Rex Huppke: ICE killed Renee Nicole Good; Trump, Noem are lying about it

I watched the video of a mother being gunned down in her car by federal agents on a residential Minneapolis street and was told by my government to believe she was a domestic terrorist.

Her name was Renee Nicole Good, and she was not, in any way, a domestic terrorist. According to the Associated Press, Good had three children, was a devout Christian and her ex-husband “had never known her to participate in a protest of any kind.”

She was a 37-year-old mom born in Colorado – a poet, a daughter, a citizen keeping watch over our government’s actions – with a glove compartment overflowing with stuffed animals. She was, as her mother told the Minnesota Star Tribune, “one of the kindest people I’ve ever known.”

I watched a video of the Jan. 7 incident unfold, saw Good’s obvious attempt to leave a chaotic scene involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, heard the sound of an agent’s gun firing and saw no reason for it. None.

There was no reason for Renee Nicole Good to die

I read an evaluation of the video by an expert on police use of force quoted in the New York Times. Geoffrey Alpert of the University of South Carolina said: “The way you evaluate this is you look to see what’s the imminent threat to life, and there is none. She’s leaving.”

If that agent kept his gun holstered, nothing bad was going to happen. Three children would still have their mother, a mother would still have her daughter, a family wouldn’t be mourning and the world would have continued as a better place with Good in it.

But I was told by the Trump administration that she was going to kill people. That her vehicle was a weapon. That she was likely trained by some nefarious others.

And I knew it was bull. Because I have eyes. Because I watched different videos of the shooting and saw what actually happened and felt my stomach clench and anger well up in my throat, knowing the government – my government, our government – was lying shamelessly.

Trump and Republicans blame the victim in Minneapolis killing

A federal agent shot and killed a woman on a street in America, then the president and his head of Homeland Security and assorted members of his increasingly soulless political party didn’t have the basic human decency to muster a gram of empathy.

They went straight to lying, defaming and attacking. President Donald Trump swiftly posted about the video on social media: “The woman screaming was, obviously, a professional agitator, and the woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense. Based on the attached clip, it is hard to believe he is alive, but is now recovering in the hospital.”

There’s video footage of the incident, and nothing Trump said is true. The officer who shot Good is on video walking away, showing no sign of injury.

A mother gets killed by a federal agent, and Trump shows zero sympathy

In a post on its official X account, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security described Good as “one of these violent rioters” and falsely claimed she “weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them an act of domestic terrorism.”

Again, bull. Watch the videos. Then go look at yourself in the mirror and tell me you agree with that assessment.

The government, before any kind of investigation had been conducted, concluded that Good – who wasn’t even identified until hours later – was a violent rioter and a murderous domestic terrorist who planned to kill federal agents. The government, and particularly the agent who pulled the trigger, acted as judge, jury and executioner.

All based on lies. Bald-faced lies. The kind of propaganda that would make a North Korean newscaster blush.

Video of Minneapolis shooting doesn’t square with government lies

The Minnesota Star Tribune talked to Good’s neighbor Mary Radford, who said she often saw Good and her son walking the family dog: “It’s a beautiful family. They have a son. He’s very sweet.”

The internet and the airwaves filled up fast with tough-talking fools spinning what happened in Minneapolis as just desserts. Some ghoulishly suggested that Good got what she had coming, and waves of clout-thirsty opportunists online tried to convince people that the video shows something it simply doesn’t show.

I’ll say this to the folks parroting the talking points trotted out by Trump and his goons: Go tell your kids this mother deserved to die at the hands of a federal agent. Stand up in church this weekend and explain to the priest and the congregation why it’s OK for government agents to kill citizens at will. Get up on the table in the break room at work and let your voice and opinion be heard loud and clear, tough talker.

You won’t do it. You know it’s wrong. You know the government is covering for an agent who now has a mother’s blood on his hands. You know this deceit is all in service to an anti-immigrant roundup intended to stir up trouble in cities run by Democrats.

What did you do when the government justified killing a mom?

There will come a time in the not-too-distant future when all of us will be asked by our kids or grandkids what we did when the federal government went far too far. What did we say when the government lied to us to cover its own acts of inhumanity? What did we do when they gunned that mother down on an icy January day in Minneapolis at the start of 2026?

Every one of us better have an answer.

And it better be a damn good one.

Follow USA Today columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk.