Seattle protesters hold vigil for Minneapolis woman killed by ICE agent

Hundreds gathered at Pier 58 on Thursday evening to demand justice for the Minneapolis woman killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent and protest the increased presence of agents nationwide.

Renee Nicole Good, 37 and a U.S. citizen, was fatally shot Wednesday morning by ICE agent Jonathan Ross. Her killing has stoked already widespread anger nationwide, and in Seattle, about the Trump administration’s ramped-up immigration enforcement efforts. The Minnesota Star Tribune identified Ross on Thursday as the agent who killed Good.

Protesters placed candles and flowers by her name and many others who were killed by ICE or who have died in ICE custody. Marchers walked up Alaskan Way along the Seattle waterfront, holding signs that said “She was good,” “Seattle stands with Minneapolis,” and “Never forget Jan. 6 AND Jan. 7.”

Video of the killing shows an ICE agent walking toward the SUV and ordering the woman to get out of the vehicle. As the agent grabbed onto her door handle, the woman reversed a few feet and then drove forward, turning slightly away from officers. Gunfire from another agent erupted, and Good’s car rolled down the street and hit a parked car.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has claimed the incident was an act of domestic terrorism on Good’s part, alleging she “weaponized” her vehicle against federal officers. President Donald Trump falsely claimed that Good “ran over the ICE Officer.”

Video of the aftermath of Good’s killing later showed ICE agents surrounding the car, denying a neighbor who identified himself as a doctor from approaching the car or administering first aid.

Some attendees were reeling from the shooting of two people in Portland by federal agents, which occurred hours before the vigil.

Sarah Seed said the news was “devastating.”

“More shootings are coming,” Seed said.

Chants of “Abolish ICE” and “Lock him up” rang out. An organizer with Defund Musk Seattle, which put together the protest with Seattle Indivisible, said reading the news about Good made her cry at work.

“It’s clear the escalation is here,” Zoe Mason said. “They’re lighting the fire, and it’s time we light it right back.”

Speaking to the crowd gathered at the pier, Cameron Lavi-Jones called Good a martyr.

“Her death is a wake-up call,” Lavi-Jones said. “Thinking that this issue is only something that our undocumented neighbors have to survive, or that the color of your skin doesn’t make you that much of a target, is no longer an option.”

In the Pacific Northwest, outrage toward federal law enforcement agencies was further inflamed by two more incidents this week.

On Wednesday morning, masked ICE agents arrested three men on Aurora Avenue, pulling them into an unmarked van, among the most public actions taken by ICE agents in the city so far.

Then, on Thursday, Customs and Border Protection agents shot a man and woman in Portland during a targeted stop.

A statement from Homeland Security about the Portland shooting echoed federal officials’ remarks following Good’s killing, saying the driver “weaponized his vehicle and attempted to run over the law enforcement agents.”

Local elected officials have also spoken out. U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Seattle, called Trump’s response to the killing in Minneapolis “disgusting” and “completely dishonest.” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., called the shooting an execution.

Good was an award- winning poet who earned an English degree in 2020 from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va. She had a 6-year-old son. In a video taken after the killing, a distraught woman is seen sitting near the car, wailing, “That’s my wife, I don’t know what to do!”

A mother of three according to the Associated Press, Good also had two children from her first marriage, a 15-year-old and a 12-year-old. Her 6-year-old child’s father died in 2023, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune.

Good’s killing is at least the fifth death to result from the aggressive U.S. immigration crackdown, The Associated Press reported. No agents have been charged in the deaths.

Toward the end of the protest, one person lit an American flag on the ground.

Some speakers at the vigil described Good’s killing as a breaking point: a moment when people needed to get in the streets.

“I just keep waiting for people to care enough,” Mason said. “I have the hope that this could be when people start to care.”

Some directed their ire at local officials, who they blamed for not doing enough to protect Seattle from immigration enforcement and further incursion by the Trump administration. Mason said ICE should be “arrested when they kidnap people in public without identifying themselves,” and when they “murder.”

“The reason we gather here tonight is we believe another future is possible,” Sandra Hunt said. “Our future is rooted in justice.”