Renee Good shooting galvanizes protests across the country | The Excerpt
- - Renee Good shooting galvanizes protests across the country | The Excerpt
Dana Taylor, USA TODAYJanuary 16, 2026 at 9:04 AM
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On the Friday, January 16, 2026, episode of The Excerpt podcast: When 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on January 7th, Americans across the country took notice. Has the tide turned for how Americans feel about immigration enforcement? USA TODAY Breaking News Reporter Christopher Cann joins The Excerpt to dig into all of it.
Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
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Dana Taylor:
When 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on January 7th, Americans across the country took notice. The video of her shooting went viral in almost instantaneously. Two different versions of what really happened took hold. In one version, the ICE agent was righteously defending his own life with the shooting. In the other, a federal officer had criminally shot and killed an innocent woman.
Hello, and welcome to USA TODAY's The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Friday, January 16th, 2026. Since that fateful day, protests have erupted across the nation in what some are saying is parallel to the outrage felt across the nation when George Floyd was killed. In fact, the shooting happened not so far from where Floyd was killed six years ago. Has the tide turned for how Americans feel about immigration enforcement? Here to help us dig into all of it is USA TODAY Breaking News Reporter Christopher Cann. Chris, thanks so much for being here.
Christopher Cann:
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Dana Taylor:
Let's first take a step back and recap what happened on January 7th, the day Renee Nicole Good was killed.
Christopher Cann:
Yeah. So on the morning of January 7th, Renee Nicole Good was with her wife and dog, they say driving on their way home from dropping off their child at school, when they say they came across federal agents in their neighborhoods south of downtown Minneapolis and engaging in operations there. That's when they began observing what was going on and filming. And at some point there, that's when videos, the ones that you had mentioned that had gone viral, start to show that federal agents had approached Renee in her SUV. One can be seen walking up to her saying expletives, telling her to get out of the car. And that's when she began backing up before pulling her car forward while turning her wheel seemingly away from the agents. And one ICE agent, Jonathan Ross, who is standing in videos near the front of the SUV when it's moving, shot and killed Renee.
And so the widely seen footage of that deadly encounter has sharply divided the country. DHS officials have said that Jonathan Ross acted properly and that Good was engaging in domestic terrorism, while top Democrats have called for Ross' arrest and have accused him of illegally shooting a US citizen. And I'll also note that there's new polls that find that most Americans have found the shooting to be unjustified.
Dana Taylor:
The days that followed have been marked by chaotic clashes between federal agents and protestors. In fact, there was a second shooting just two days ago on January 14th that has intensified demonstrations. What happened there, Chris?
Christopher Cann:
Yeah. So on this past Wednesday night, federal officials say immigration agents were operating in Minneapolis, when they say a man fled from agents first, in his car, and then on foot. And when an agent caught up with him, a scuffle ensued and federal officials say that it's at that time when two men from a nearby apartment building had arrived and assaulted the agent, and the agent allegedly being attacked by three people, shot one of the men. Today, the Department of Homeland Security identified all of them as undocumented immigrants from Venezuela and defended the agent's action saying that those shots were fired defensively. State investigators say they've launched a separate independent probe into the use of force in that case. But either way, the news of that shooting spread pretty quickly Wednesday night, and intensified those protests with scuffles breaking out and scenes of vandalism in some case, clouds of tear gas and pepper spray.
Dana Taylor:
Yesterday, President Donald Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act. What authority would that give the president?
Christopher Cann:
Yeah. So the Insurrection Act gives the president authority to deploy US troops domestically. And the way the law is written, that's supposed to be used to suppress rebellions, civil unrest or used when federal laws are being obstructed. And so the law has been revoked about 30 times since the late 1700s. The most recent time it was [inaudible 00:04:34] was in 1992 during the riots in Los Angeles. And Trump has a history of musing about, invoking the Insurrection Act he has since his return to office last year. And he has also spoke about using it in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in 2020.
Dana Taylor:
Department of Homeland Security has sent about 3,000 federal agents into the Minneapolis area, dwarfing the local police presence. How have state and local officials in Minnesota, including Governor Tim Walz, responded?
Christopher Cann:
Yeah. So state and local officials from Tim Walz to Minneapolis Mayor, Jacob Frey, have repeatedly called for ICE to leave the area. They call what's happening a federal invasion, accused agents of trouncing on people's rights and unlawful seizures. The state actually filed a lawsuit this week seeking to halt the immigration operations in Minnesota. A judge declined to issue an immediate restraining order that would stop the ongoing enforcement, but the Department of Homeland Security has until Monday to respond to the lawsuit. So we'll see what happens there and whether or not... See what the judge decides, as far as the ongoing enforcement.
Dana Taylor:
Earlier this week, six federal prosecutors resigned following pressure by the Justice Department to investigate Renee Nicole Good's widow. Why and how has that impacted the political climate surrounding the shooting?
Christopher Cann:
Yeah. So while there's unrest in the streets in Minneapolis and Minnesota more broadly, there's turmoil within the prosecutor's office there. As you mentioned, reports say that six prosecutors have resigned after they had faced pressure to investigate Good's wife. There was also disagreement around the DOJ's decision not to investigate Jonathan Ross, the agent who shot Good in her SUV, as well as the handling of the incident. And this all comes as the state is facing a lot of pressure regarding a fraud scandal in Minnesota. And one of those prosecutors who resigned was Joe Thompson. He was the acting US attorney for Minnesota. He had been appointed by Trump and he had led the probe that had uncovered a lot of fraud within 14 state run Medicaid programs.
Dana Taylor:
It's been nearly six years since the death of George Floyd and our colleagues have written about how people in Minneapolis are feeling re-traumatized by this incident. What's happening on the ground and what are people saying?
Christopher Cann:
Yeah. So as you mentioned, the shooting of Good happened less than a mile from where George Floyd was killed in 2020. And as you remember in that case as well, it was a video of that incident that had shocked the nation, sparked large scale protests in cities across the country, and there was a kind of a national reckoning with police brutality and use of force. And so we have another deadly law enforcement interaction that's again, shocked people, fueled this upswell of activism and protests there. So you have a lot of people who've lived through that time and are currently protesting now or not. And thinking back, it kind of has re-traumatized them, has brought them back into that head space maybe that they were in, in the wake of the killing of George Floyd.
So we're seeing, of course, the large protests in Minneapolis. They've not been, at least so far, to the scale of the ones in the wake of George Floyd, at least as far as the unrest and scenes of vandalism and things like that. Actors there have talked about it being much more controlled. So you'll have these large protests maybe outside of federal building in Minneapolis, but then there'll be also demonstrators or what they call, legal advisors, following ICE and DHS agents around the city, blowing whistles, honking horns, to notify people in the area that ICE is there, also recording on their phones and cataloging what's happened. So you have these roving demonstrations along with the more stationary ones.
Dana Taylor:
Compared to 2020, USA TODAY is reporting that protests today are more disciplined and deliberate. Even as the anger and exhaustion remain, what lessons did activists and protest organizers say they learned from the George Floyd uprising and how is that shaping how they respond now?
Christopher Cann:
So many Minnesota residents say that while they feel exhausted, they still feel that they must go out and protest to cry what's happening because they feel there's no other choice. Many are worried not only for maybe immigrants in their cities, but also for themselves with a lot of concerns around unlawful stops and possible discrimination. So while yes, there's a lot of fatigue and maybe apprehension, I also think that there is a large history of activism in Minneapolis. And so I think people there almost feel an obligation to speak out about injustices.
Dana Taylor:
What happens next here, Chris? What will you be looking for?
Christopher Cann:
Yeah. So I think we'll be watching what happens with these protests if they continue. It seems that the ICE operations, the broader ICE and border patrol operations aren't going to be slowing. On Thursday, Kristi Noem said that there's no intention to pull out or stop the immigration enforcement or cancel anytime soon. So that looks like it will be continuing for the foreseeable future.
Dana Taylor:
Christopher Cann is a Breaking News Reporter for USA TODAY. Thank you so much for coming on the show, Chris.
Christopher Cann:
Thanks for having me.
Dana Taylor:
Thanks for our senior producer, Kaely Monahan, for her production assistance. Our executive producer is Laura Beatty. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending a note to podcasts at usatoday.com. Thanks for listening. I'm Dana Taylor. We'll be back Monday morning with another episode of USA TODAY's The Excerpt.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Protest have erupted nationwide over ICE immigration enforcement | The Excerpt
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