Renee Good’s family said they spent agonizing “hours in limbo,” unsure of the details surrounding her fatal shooting by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer in Minneapolis last month.
“It’s the complete antithesis of who she was to die in that way. It doesn’t feel real still,” Good’s brother, Brent Ganger, told *CBS Evening News* in an interview that aired Friday.
Good’s brothers, Brent and Luke Ganger, said they first learned from their older sister that Good had been shot, and they weren’t sure of her condition when they told their parents.
“I mean, there’s just no way to even prepare yourself to hear that. There’s nothing to say. But it was just a complete, utter shock,” their father, Tim Ganger, said.
Donna Ganger, Good’s mother, said she got a call from her son.
“He said, Renee’s been shot by an ICE agent,” Donna Ganger said. “And you know, she’s passed away, she’s gone. I think I just said no a whole bunch of times.”
### Good Was “Always a Very Calming Presence,” Brother Says
In the hours after Good’s shooting, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called Good’s actions “an act of domestic terrorism.”
Luke Ganger said his response to Noem’s words in the moment was that “it just doesn’t even register. Those words are just so far removed from who she was as a person.”
After learning she had died, family members urged each other to stay offline as videos of the shooting circulated online. They said the only footage they’ve seen was of Good sitting behind the wheel of her car, telling an officer: “It’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you.”
Those words, her family said, appeared to be an effort to diffuse the situation.
“She always was a very calming presence,” Tim Ganger said.
Luke Ganger added, “It feels like an exaggeration, but it feels true to say that she’s like the least combative person I’ve known.”
She was someone who immediately brightened a room, they say.
“She made you feel like you are the most important thing in her life, but she could do it to all of us,” Donna Ganger said.
Good’s family considers itself a microcosm of the American electorate. Tim Ganger voted for President Trump, who at one point suggested that Good might have been a “paid agitator.”
Tim Ganger says he does not believe his daughter was someone who would weaponize her vehicle against a federal agent.
“Absolutely not,” Brent Good reiterated.
### Calls for Accountability
In the aftermath of Good’s death, her family said they’ve focused on spreading light through memories of “her goofy laugh, her singing voice, and her hugs.”
At the same time, Good’s mother emphasized the need for an investigation into her fatal shooting.
When asked who should be held accountable, Tim Ganger said, “I’m not sure that’s up to us.”
Good’s family said they were heartbroken to learn weeks later that ICU nurse Alex Pretti had been shot and killed in Minneapolis in an encounter with Customs and Border Protection agents.
Said Brent Ganger: “Something is broken and something needs to be fixed, because this shouldn’t happen and it certainly shouldn’t happen again in such short order after Renee.”
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/renee-good-family-spent-hours-in-limbo-after-she-was-fatally-shot-by-ice-officer/
