigration agents sent to the Twin Cities. On Tuesday, the department subpoenaed Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, state Attorney General Keith Ellison, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, Saint Paul Mayor Kaohly Her, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, and Ramsey County Attorney John Choi.
“This Department of Justice investigation, sparked by calls for accountability in the face of violence, chaos, and the killing of Renee Good, does not seek justice,” Walz said in a statement that mirrored those of the other targeted officials. “Minnesota will not be intimidated into silence and neither will I.”
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