Renee Good ’s family is accusing federal immigration officers of killing the Minneapolis mother of three as she attempted to follow agents' instructions, and said Wednesday they have hired the same law firm that represented George Floyd ’s family to press for answers and accountability.
Her loved ones said in a statement they want Good, 37, remembered as “an agent of peace” and urged the public not to use her death as a political flashpoint, according to the Chicago-based firm Romanucci & Blandin. The firm said it is investigating Good's death and will release information in the coming weeks.
The family's decision to hire the firm came the same week the U.S. Justice Department said it sees no basis to open a federal civil rights investigation into the shooting. An FBI probe of Renee Good’s death is ongoing.
Roughly half a dozen federal prosecutors in Minnesota resigned this week, and several supervisors in the criminal section of the Civil Rights Division in Washington gave notice of their departures, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Trump administration has defended the ICE officer’s actions, saying he fired in self-defense while standing in front of Good’s vehicle as it began to move forward. That explanation has been panned by Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and others based on videos of the confrontation.
Romanucci & Blandin said the family wants answers about the federal officers were doing on Jan. 7 in the neighborhood where Good was killed, as well as officers’ actions during the encounter and delays in medical aid after the shooting. The ICE agent who fired is Jonathan Ross, an Iraq War veteran who has served as a deportation officer since 2015.
Good’s partner, Becca Good, and other relatives say on Jan. 7 the couple had just dropped off their 6-year-old child at school and stopped to observe the law enforcement activity. Video shows a red SUV driven by Renee sitting perpendicular and blocking part of the road. She is pressing the horn repeatedly.
A short time later, a truck carrying immigration officers pulls up, two get out and one of them orders Renee Good to open her door. She reverses briefly, then turns the steering wheel toward the passenger side as the officer says again, “get out of the car.” Almost simultaneously, Becca, standing on the passenger side and trying to open the door, shouts, “drive, baby, drive!”
The SUV pulls forward and gunshots are heard as an officer who in front of the vehicle opens fire.
“What happened to Renee is wrong,” the firm said, adding that they intend to share their findings “on a rolling basis” because they believe the community is not receiving adequate information elsewhere. The firm, which helped secure a $27 million settlement for Floyd’s family, is now representing Becca Good as well as Renee Good's parents and siblings.
Becca Good released a statement to Minnesota Public Radio on Friday saying the couple had stopped to support their neighbors: “ We had whistles. They had guns.” Becca Good and her family have not responded to calls and messages from The Associated Press.
Becca Good has referred to Renee as her wife. The law firm said Renee and Becca were “not legally married but were committed partners dedicated to their family."
People attend a candlelight vigil at US Embassy in London, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, for US Citizen Renee Good, who was shot by ICE in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
A person walks past signage for Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer earlier in the week, in Minneapolis, Minn., Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez said Wednesday her government would continue releasing prisoners detained under former President Nicolás Maduro's rule in what she described as “a new political moment” since his ouster by the United States earlier this month.
It appeared to be an understatement for the Maduro loyalist now tasked with placating an unpredictable American president who has said he will “run” Venezuela, while also consolidating power in a government that long has seethed against U.S. meddling.
Rodríguez opened her first press briefing since Maduro's capture by U.S. forces with a conciliatory tone. Addressing journalists from a red carpet at the presidential palace in the capital, Caracas, she offered assurances that the process of releasing detainees — a move reportedly made at the behest of the Trump administration — “has not yet concluded.”
The lawyer and veteran politician pitched a “Venezuela that opens itself to a new political moment, that allows for ... political and ideological diversity.”
A Venezuelan human rights organization estimates about 800 political prisoners are still being detained. That figure includes political leaders, soldiers, lawyers and members of civil society.
President Donald Trump said Wednesday he had a “great conversation” with Rodríguez, their first since Maduro was seized and flown to the U.S. on Jan. 3 to face drug-trafficking charges.
“We had a call, a long call. We discussed a lot of things,” Trump said during a bill signing in the Oval Office. “And I think we’re getting along very well with Venezuela.”
Unlike past speeches directed at her domestic audience that echoed Maduro’s anti-imperialist rhetoric, Rodríguez did not mention the U.S. — or the dizzying pace at which relations between both countries were evolving.
But she criticized organizations that advocate on behalf of prisoners’ rights. She pledged “strict” enforcement of the law and credited Maduro with starting the prisoner releases as a signal that her government meant no wholesale break from the past.
“Crimes related to the constitutional order are being evaluated,” she said, in apparent reference to detainees held on what human rights groups say are politically motivated charges. “Messages of hatred, intolerance, acts of violence will not be permitted.”
Flanked by her brother and National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez, as well as hard-line Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, she took no questions. Cabello, she said, was coordinating the prisoner releases, which have drawn criticism for being too slow and secretive.
Trump has enlisted Rodríguez to help secure U.S. control over Venezuela’s oil sales despite sanctioning her for human rights violations during his first term. To ensure she does his bidding, earlier this month, Trump threatened Rodríguez with a “situation probably worse than Maduro,” who is being held in a Brooklyn jail.
Maduro has pleaded not guilty to drug-related charges.
In endorsing Rodríguez, who served as Maduro’s vice president since 2018, Trump has sidelined María Corina Machado, the leader of Venezuela’s opposition who won a Nobel Peace Prize last year for her campaign to restore the nation’s democracy. Machado is scheduled to meet with Trump on Thursday at the White House.
After a lengthy career running Venezuela’s feared intelligence service, managing its crucial oil industry and representing the revolution started by the late Hugo Chávez on the world stage, Rodríguez now walks a tightrope, navigating pressures from both Washington and her hard-line colleagues who hold sway over the security forces.
“The regime, on one hand, wants to send a message within Venezuela that it still has complete control and the United States isn’t dominating,” said Ronal Rodríguez, a researcher at the Venezuela Observatory in Colombia’s Universidad del Rosario. “On the other hand, internationally it's sending a message of gradual progress with the release of political prisoners. ... They’re playing a game.”
Those tensions were on display in her speech Wednesday, which focused only on the issue of prisoner releases. Venezuela’s leading prisoner rights organization, Foro Penal, had verified at least 72 prisoners freed since her interim government raised hopes for a mass release with a promise to free a “significant number” of prisoners.
Foro Penal reported the release Wednesday of at least a dozen people imprisoned for political reasons, including political activist Nicmer Evans and Roland Carreño, a journalist and opposition member. Machado campaign staffers Julio Balza and Gabriel González were also freed Wednesday, the opposition leader’s party announced.
Within the past week, Rodríguez's government released U.S., Italian and Spanish nationals and opposition figures.
But it was Maduro who first started the process of releasing prisoners, Rodríguez insisted, apparently pushing back on White House claims that the prisoners were being freed due to U.S. pressure. She said Maduro oversaw the release of 194 prisoners in December because he “was thinking precisely about opening spaces for understanding, for coexistence, for tolerance.”
Without offering any evidence, Rodríguez also claimed that 406 prisoners had been released since December, meaning that her own caretaker government had freed 212 detainees. Foro Penal estimates that over 800 prisoners were still held in Venezuela’s prison system on political grounds, and has criticized the government's lack of transparency.
Rodríguez did not address those complaints. Instead, she slammed “self-proclaimed nongovernmental organizations” as having “tried to sell falsehoods about Venezuela.”
“There will always be those who want to fish in troubled waters,” she said, trying to present her first press briefing as an effort to counter false narratives and “let the truth be reported.”
Carlos Rojas, a journalist freed after 18 months in jail, prays with his partner, Francy Fernandez, on the day of his release from prison at La Candelaria Church in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
A woman who lives near the Cardon refinery hangs clothes to dry in Punto Fijo, Venezuela, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Supporters of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro rally calling for his release as he faces trial in the United States after being captured by U.S. forces, in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)
Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodriguez and Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, right, wave before making a statement at Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
Carlos Rojas, a journalist freed after 18 months in jail, prays with his partner, Francy Fernandez, on the day of his release from prison at La Candelaria Church in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
Relatives and friends of political prisoners hold banners and candles calling for their loved ones to be set free outside the Rodeo I prison in Guatire, Venezuela, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026 after the government announced prisoners would be released. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Narwin Gil cries as she waits for news of her detained sister, Marylyn Gil, outside El Helicoide, headquarters of Venezuela's intelligence service and a detention center, in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Mileidy Mendoza, center, waits at Zone 7 of the Bolivarian National Police, where her fiancé Eric Diaz is being held as a political detainee in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, after the government announced prisoners would be released.(AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Students lay out photos of people they consider political prisoners at the Central University of Venezuela in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodriguez, center, smiles flanked by Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, right, and National Assembly President, her brother, Jorge Rodriguez, as they prepare to make a statement at Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
