Despite public outrage over the shooting of Renee Good in Minnesota, the U.S. Department of Justice has said no to investigating ICE agents.
Deputy U.S. Attorney Todd Blanche said the Department of Justice (DOJ) will not investigate the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer who killed Renee Nicole Macklin Goode, but confirmed a report that the agency is considering charges against a Minnesota executive for encouraging protests.
Blanche told Fox News on Sunday night that the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division will not bow to pressure to investigate the shooting death of her mother, Good, 37, of Minneapolis, earlier this month.
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“Every time a police officer is forced to protect themselves from someone, we don’t just go out and investigate,” Blanche said. “We will investigate when it is appropriate to investigate.”
“So, no, we are not investigating. And we will investigate when the time is right, but it’s not now,” Blanche added.
In Minneapolis, tensions between residents and federal agents have escalated since Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was shot and killed in the driver’s seat of her car during a protest on January 7.
Blanche also said the footage of Goode’s death has already been “reviewed by millions of Americans because it was recorded on their cell phones at the time it occurred.”
But an analysis by Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) and APM Reports found that questions remain about the shooting, including why it took more than 10 minutes after Good was shot before CPR was performed.
According to the MPR and APM report, ICE agents “left Good alone, bleeding, in the vehicle for almost three minutes” and “turned away a man who claimed to be a doctor who offered to help.”
President Donald Trump’s administration has argued that Ross, the ICE officer who shot Goode up to four times, acted in self-defense.
Trump officials, including Vice President J.D. Vance and White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, also said ICE agents have “absolute immunity” from immigration enforcement actions.
Meanwhile, lawyers representing Goode’s family announced last week that they had launched their own “civil investigation” into her death.
“People in Minneapolis and across the country are deeply concerned about what happened to Renee Good on January 7, 2026, and are committed to understanding how she could have been killed in the street after dropping off her children at school,” attorney Antonio Romanucci said in a statement.
Minnesota’s top Democratic lawmaker under investigation
Blanche also separately confirmed reports that the Justice Department had opened an investigation into Minnesota Governor and former vice presidential candidate Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, alleging that both Democratic leaders “encouraged criminals to take to the streets and disrupt ICE.”
Blanche’s comments are the first time a member of the Trump administration has confirmed media reports that Walz and Frey are under investigation.
“No matter who you are, whether you’re the governor, whether you’re the mayor, whether you’re attacking ice on the street, under federal law you can’t prevent a federal employee from doing his job, and that’s what we’re looking at,” Blanche said.
Frey said he was “not intimidated” by previous media reports that the Justice Department had launched an investigation.
“This is a clear attempt to intimidate me as I stand up for Minneapolis, local police, and residents against the chaos and danger this administration has brought to our city,” Frey said in a post on X.
Meanwhile, Walz indirectly responded to the report, saying in a statement that “weaponizing the judicial system and intimidating political opponents is a dangerous and authoritarian tactic.”
Walz also drew comparisons to U.S. Democratic senators Elissa Slotkin and Mark Kelly, who are under investigation by the Trump administration for appearing with other Democrats in a video urging military personnel to resist “unlawful orders” from their superiors.
