Despite Their Experience, the Lawyers for Renee Good’s Family Are Facing Major Challenges — Is the Family Forced to Stop?

The body of Renee Good had not yet been turned over to her family when the Trump administration announced her fatal shooting by an ICE agent was in response to “an act of domestic terrorism.” Later, sources told CNN the Justice Department stopped investigating the agent and federal authorities refused to share information with local investigators.

Good’s family, including her partner, Becca, decided to get answers on their own. They hired the legal team connected to another case of deadly force by law enforcement in Minneapolis – the 2020 death of George Floyd under the knee of police officer Derek Chauvin.

“The community is not receiving transparency about this case elsewhere, so our team will provide that to the country,” said the law firm of Romanucci & Blandin, the same lawyers who represented Floyd’s family in a civil lawsuit.

The Floyd case resulted in a $27 million payout by the city of Minneapolis, which the firm said was the largest pretrial settlement of a wrongful death civil rights case.

This month the attorneys sent letters to federal agencies connected to Good’s shooting, saying they “anticipate bringing legal action” over allegations including excessive force and negligence and demanding evidence be preserved. One of those letters was sent to the home of Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who fired the fatal shots January 7 in Minneapolis.

“We need to know based on the totality of circumstances – not only looking at the video, but also looking at the intent that was there, looking at reasonable police practices,” family attorney Antonio Romanucci told CNN’s Erin Burnett last week.

Taking on the city of Minneapolis in the George Floyd case was challenging, but Romanucci acknowledges this case – suing the United States government for the conduct of an immigration officer – is harder.

“Legal action against the federal government is even more complex,” Romanucci said.

Good’s family can’t immediately file a lawsuit against the administration

For most of the country’s history, suing the United States for harm caused by a government employee was impossible. Until 1946, most citizens seeking compensation for a negligent or wrongful act by a civil servant could get it only through a literal act of Congress, case by case.

“And Congress hated it because people who had these claims would just constantly contact their congressman to say, ‘How’s my claim going?’” said Paul Figley, professor emeritus at the American University Washington College of Law, an expert on tort cases against the government.

The result was Federal Tort Claims Act – known as the FTCA – a landmark moment for victims’ rights.

“The Federal Tort Claims Act provides a vehicle for people to use when they’ve been injured by the government,” Figley said.

But it is a vehicle on a very bumpy road, as the law created a number of special conditions that have to be met before a person can even file a lawsuit. A plaintiff first must file a claim with the government asking for the opportunity to sit down and negotiate a deal out of court. That process can take up to six months.

It’s a delay not only in getting the case to a judge but also in the critical process of discovery – the opportunity to demand evidence from the government.

The Good family wants more evidence

In their letter to the government agencies, the Good family’s attorneys indicated their interest in a long list of evidence, including items and data from the vehicle Good was driving, records of Ross’ injuries after the shooting and any statements he made about use of force and protesters.

The lead attorney says evidence – including video – that shows the full context of the shooting will be critical to the case.

“Even if that law enforcement officer was in front of the vehicle, did he place himself there?” Romanucci asked in an interview with the Minnesota Star Tribune this month. “And if he did, that is considered officer-related jeopardy.”

A bullet hole is seen January 7 in the windshield of the vehicle Renee Good had been driving when she was shot in Minneapolis.

Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

The Trump administration has made it clear throughout the aftermath of Good’s shooting that it has little interest in a broad investigation of the officer’s actions. Vice President JD Vance said this month at a White House news conference Ross is “protected by absolute immunity” from criminal prosecution, a claim disputed by many legal experts.

It is not clear if Vance was suggesting Ross would also be immune from civil lawsuits, but it is a signal that the administration is unlikely to make a high-dollar deal with Good’s family during the pre-lawsuit claims process, especially since that deal would have to be approved at top levels of the Justice Department.

If the Good family can’t make a deal with the administration during the claims process, the next step is filing a lawsuit. But even then, the federal government gets special protection.

Good family’s case will probably never get to a jury

Under the FTCA, a tort lawsuit against the US has to be filed in federal court, even when an officer is accused of violating state law. And there is no right to a jury trial. In contrast to the George Floyd civil lawsuit against Minneapolis – a federal case that would have been decided by a jury – everything in a tort lawsuit against the federal government, from guilt or innocence to the amount of a potential reward, would be decided by a federal judge.

“Any defense that is available under state law to a private person defendant is available to the United States in an FTCA suit,” Figley said.

In the Good shooting, that would include defense assertions – already made in public statements by administration officials – that Ross reasonably thought his life was in danger when he fired his gun and that the shooting was justified.

While federal law makes Ross immune from being directly sued for assault or wrongful death in Good’s shooting, he could be named as a defendant – and end up in front of a jury – in a suit accusing him of denying Good’s civil rights. But Figley says those cases – known as Bivens suits after the Supreme Court decision that first made them possible – are even harder to win and rarely worth the trouble for victims.

“Most officers don’t have enough money to make it worthwhile,” he said.

Monica Travis on January 12 shares an embrace while visiting a makeshift memorial for Renee Good in Minneapolis.

John Locher/AP

The George Floyd civil case brought by the same legal team cited a federal law that allows state employees to be sued for civil rights violations “under color of law.” That act – passed in the wake of a wave of terror by government workers affiliated with racist groups like the Ku Klux Klan – does not apply to federal employees and could not be used in a case against Ross.

With recent rulings from the Supreme Court finding that immigration officers have extensive immunity from lawsuits – and the Trump administration’s inversion of the initial investigation of the shooting into an investigation of Good herself – Romanucci recognizes an uphill fight ahead but says the family’s main goal is to get the full story of her death.

“People in Minneapolis and across this country truly, truly care about what happened to Renee Good on January 7, 2026,” and are committed to understanding how she could have been killed, Romanucci said.