By Paul Walsh and Jeff Day, Star Tribune
MINNEAPOLIS — The woman shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on Wednesday was identified by her mother as 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good.
Donna Ganger told the Minnesota Star Tribune that her daughter lived in the Twin Cities with her partner. In a joint statement, several Minneapolis City Council members confirmed she lived in the city.
Ganger said the family was notified of the death late Wednesday morning.
“That’s so stupid” that she was killed, Ganger said, after learning some of the circumstances from a reporter. “She was probably terrified.”
Ganger said her daughter is “not part of anything like that at all,” referring to protesters challenging ICE agents.
“Renee was one of the kindest people I’ve ever known,” she said. “She was extremely compassionate. She’s taken care of people all her life. She was loving, forgiving and affectionate. She was an amazing human being.”
An Instagram account that appears to be Good’s describes her as a “poet and writer and wife and mom and shitty guitar strummer from Colorado; experiencing Minneapolis, MN.”
Good had previously been married to Timmy Ray Macklin Jr., who died in 2023 at the age of 36. Macklin’s father, Timmy Ray Macklin Sr., was shocked to hear the news that Good had been shot and killed.
He said Good and his son had a child who is now 6 years old. “There’s nobody else in his life,” Macklin Sr. said. “I’ll drive. I’ll fly. To come and get my grandchild.”
“There’s nobody else in his life,” Macklin Sr. said. “I’ll drive. I’ll fly. To come and get my grandchild.”
In 2020 while studying creative writing at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., Good was awarded the school’s undergraduate poetry prize for “On Learning to Dissect Fetal Pigs.”
A mini-bio on the English Department’s Facebook page said Good, known then as Renee Macklin, was from Colorado Springs and hosted a podcast with her husband, Tim Macklin.
“When she is not writing, reading or talking about writing,” the post continued, “she has movie marathons and makes messy art.”
Speakers at an evening vigil disclosed few details of Good’s life, but were resolute in honoring her as a good neighbor who was protecting others.
“She was peaceful, she did the right thing,” said Jaylani Hussein, the executive director of CAIR-MN. “She died because she loved her neighbors.”
A speaker who only identified himself as Noah, rejected Kristi Noem’s portrayal of Good as a domestic terrorist and said instead that Good was present on Portland Avenue on Wednesday “to watch the terrorists.”
As they walked around the block, hundreds of people chanted Good’s name.
Kim Hyatt and Elliot Hughes of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this report.
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