What We Know About Renee Nicole Good
The woman who was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis on Wednesday has been identified as 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good. Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem claimed that Good had attempted to “weaponize her vehicle” against an ICE officer, prompting him to fire the “defensive shots” that killed her — a version of events not supported by footage and eyewitness accounts. Noem was quick to identify Good as a “domestic terrorist,” while Minnesota attorney general Keith Ellison told NPR she was acting as “a legal observer on behalf of her immigrant neighbors.”
Since her killing, those who knew Good have described her as compassionate, warm, and a wonderful mother. Good, a writer and poet, had three children, including a 6-year-old son who lived with her and her wife in Minneapolis. The family was new to the city but quickly endeared themselves to their neighbors. Here’s everything we know about her.
Good described herself as a poet, wife, and mother.
Good lived in Minneapolis with her 6-year-old son and her current partner, who is identified in a GoFundMe as her wife. On social-media accounts that have since been made private, Good wrote that she was a “poet and writer and wife and mom.” According to CNN, Good had a daughter and son from her first marriage, who are now 12 and 15. She also had a 6-year-old son from her second husband, Tim Macklin, who died in 2023. Her late husband’s father, Timmy Ray Macklin Sr., told the Minnesota Star Tribune he believed Good’s two older children lived with her extended family.
In 2020, while Good was studying creative writing at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, she was awarded the Academy of American Poets Prize for her poem “On Learning to Dissect Fetal Pigs.” According to the Star Tribune, a bio on her English department’s Facebook page said she was from Colorado Springs and hosted a podcast with her then-husband, Macklin. “May Renee’s life be a reminder of what unites us: freedom, love, and peace,” ODU president Brian O. Hemphill said in a statement.
Good’s first husband, who asked to not be named out of concern for their children, told the Associated Press that he had never known her to participate in a protest. He said that she loved to sing, participated in chorus in high school, and went on to study vocal performance in college.
She and her family were new to Minnesota.
The AP reported that Good moved to Minneapolis from Kansas City, Missouri, last year. In her Instagram bio, Good wrote that she was currently “experiencing Minneapolis.” According to business records obtained by Fox 4 Kansas City, Good filed an LLC for a maintenance company called “B.Good Handywork” in the summer of 2024. However, according to one of Good’s Kansas City neighbors, she and her family left the city following the 2024 election and said they were moving to Canada. Joan Rose, who lived across the street from Good, told KMBC that Good was “a neighbor who, you know, is not a terrorist. Not an extremist. That was just a mom who loved her kids, loved her spouse.”
She was beloved by family and neighbors.
Good’s mother, Donna Ganger, told the Star Tribune that her daughter was “one of the kindest people I’ve ever known.” “She was extremely compassionate,” Ganger told the paper. “She’s taken care of people all her life. She was loving, forgiving, and affectionate. She was an amazing human being.” Good’s father, Tim Ganger, told the Washington Post that his daughter had “a good life, but a hard life.”
The Star Tribune also quoted a social-media post from one of Good’s new friends, Meghan Kocher. “I met Renee and her wife just a few weeks ago. She fed me tea and cookies at her house while we talked about school stuff,” Kocher wrote. She described Good as “such a warm and loving mother. This is tragic beyond words.”
Mary Radford, Good’s next-door neighbor in Minneapolis, said that Good had a “beautiful family.” “They have a son. He’s very sweet. He loves our dog. He always has to go run up and pet and play with her,” she said. “They’re always outside playing.” Despite Good and her family moving in only recently, Radford said that they had “wonderful conversations” and that she is going to “miss seeing them.”
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