Howard Lurie: Renee Good was no ‘domestic terrorist’

In the first week of January, an unarmed woman participating in a protest was shot dead by a federal officer. The initial government response was that the officer reasonably believed that it was necessary to do so in self-defense or in defense of others. A subsequent investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Department of Justice led the government to close the investigation into the shooting of Ashli Babbitt on January 6, 2021, by a Capitol police officer. 

The initial response by the government to the shooting of Renee Good was like an echo of the government’s response to the shooting of Ashli Babbitt five years earlier. An ICE officer shot and killed an unarmed Renee Good in her car on January 7, 2026, in Minneapolis, MN.

A difference between the two incidents is that the 2021 protest was by protesters on the right of the political spectrum and the 2026 protest was by protesters on the left. Leftists supported the officer in the 2021 shooting, and rightists are supporting the officer in the 2026 shooting.

I condone neither the January 6 assault on the Capitol nor the anti-ICE protests of which Renee Good was a participant. But I don’t believe either of these women engaged in conduct that warranted the death penalty. If, however, either of them had led the officer who shot them to reasonably believe that their lives (the officer’s) were in danger, then I would have given the officer the benefit of any doubt. Police officers must make split second decisions in situations where a wrong decision could end their lives. They do not have the benefit of watching a video of the situation when they must make that decision.  

In the case of Ashli Babbitt, I have no doubt that the Capitol police officer shot her without justification. He was exonerated by the government on the basis of politics, not the facts. Renee Good’s shooting, however, is not so clear. Nonetheless, I have serious reservations about the justification for her killing. And I believe the Trump Administration should have waited for the results of an objective investigation before making the claims that they did almost immediately after the event.

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem defended the ICE officer who fatally shot Good in Minneapolis, called Good’s actions domestic terrorism, and claimed her shooting was justified. The Department of Homeland Security issued a statement accusing Good of weaponizing her car, and both Vice President JD Vance and President Donald Trump said Good was using her vehicle as a weapon against the officer.

I do not approve of Good’s behavior, but it clearly was not “domestic terrorism.” The claim that Good was engaged in domestic terrorism is as absurd as the Biden Administration’s claim several years ago that parents speaking at school board meetings was domestic terrorism that merited investigation by the FBI.

There have been a number of videos released of the incident from a variety of locations. None of those that I have seen convince me, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Good either did or did not drive her car into the police officer who shot her. There is one video which does appear to show contact by the car with the officer. Other videos clearly show Good turning the steering wheel to the right at the time that it is believed that the officer was somewhere in front of her car. Arguably, she was turning the car away from the officer and not toward him.

There does not seem to be any dispute over the fact that the officer fired three shots at Good. Two of those shots were fired through the driver’s side window when the officer was clearly on the side of the car and not in danger of being hit by it. No police officer appears to be in front of the car at the time of those shots. Why he fired those shots remains unexplained.

The officer’s first shot, however, was through the windshield, and arguably was fired by the officer at Good while he was in front of the vehicle to stop her from driving into him. While I concede that I have no expertise whatsoever in ballistics, I have serious doubts that this shot was fired at Good while the officer was in a position to be hit by her car.

If that shot had been fired “at” Good from in front of her car, then the officer is a terrible shot.  If it had hit her at all, it would have hit her left shoulder, and would not have killed her. If one draws a line from Good’s body through that bullet hole to a position outside the car, it clearly originates at a position to the left of the driver’s side front fender.  

As I write this, I do not know what the other officers at the scene have said. Nor have I heard why the officer fired the second and third shots through the side window. Those shots were clearly not in self defense. Also, I have not seen any report about which of the three shots was the fatal shot.  

Unfortunately, there has been a rush to judgment by those on both the left and the right politically. Although it should be obvious that I am leaning in the direction of an “unjustified” killing, I am withholding judgment until there is a complete and objective investigation.

Howard Lurie is Emeritus Professor of Law, Charles Widger School of Law, Villanova University