Lawyer for Renee Good’s family says ICE targeted ‘best of the best’ when agent killed her, promises transparency

The attorney for the family of Renee Good said that an ICE agent killed “the best of the best” when he shot the Minneapolis woman a few blocks from her home last week and pledged timely public transparency of the firm’s findings.

Anthony Romanucci arrived in Minneapolis on Jan. 14, hours after he disclosed that his Chicago firm Romanucci & Blandin is representing Good’s parents, Tim and Donna Ganger; her four siblings and her widow, Becca Good.

In an interview with the Minnesota Star Tribune, Romanucci said that in shooting Good, ICE officer Jonathan Ross performed the opposite of the federal government’s stated objective when federal agents began flooding the state last month.

“What we know is this,” Romanucci said in an interview with the Minnesota Star Tribune. “The mission that the federal government [has] here in Minneapolis is the same one that we have been hearing for about a year is to get the ‘worst of the worst.’ Renee was the best of the best.

The firm released a statement from the family that read in part, “Nae was the beautiful light of our family and brought joy to anyone she met. She was relentlessly hopeful and optimistic which was contagious. We all already miss her more than words could ever express.”

Romanucci said the family is waiting to receive the findings of the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office autopsy. In the meantime, he said, the body has been turned over to them, and memorial and funeral arrangements have yet to be arranged. Becca Good and their son have relocated to an undisclosed location.

Romanucci said it’s too early to say who the family might sue, whether it be any combination of government agencies or individuals.

From there, the firm announced earlier in the day that it “intends to share information learned in the investigation on a rolling basis so that both public officials and concerned individuals across our American communities can see and understand the facts as we learn them.”

During the interview, Romanucci methodically spelled out what stood out to him on the various videos of the shooting that have gone public in the wake of the killing.

“She pulled away at a very slow speed in a direction, in a right-handed direction, and that’s very clear on the video,” he began. “Even if that law enforcement officer was in front of the vehicle, did he place himself there? And if he did, that is considered officer-related jeopardy.

“If he placed himself there, shooting at the inside of a car, with a driver in there, that’s not going to change the direction that the car is moving. It’s not going to cause someone to move their right foot from the accelerator to the brake. It’s actually going to create a more chaotic event.”

Romanucci teamed with civil rights attorney Ben Crump and won a $27 million payout in 2021 from the city of Minneapolis to settle a wrongful death lawsuit in connection with George Floyd’s death in May 2020 while pinned to the pavement by three police officers as a fourth stood guard. Derek Chauvin and the others were fired and sentenced to prison.

Within hours of Good’s death, Romanucci’s firm issued a statement contending that “unless this woman was a wanted criminal sought by agents for deportation, this confrontation and loss of life is utterly senseless.”

Minneapolis attorney Kevin Riach will join the legal effort. In 2024, Riach helped win a nearly $1 million settlement with several journalists who sued Minneapolis in federal court after they were injured by police while covering protests that followed Floyd’s murder in 2020.

Chris Madel, a Republican candidate for governor of Minnesota, is providing legal counsel to Ross as dual state and federal investigations into his shooting of Good remain ongoing.

Madel told the Minnesota Star Tribune that he filed Ross’ application to have the U.S. Department of Justice provide legal representation under federal regulations. Those regulations state that federal employees who are “sued, subpoenaed, or charged” for acting in their individual capacities will be provided legal representation by Justice Department attorneys.

Ross has not been charged with any crimes and has yet to have any civil litigation filed against him since he shot Good on Portland Avenue in south Minneapolis.