We speak today with clarity and care to honor the life of Renee Nicole Good, a poet, writer, wife, and mother, whose presence in Minneapolis was marked by warmth, creativity, and community. On January 8, 2026, she was fatally shot by an I.C.E. agent in her own neighborhood. This act was not only a personal tragedy but a procedural breach that demands accountability.
We reject attempts to minimize or re-frame this violence. Renee was a U.S. citizen, rooted in her family and community, and her death exposes the dangers of unchecked federal forces operating in our cities. The narrative of “self‑defense” offered by I.C.E., cannot erase the reality: a citizen was killed in her own neighborhood, blocks from where George Floyd was murdered, in a city still healing from state violence.
We affirm that Renee’s life mattered. Her words, her care, and her presence are now part of our collective memory. Her death is a threshold moment, inscribed in our collective memory, of resistance and legitimacy. We carry forward her resonance as a call to procedural clarity, demanding investigations that are transparent, accountable, and rooted in justice.
We will not allow her name to be lost in bureaucratic obscurity. Renee Good’s life and death must remain documented, remembered, and honored. In solidarity, we mark this act as both memorial and boundary: a refusal to accept violence as routine, and a commitment to collective care and principled resistance.