Renee Good’s Wife Remembers Her as a Christian Who Believed ‘We Are Here to Love Each Other’: ‘She Literally Sparkled’

Two days after Renee Nicole Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, her wife is speaking publicly about the loss — and about the 37-year-old mother’s legacy of “kindness and love.”

Becca Good shared a long statement with Minnesota Public Radio on Friday, Jan. 9, opening by thanking those who reached out to her and her family from across the United States and around the world.

“This kindness of strangers is the most fitting tribute because if you ever encountered my wife, Renee Nicole Macklin Good, you know that above all else, she was kind,” Becca wrote. “In fact, kindness radiated out of her.”

Becca described Renee as someone who “literally sparkled.”

“She didn’t wear glitter but I swear she had sparkles coming out of her pores. All the time,” she wrote. “You might think it was just my love talking but her family said the same thing. Renee was made of sunshine.”

Becca also wrote that Renee lived by the belief that “there is kindness in the world and we need to do everything we can to find it where it resides and nurture it where it needs to grow.” She pointed to Renee’s Christian faith, saying it taught her the “truth” that “we are here to love each other, care for each other, and keep each other safe and whole.”

The couple had moved to Minnesota looking for “a better life for ourselves,” Becca wrote, and she said they quickly felt embraced by the Minneapolis community — a place where they sensed a “strong shared sense … that we were looking out for each other.”

“Here, I had finally found peace and safe harbor,” Becca added. “That has been taken from me forever.”

Becca said she and Renee had been raising their 6-year-old son “to believe that no matter where you come from or what you look like, all of us deserve compassion and kindness.”

She noted that their son has already experienced profound loss. The Minnesota Star Tribune reported that Renee was previously married to Timmy Ray Macklin Jr., the father of Renee’s youngest son, who died at age 36 in 2023.

Renee was also a mother to two older children — a daughter and a son from her first marriage — who are 12 and 15, according to The Associated Press.

In her statement to MPR, Becca said she will now raise Renee’s 6-year-old and “continue teaching him, as Renee believed, that there are people building a better world for him. That the people who did this had fear and anger in their hearts, and we need to show them a better way.”

According to AP, Renee and Becca had been driving back home after a school drop-off on Wednesday when they came upon a group of ICE agents. Becca wrote that “we stopped to support our neighbors.”

Before Renee was shot, video showed Becca filming as ICE agents approached a Honda Pilot with Renee in the driver’s seat.

After the shooting, Becca was seen chasing the vehicle as it crashed into other cars down the street, then collapsing to the ground in tears.

“They shot my wife,” she could be heard saying, later adding, “I made her come down here, it’s my fault,” The National News Desk reported.

When a bystander asked if there was anyone they could call for her, Becca replied, “I have a 6-year-old at school… we’re new here, we don’t have anyone.”

After Renee’s death, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that the ICE agent who shot Renee was “fearing for his life, the lives of his fellow law enforcement and the safety of the public.” The agent has since been identified as Jonathan Ross.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem alleged Renee had been “stalking and impeding” ICE agents that day, and accused her of “domestic terrorism.”

Renee’s mother, Donna Ganger, told The Minnesota Star Tribune that the “domestic terrorist” label and the claim that ICE acted in self-defense were “so stupid.”

“She was probably terrified,” Ganger said, adding that her daughter was “not part of anything like that at all,” referring to protesters who have confronted ICE agents.