January 13, 2026
According to Mark Twain, supposing is good, but finding out is better, and we're finding out more about the fatal shooting of Renee Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross. When the story first broke, my initial impression was that some silly woman had decided to engage in some impromptu LARPing, got in over her head, panicked, and got herself shot. Others opined that she had been murdered. According to one version of the murder narrative, as she was pulling out of the spot where she had been blocking traffic, the agent shot her in the head through the open driver's window. According to another version, the agent leapt in front of the vehicle as it was pulling out and opened fire.
Paying closer attention to the videos, however, reveals a different story altogether. One video was taken from the left and rear of the vehicle, which was parked diagonally on the street; the front tires were cut to the left. An agent approaches the driver's door, puts one hand on the door handle and extends the other hand into the vehicle, telling her to get out of the vehicle. She reverses, and the front of the vehicle swings to the right, the camera tracking the movement. Agent Ross briefly pops into view from the right and is then blocked from view by the agent at the door.
Now here is where things happen very fast. She straightens out the front tires so that her vehicle is pointed directly at Agent Ross, and the agent draws his gun. The vehicle lurches forward and then right, clipping Agent Ross in the process, and he fires a shot through the windshield then two more into the open driver's window as the vehicle veers past him to the right.
Was there any reason for him to have his gun out in the first place, though ? I believe he was providing cover for his partner. Good was being lawfully detained and was refusing to get out of the vehicle. Bad things have happened to law enforcement officers dealing with stubborn drivers, things like getting shot or being dragged. In fact, Agent Ross himself had once been injured by being dragged, and he was probably making sure his partner didn't suffer the same fate or worse if she had decided to pull a gun on him. Okay, but did he have to fire those two extra shots as the vehicle was lurching to the right past him ? Well, yes. She was a fleeing felon posing a clear and present danger to the public.
It later came to light that Agent Ross himself had taken video. As a part of documenting Good's vehicle blocking the road, he made a full counterclockwise circumambulation of the vehicle taking video, ending back up at the front of the vehicle where he started when the actions described above commenced. The video showed Good smarting off at the agents; it also showed her lesbian spouse, Becca, who was outside the vehicle, smarting off at the agents as well. Becca was also reported to have urged her partner to "Drive, Baby, drive!" Good wasn't a scared naїf in over her head; she was a seasoned "disruptor."