A federal judge is forcing the Trump administration to answer for Renee Good’s killing

For months after Renee Good was killed during a federal immigration operation in Minneapolis, the Trump administration controlled the evidence, the timeline, and much of the public narrative. Now, under court order, it is being forced to surrender both records and secrecy.

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A federal judge in Minnesota has ordered the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security to turn over unredacted evidence in Good’s January 7 killing within three weeks, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune.

In a comprehensive discovery order, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Bryan directed the Trump administration to produce not only photos, videos, and audio recordings from 30 minutes before to 60 minutes after the shooting, but also ICE officer Jonathan Ross’s training and personnel files, cellphone extraction reports, witness statements, and internal DHS and ICE use-of-force policies. The order also requires disclosure of Ross’s medical and psychological fitness evaluations after the shooting, widening scrutiny beyond the shooting itself to the federal government’s training, oversight, and post-incident response.

The evidence Bryan ordered released overlaps with what Minnesota is already seeking in its federal lawsuit against the Trump administration, filed last month in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. But this disclosure order arises from a separate criminal case — the prosecution of Roberto Carlos Muñoz-Guatemala, who was convicted of assaulting Ross in a 2025 Bloomington immigration arrest that left the ICE officer injured after being dragged by Muñoz-Guatemala’s car, the Star Tribune reports. Muñoz-Guatemala’s attorney argued that evidence from Good’s killing could bear on Ross’s conduct, credibility, and training, and the court agreed that those materials may be relevant to sentencing and potential post-trial motions.

The ruling is the clearest judicial rebuke yet to federal agencies that had resisted sharing evidence with state investigators examining the fatal shooting.

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Good, 37, was shot and killed by ICE officer Jonathan Ross during an enforcement action tied to Operation Metro Surge, a Trump administration immigration crackdown that has drawn national scrutiny. The Advocate previously reported that Good’s family commissioned an independent autopsy showing she was struck three times, including once in the head, and that her family’s attorneys said they still lacked access to critical physical evidence, including the vehicle she was driving when she was killed.

The federal government blocked local police investigators from the investigation. Instead of investigating the shooter, the Trump administration focused on Good's wife, Becca. Good was a mother of three.

That earlier reporting deepened doubts about the federal government’s account of the shooting, which officials initially framed as self-defense. Questions only intensified this week after WIRED revealed that newly obtained text messages show Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans repeatedly asked the FBI on the day of Good’s death to include state investigators in interviews and evidence collection.

According to WIRED, the FBI did not respond for at least two days, even as federal authorities assumed sole control of the case.

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The communication blackout is now central to Minnesota’s March lawsuit against DHS, DOJ, the FBI, and ICE-related agencies, alleging the federal government unlawfully blocked independent state investigations into three shootings involving immigration agents, including Good’s killing.

The court order does not determine whether Ross’s use of deadly force was lawful. But it forces the Trump administration into a position it resisted for months, answering, under judicial supervision, how Good died and why federal officials fought so hard to keep the evidence out of public view.