Renee Nicole Good was murdered in her SUV by masked ICE agent Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis Jan. 7. One day after we observed the anniversary of the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, another avoidable tragedy with law enforcement occurred just blocks away from where a police officer killed George Floyd in May 2020.
Good was “shook,” as an eyewitness describes, after trying to wave the officers to pass in front of her. Then attempting to follow conflicting directions from multiple officers, she reversed her SUV and slowly attempted to leave. An officer pulled on her door handle and tried to stop her. Another officer came from the side of the road and proceeded to shoot once in the front right corner of her windshield and then twice in her open driver’s side window.
Julia Goldie Day
The SUV careened forward and collided with a parked car, then a power pole. No one was allowed to provide aid even though medics were said to be on the scene and an eyewitness was a physician. The officers did not provide aid despite onlookers begging them to help her. The officers left the scene.
We can watch all this on video provided by eyewitnesses. We can believe our own eyes as we can see the analysis of the video frame by frame with top-notch technology. We can hear eyewitness testimony as they have given interviews on television.
The wheels of Good’s SUV were turned away from Officer Ross. He did not step away from any deadly harm; he was the harm. Ross also ignored his training in that deadly force cannot lawfully be used to prevent someone from fleeing law enforcement. Furthermore, from the U.S. Department of Justice section on deadly force:
Firearms may not be discharged solely to disable moving vehicles. Specifically, firearms may not be discharged at a moving vehicle unless: (1) a person in the vehicle is threatening the officer or another person with deadly force by means other than the vehicle; or (2) the vehicle is operated in a manner that threatens to cause death or serious physical injury to the officer or others, and no other objectively reasonable means of defense appear to exist, which includes moving out of the path of the vehicle.
The second incidence did not apply. Nor did Ross need to step away from the vehicle as he was not in danger. Instead, he stepped toward the vehicle to fire his weapon. As Good’s vehicle passed him, he fired two more shots through the open driver’s-side window, killing Good. Ross didn’t need to jump aside; he remained standing the entire time and was apparently uninjured.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristie Noem held a press conference in which she blamed the shooting on Good’s own actions as “domestic terrorism.” Donald Trump, our insurrectionist president, called Good “disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully and viciously ran over the ICE officer” — which we know is a lie.
“Lying is a sin. So is justifying murder.”
Vice President JD Vance, a purported Christian, joined in the blame game, demonizing Good, a person made in the image of God. Among his comments on social media were these: “The officer didn’t discharge his weapon to prevent her from fleeing. When he discharged his weapon, she had pointed the vehicle at him and pressed the gas. He discharged his weapon in self-defense, and other angles of the video show the woman *clearly* hit the officer with her car while accelerating.
“The gaslighting is off the charts, and I’m having none of it. This guy was doing his job. She tried to stop him from doing his job. When he approached her car, she tried to hit him. A tragedy? Absolutely. But a tragedy that falls on this woman and all of the radicals who teach people that immigration is the one type of law that rioters are allowed to interfere with.”
Lying is a sin. So is justifying murder. As the prophet Isaiah says, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil.”
In case you have not caught on to the propaganda machine of good versus evil this regime spouts and the MAGA crowd regurgitates, the material goes into the machine and just like that it pronounces Renee Good “evil.” Facts are eaten by this machine, destroyed and bent. Lies are created, narratives are means to an end. The opposition is demonized.
Good versus evil is the biggest lie of all. There is no such thing. Good did not have to die to teach us this lesson in this watershed moment. We are all good because we are human, created by God. We all encompass good and not-so-good-ness at times when we miss the mark. We all can create love and life together and leave behind the lies of dominance and violence. Repentance is laying down our swords and guns after the example of Jesus, our leader and friend.
Good’s mother told the Minnesota Star Tribune her daughter was “one of the kindest people I’ve ever known,” and she was “loving, forgiving and affectionate.” She was a devoted Christian according to her family and wanted to be a good neighbor in her community.
May we remember Renee Good for her goodness, and may God forgive us all.
Julia Goldie Day is an ordained minister within the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and lives in Memphis, Tenn. She is a painter and proud mother to Jasper, Barak and Jillian. Learn more at her website or follow her on socials @JuliaGoldieDay.