Last week communities across Colorado took to the streets in shock, grief, and outrage over the shooting of Renee Good by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Officer Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis on Jan. 7. Democratic members of Colorado’s federal delegation were quick to post on social media in response to Good’s death.
“Earlier today, Donald Trump’s ICE agents killed a U.S. citizen, born and raised in Colorado, in a horrific and unnecessary shooting,” wrote Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO). “President Trump’s reckless weaponization of ICE is making our cities less safe and endangering people simply trying to lead their lives. We need an investigation, and we need justice.”
President Donald Trump and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have defended Ross, claiming Good’s actions during the encounter with ICE were “domestic terrorism.”
U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen (D-CO) pushed back on those claims. “My heart breaks for the family and loved ones of the woman killed in Minnesota today,” she posted on Bluesky. “This is a devastating and unnecessary loss of life. Trump has been sending ICE into our communities, terrorizing immigrants and ripping families apart. Now, Trump and his allies are doing what they always do — lying to the American people. There has been zero evidence to justify this killing. Kristi Noem has blood on her hands.”
U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank (R-CO) expressed his concern about statements from elected officials on the good shooting during a Jan. 8 appearance on Ryan Schuiling Live. “It’s irresponsible, irresponsible rhetoric on the part of many elected officials, including the governor of Minnesota, the mayor of Minneapolis, so many others that we saw with just these irresponsible comments,” he said. “But it’s also some of my colleagues here in Congress who are ratcheting up this hatred. It’s the same thing as the war on police, right?”
Like his colleagues, Crank called for an investigation. “There ought to be a full investigation,” he said. “And if officers was determined that they did something wrong, they should be held accountable for that, but I’m always going to side, at first glance, and give the benefit of the doubt to the police ,to our law enforcement. There is a way that this could have been avoided — she could have complied with the demands of the police officer.”
U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) argued that the shooting was justified during her Jan. 9 appearance on the Jeff and Bill Show. “From every angle that I have seen, and I’m not a prosecutor, but every angle that I’ve seen, this seems absolutely justified,” she said. “You see the officer, he’s not in front of her car when she backs up. Then she starts to turn and go forward. Her tires are pointed at the officer. You see her front tires peel out on the ice. So this officer is hearing her engine rev up before it even accelerates toward him. And at that point, when she starts to go forward, she has positioned her vehicle right at him. And I do believe that this was self-defense and it was justified and it’s very, very unfortunate that these left-wing propagandists have convinced people that they can behave in this type of manner, to impede law enforcement investigations and not just peacefully protest.”
Rep. Gabe Evans (R-CO) declined to give a definitive answer during an interview Monday with Nexstar. “I was a police officer for 10 years, made it up to command-level ranks,” he said. “I’ve actually responded to — I was counting last night — I think it’s 10 officer-involved shootings. And so there is a whole process that goes into investigating those because the smallest detail can change the whole direction of the investigation. Cops always have an inherent right to self-defense. But being able to articulate that is incumbent on all of the details leading up to the situation — what the cop saw, what happened, what was off-camera, what was happening before the camera was rolling — and so that process can take months. And so without all of those details, it’s just difficult to come to any sort of conclusion. And anybody that says they know what happened — I guarantee you having been to 10 officer involved shootings — they don’t know what happened. They don’t have the full picture. And until we have the full picture, you just, you can’t make a judgment.”
Good was a graduate of Coronado High School in Colorado Springs, and former faculty and classmates took part in a rally in her honor in Colorado Springs on Sunday. “When I worked with Renee at Coronado High School, back in those high school choir classes where girls competed for star solos, Renee was steady and matter of fact,” said Ruth Schubarth, Good’s former music teacher. “As a young teen on a mission trip, her kindness was bold. To her peers, she was voted best personality. She was uncompromising in her summations of sticky situations. She looked deeply at people. She took time with quiet ones. If she believed in you, she would not be moved. Renee met her boyfriend in choir class, and when they married soon after graduation, she asked me to play for her wedding, and I attended the baby shower for their first born. Y’all, it is time to bear witness to the truth. Renee was not a domestic terrorist intent on using her car as a weapon for the destruction of human life. This was not Renee. Bear witness to the truth today of Renee’s life.”
