Days after the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Minneapolis, a report revealed that prosecutors had begun investigating the 37-year-old woman’s killing but were ordered to stop by top US officials, including FBI Director Kash Patel.
Officials feared that continuing the civil rights investigation — using an arrest warrant obtained on that basis — would run afoul of U.S. President Donald Trump’s claim that Good “violently, intentionally and maliciously ran over an ICE officer” who fired at her while she was driving her vehicle, The New York Times reported on Saturday, February 7.
After the shooting incident in January, US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem alleged that Good “armed her vehicle” and then attempted to run over one of the officers “in an attempt to kill or injure the officers, which is an act of domestic terrorism.”
Donald Trump endorsed Noah’s account and took to Truth Social to write about the incident — describing Good as a “professional agitator” who “violently, intentionally and maliciously” ran over an ICE officer.
On January 10, 2026, Renee Nicole Good was fatally shot by an ICE agent in her SUV — sparking escalating anger, opposition and massive protests against the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
What happened after the shooting?
Hours after the shooting, Minnesota’s top federal prosecutor — Joseph H. Thompson — reportedly sought a warrant to search the vehicle for evidence as part of what was expected to be a routine civil rights investigation into the agent’s use of force.
The prosecutor emailed his colleagues that the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension — the state agency that specializes in investigating police shootings — would work with the FBI to determine whether the shooting was justified and legal or violated Good’s civil rights, the NYT reported, citing people with knowledge of the matter.
However, American officials ordered them to stop.
In the days that followed, top U.S. Justice Department officials reportedly presented different approaches — first proposing to seek a new warrant based on a criminal investigation into whether the agent was assaulted, and later proposing to investigate Good’s partner, who was with her the morning of the shooting and confronted immigration agents in their Minneapolis neighborhood.
Statements follow
Several professional federal prosecutors in Minnesota, including Thompson and five others, resigned in protest of their handling of the investigation. Their departures set off a broader wave of resignations that left the U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota severely understaffed and in crisis, the NYT reported.
