Vigil for Renee Nicole Good becomes a call to action against ICE

This article originally appeared on the Minnesota Reformer.

Thousands of people on Wednesday evening filled Portland Avenue near 34th Street in south Minneapolis, where just hours earlier an ICE officer shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good in her car.

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Candles, flowers and whistles filled the patch of snow where Good’s car crashed after she was shot.

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Good’s death has already become a rallying cry for the people working to disrupt President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign, which entails heavily armed, masked federal officers roaming the streets of select cities, including Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Chicago, New Orleans and Memphis, Tennessee.

“No Trump, no troops, Twin Cities ain’t licking boots,” the crowd chanted. Several speakers called for the prosecution of the agent who shot Good.

Carly Morford, of northeast Minneapolis, said she was moved to come to the vigil after seeing a video of the killing and was appalled the Trump administration labeled Good a “domestic terrorist.”

“I’m not going to sit by while my fellow Minnesotans are shot and killed,” Morford said. “And so even though I’m just one person and it’s not going to do anything, a bunch of people coming out is.”

People laid candles and flowers at the spot where Renee Good’s car stopped after she was fatally shot by an ICE officer, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Minneapolis. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)

The killing has also reopened wounds from the 2020 Minneapolis police murder of George Floyd less than a mile away, which ignited widespread protests and riots in the city at the time, and a national reckoning over racism and police violence.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a press conference Wednesday that Good “weaponized her vehicle” and “attempted to run a law enforcement officer over.”

Video provided to the Reformer shows an officer positioning himself in front of the vehicle and firing three shots through the windshield as Good attempted to turn the car away from the officer.

Demonstrators gathered to honor Renee Good, killed by an ICE officer Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2025, less than a mile from the police murder of George Floyd in 2020. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)

“For them to sit there and lie, and try to paint a false narrative about Renee, is exactly what they have done for police abuse victims year after year after year,” said attorney and civil rights activist Nekima Levy Armstrong.

Dani Replogle handed out fliers with information on joining an ICE watch group called Defend 612, which coordinates patrols of city neighborhoods and conducts trainings on observing enforcement actions.

She said she’s been patrolling the Powderhorn Park area where she lives for about a month and a half. She saw a raid during which a person was handcuffed and people showed up to record and provide advice.

“That person didn’t end up being abducted that day,” Replogle said. “It was really moving.”

Minnesota Reformer is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Minnesota Reformer maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor J. Patrick Coolican for questions: info@minnesotareformer.com.