On Saturday, Feb. 7, Becca Good appeared onstage in front of hundreds of people in Minneapolis who had gathered to commemorate her late partner Renee’s life
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Renee Good.Credit : Courtesy of Romanucci & Blandin
Renee Nicole Good’s wife made her first public appearance — and shared a new personal statement — after the mother of three was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis last month.
On Saturday, Feb. 7, Becca Good appeared onstage in front of hundreds of people in Minneapolis who had gathered to commemorate her late partner’s life, one month after her death at age 37, according to The New York Times.
Although she didn’t speak at the event, Becca shared a statement, obtained by PEOPLE and read aloud at the memorial by Rabbi Arielle Lekach-Rosenberg.
“Becca Good, Renee’s wife, has had to grieve alone for weeks,” Lekach-Rosenberg said at the public event. “This is a really important moment — Rebecca gets to share words back to you. So, it is my honor to get to offer Becca’s words.”
Becca began her statement by thanking the Minneapolis community for their support.
“Minneapolis has shown me that even in the middle of grief and fear, people still show up for each other. For that, I want to say thank you,” she wrote. “Thank you to this incredible community for showing up again and again — organizing food and rides, making sure our kids get to school, checking in on neighbors, and standing together in the cold. I am so proud to call Minneapolis my home.”
“Renee was not the first person killed, and she was not the last. You know my wife’s name, and you know Alex’s name, but there are many others in this city being harmed that you don’t know — their families are hurting just like mine, even if they don’t look like mine,” she continued, referencing the Jan. 24 killing of ICU nurse Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis.
“They are neighbors, friends, coworkers, classmates. And we must also know their names. Because this shouldn’t happen to anyone,” Becca said.
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Becca also wrote of her late partner’s work as a volunteer and teacher — as well as how she always “showed up” as a mom and friend.
“[She was] always helping out, making things a little better for others. Seeing the world now celebrate the parts of her that I’ve always known — the kindness, the humor, the warmth — reminds me of her spirit,” she continued.
In her statement, Becca also spoke about the couple’s 6-year-old son, saying: “Renee and I believed that if we lived every day in the world as we wanted it to be, we could build toward making that world a reality. So I am doing that every day — and every night, as I kiss my son at bedtime and tell him things are going to get better.”
“Renee and I chose kindness. We believed that every life deserves the same care, treatment and dignity, no matter who they are or what they look like,” Becca’s statement concluded. “That shouldn’t be radical. If it is, then I want Renee and our family to be known for how we practiced radical kindness every day.”
In addition to sharing her 6-year-old child with her late husband, Timmy Macklin Jr., who died at age 36 in 2023, Renee was also a mom to two older children, a daughter and a son from her first marriage, who are 12 and 15 years old, the Associated Press previously reported.
On Jan. 7, Renee had just dropped her son off at school before a deadly encounter with federal immigration agents, PEOPLE previously reported.
She was driving home with Becca when they came upon a group of ICE agents, her ex-husband told AP. The man, who asked to remain anonymous, said Renee and Becca had moved to Minneapolis last year from Kansas City, Mo.
The confrontation was captured on video by an ICE agent, who was circling Renee’s Honda Pilot while she sat in the driver’s seat. Becca was standing outside the vehicle talking to the agent, and the since-released footage shows a black dog sitting in the back seat watching with the window rolled down.
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The incident quickly escalated when Renee began to move her car, prompting an agent, who has since been identified as Jonathan Ross, to fire his weapon at her. The vehicle continued driving away after Renee was shot and crashed down the road. A voice behind the camera was then heard saying, “F—ing bitch.”
A Minneapolis resident who lives near the site of the shooting told PEOPLE that they asked Becca shortly afterward whether she had anyone she could call. Becca replied, “That’s my wife. They shot her in the f—-ing head, dude. This is ridiculous!”
Renee’s sister, Annie Ganger, was also in attendance at Saturday’s memorial event, according to the Times. She addressed the crowd, sharing that she was “proud” of the Minnesota community that had come together in the aftermath of her sister’s killing.
“We who do not live in this area of Minnesota see this powerful work that you’re doing despite the pushback, and it encouraged us to dive into our own communities. We are so proud,” she said, choking up. “My family is so grateful for you. Thank you for being my sister’s home.”
“Renee was completely hilarious,” she added. “Every time I talked to her, I laughed until I cry-snorted, but she cried-snorted with me.”
“I think Renee’s advice to us right now would be to take care of ourselves, care for our neighbors,” Ganger finished. “Receive care from our neighbors, rest and eat, and play and show up.”
